News

Well, that's that for another year, so the image to the right features the last Santa Hat you'll be seeing from Fretshirt HQ this year.

What's that, I hear?

Christmas isn't until next week!  You say... well...

Indeed it isn't, but as I've said before, as an online retail store, we are always at least a week, or more in advance of everyone else, to allow for the posties to do their thing.

So, when the last official Royal Mail posting date before the big day as been and gone, that is us done for the season.

Not, of course, that we aren't doing anything and I'm not saying that in case the boss decides to read this blog over his mince pies! 

We still print and dispatch all those orders from people chancing their luck, as we wouldn't want to be responsible for ruining anyone's festive season. Although if you did leave it too late to order, feel free to blame us anyway, we don't mind.

We've also been really busy (honest Boss!) playing with the mock up software to make some Spot the Difference contests... erm... I mean, putting up the Christmas opening hours on the home page, so you know when we aren't printing / dispatching anything.

In case you missed those all important times, here they are:

Before then, during then, and after then, we start the build up for next year, so you may notice a few changes around here, as we test out a few new layouts, on the website, not to mention some wonderful designs that we are going to bring you, our loyal Fretters, in 2020.

For example, there's now a New link on the top navigation bar which, not surprisingly shows all the NEW designs as they are added to the site.

Well, actually it only shows all the Men's T-shirt designs, in date order as if we showed all the new designs on each garment type, there would be between three and four of each design, which just didn't look right.

Still, let's not get too far ahead of ourselves, as that would spoil the surprises, we have planned, wouldn't it.

Don't forget though, you can keep up with all of our new designs as they come out by following our various Social Media accounts or cheat by looking at the Instagram feed at the bottom of the home page!

However, that would be a good way to see the bigger versions of the Spot the Difference mock ups I mentioned earlier and yes they are all actual twins. in case your eyes aren't up to the small versions. I know mine aren't, and I made them!

One thing will remain for certain, we will never pester you to follow or like our posts unlike most brands/stores, as we feel that should be up to you, and you alone.

There's a lot of real news around at the moment with things happening on both sides of the Atlantic that may, or may not, bring about the results people think they will, or could just end up with things remaining exactly the same as they were before. Or worse in a way that will make you want to cuddle up with your loved ones on a sofa.  Such is life.

No, I didn't just type all that above paragraph as an excuse to use the image of the family wearing a shirt from each country that makes up the United Kingdom. I'm going somewhere with this. Promise.

Still, while politics remains the cess pit it always was there's much better news coming from the indiedev world as our favourite Polish indiedevs studio gets ready to push their latest game into Closed Alpha testing, ready for it's launch Sometime in 2020.

So that's one thing to look forward to, and here's another. The expansion of our every popular "Legends" range, featuring all the biggest names in a particular activity all cleverly arranged as something from that activity.

Okay, so they always look better than they sound. So take a look at this sneak peak from one of the upcoming designs. Movie & Film Directors Legends.

 Cool! Right?

Until we Fret again.

It's been a busy couple of weeks here at Fretshirt HQ since the last blog post.

Okay, three weeks - I just checked - if you want to be pedantic about it but it's just that time of year, when we don't get a minute of peace to ourselves. Instead we ensure you get all your lovely, fantastic, brilliant, , outstanding, fabulous (too much!) garments in time for the big day.

So busy in fact we didn't even get the chance to celebrate Thanksgiving.

Okay, so being British we tend not to do that anyway. Still that didn't stop us from making a nice new USA page in our Themes section for our friends on the wrong side of the Atlantic.

Yes, it was an excuse to keep using our new mock up tool, but you have to admit, it looks rather nice and a great away to welcome all the new American Fretters that are joining us, since we changed the postal rates to the US of A.

Speaking of the mock up software - and yes I am aware that I do, quite often - The Short, The Fat & The Slow mock up (on the left) was a surprise hit on our Instagram page this week. Getting nearly ten times the likes of all the other designs we've posted so far. So thanks for everyone who did that, even if none of you actually bought one! At least not directly via the link provided.

This week was also the twenty-fifth anniversary of PlayStation, which just seems remarkable to those of us who were around at the start but then we are at an age when everything was so much longer ago than we think.

Naturally though, it was bandwagon... erm... I mean... a tribute we couldn't help but join in with, so what could be better than a new mock up for our Playstation Time design from the ever popular Do Not Disturb range?

Oddly as we were doing that, we noticed that we'd somehow managed to miss Instagram from the series, so we've now added that, as number twenty-five in the series.

Of course we also made a nice new mock up as well, featuring a model giving an impression I'm sure everyone has been on the receiving end of some point or other in their relationship.

I'm right, aren't I?

Go on. You can admit it. We won't tell.

Things we will tell, however - wow what a link - is the success currently being felt by our Polish Friends over at Exor Studios.

Not only celebrating ten years since their first game Zombie Driver came out this last week, by giving it away FREE on Steam nearly a million times, their newest title the forthcoming The Riftbreaker goes from strength to strength and it's not even out until "Sometime in 2020!"

In the meantime though, if you want to see what the game - built on their own engine - looks like, they run twice weekly developmental live streams from a corner of their office, on either Mixer (Tuesdays 2PM GMT)  or Twitch (Thursdays 2PM GMT) sometimes mirroring them on Steam. Just follow their social media - or ours - to find out when they are live.

Both platforms having interactive elements that lets those watching - often including Fretshirt HQ's own Geemann - influence game play for better or (usually) worse, as one of the devs - Voidreaver - attempts to get use to all the improvements his other devs had put into the game and not told him!

Now, an Pre-alpha version of the Survival aspect of the game has been released to other streams to try out, and is gaining a great reputation, so check those out if you can.

 Of course, just as we have done with both Exor's previous games, we have a limited range of Riftbreaker merchandise, on offer, if you want to get with Mr. Riggs or Ashley before everyone else.

 Until we Fret Again.

Yes, you guessed it. Everyone here at Fretshirt HQ is still playing around with the new system for mocking up images, just like the people in the cover image for this week's blog.

Okay, so that's a mock up we did for our Brexit Designs page and not really us, or Fretshirt HQ. We just don't really get the chance to sit around a table having a chat, especially not at this time of year. Well, that and we don't actually have a table to sit around. Other than that though, it's perfectly true. Honest!

Anyway, if you've been paying attention to Fretshirt.com you will have noticed that the new mock up have started to make an appearance as page headers on several of the more popular collection pages. 

Brexit, I've mentioned, but take a look at those for: Drink, Zombies, and, of course, Christmas. With some more to come.

What's more, if you scroll down the front page, you'll see an entirely new section has been added of our Instagram feed, which naturally features nearly all the mock ups along with other images. Like the new page intro - you noticed we changed that, right? - says: Follow / like us on our social media if that is your thing, or don't if it isn't. We don't mind!

Speaking of social media as predicted in the last blog our Facebook Shop is back up and running. Not everything is there yet - in indeed will be - but there is currently 294,400 items as Facebook counts each variation (i.e. Size / Colour) as a different item.

More will be added once we work though those designs Facebook's automated systems have flagged as being - get this! -  "Dating Ads" or containing "Nudity" (someone have something against bare arms in T-shirts?). All of which we have to appeal for an actual human to approve. But we'll get there, don't worry.

Then, once we've done that, we'll restart our Instagram store, and no doubt go through the entire procedure again.

Oh well, such is the life of an online garment retailer.

 What else?

Well, in case you hadn't noticed the Christmas - or C-word as it's known in these parts - is starting to ramp up, with all the major UK brands spending ridiculous amounts of money on extra long television adverts, that no one understands.

We at Fretshirt don't do that. In fact, other than our social media, we don't do adverts at all as we believe that it's best to keep our outgoings down, so we can keep our prices & costs low.

Anyway, the point I was going to make, before admittedly I sidetracked myself, was that, we may not be fancy, here at Fretshirt, we will always take the Fret out of your shopping.

But you know that? Didn't You?

Until We Fret Again.



This week at Fretshirt we've been having way too fun with our new mock up system, creating some rather stunning images to use on our social media and eventually here on Fretshirt.com as well.

What? You thought we had special photographs taken of each of our 6,000+ designs, on each type and colour of garment?

No, we don't alas, at that would just take way too much time, no mention being rather wasteful, once you work out just how many individual printed shirts, hoodies and sweatshirts we would need for that. Not to mention baby grows and other items.

Instead - here's a trade "secret" for you - everything is done digitally using a mixture of actual models - mostly members of staff both past and present - and stock images of the blank garments supplied by the manufacturers, onto which our designs can be added.

These templates have been evolving over the nearly decade we've been doing this, and now we are trying out the latest generation of high quality images, in real life settings.

So, what do you think?

Would you have noticed they were mock-ups if I hadn't told you? Go on. Be honest. Would you?

We wouldn't. And we did them. Still, we're not quite sure if we are going to replace all the images here on the main site, as that would take a long time, but we might do.

For now, if you follow our Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest & Tumblr accounts, you'll be able to see more of them as we play around with the software.

For now, you can see a few or our tests scattered around this blog, including our, so far, all time fav, of the Star Wars Ugly Sweater design, at the top. (You didn't miss that did you?)

What else?

Well, speaking of social media, literally minutes before I started this post, our Facebook Shop went live again and is now configuring itself, so should be ready to use by the time you read this. No, we still don't know what went wrong with it in the first place - & Facebook Tech don't either apparently - but hopefully it's sorted now.

Don't forget that our new lower shipping prices for the USA is still a thing, as you can see from the image below.

 Yes, we even ran that through our new mock-up software. Well, why not?

Until we Fret Again.

Well, that's the Halloween rush dealt with here at Fretshirt HQ,and we hope you all had a good scary time in your suitably frightening shirts, sweaters and hoodies.

But, time moves on, so now we turn our attention to the busiest time of the year, and yes, I'm talking about Christmas even though October has barely gone. That's just the way it is for an on-line trader.

Before that however, we do have something of a big announcement to make, which those of you following our social media should have noticed. If not, then there's something of a not-very subtle hint at the top of this post.

That's right, lower shipping costs for all our customers in the United States of American. How have we done this?

Simple, we've teamed up with a company very similar to ourselves over in Texas, so now not only will American Fretters, pay less for their shipping, but they should be getting their almost as fast as the Brits and Europeans do.

Why?

Easy, the orders aren't just being shipped from Texas they are being printed there too by a lovely lady printer who you wouldn't want to mess with.

So, if you are in the USA, then your shirt, hoodie or sweater will have been Made in the USA.

Oh, speaking of social media, we have some news on that front too.

First not so good in that our Facebook & Instagram pages both went a bit whopsy (technical term) so we've had to replace them, so apologies if that's your favoured route to our store, but we'll have them back up and running again, just as soon as we can.

On a more positive side, we've started up a tumblr page to highlight some of the more artistic aspects of our designs and our designer. You can find it via the links at the top and bottom of most pages on Fretshirt.com or directly here: https://fretshirt-com.tumblr.com/

Until We Fret Again