Shirt.Woot

If the shirt quality is really the "same" (as claimed) then I would be somewhat placated with a price decrease back to $10. We all know the Anvil shirts cost a lot less...

Of course, I would much rather get AA back, but that seems like it unfortunately won't happen.

This thread is pretty impressive and all, but seriously, could the shirt.woot overlords make it any more clear that they DO. NOT. CARE. They don't care if you're happy. They don't care if you're upset. They don't care about jobs lost, rationalizations, explanations, or questions we all have.

This conversation, or something like it, has happened no less than 15 times in this thread.

Customer: I'd simply like an explanation of why Woot feels justified in switching to a cheaper, outsourced company for supplies while also raising prices?

Woot: *crickets*

There's PLENTY of discussion about other topics that will help sales (new sizes, etc..) from the powers that be, so it's not like they're somehow unaware of the general feeling here. For crying out loud, there's been open MOCKING of the "cheaper shirts for you shouldn't equal more expensive shirts for us" argument people have been making!

Let me repeat, and be crystal clear: Woot COULD NOT CARE LESS about the concerns being brought up here. It doesn't matter if they're legitimate concerns. They're betting that they won't lose a significant amount of business from this (and I'm fairly certain they're right) and are ignoring this until it simply goes away. People bringing up problems they have with the move over and over again are wasting their breath if they think Woot is going to actually acknowledge this problem in any way.

The only, I repeat ONLY way we will get any kind of response/justification to this is if we use our economic vote to stop buying their product. That would force a reaction. Judging from the number of times I've seen this exact same thread when, say, E-Bay tightens the screws a bit on their sellers, I'm not exactly holding my breath.

Josephus wrote: but face it, we all need to be mocked on occasion, and this strikes me as one of those occasions.

I'm sorry but I feel this is completely the wrong attitude to take here. Sure if this were some minor thing and people were getting all huffy about it maybe they would deserve a little ribbing. That is not what we are seeing though - we are seeing people with legitimate complaints that are being talked down to as if they were children in need of scolding or not intelligent enough to deserve a dignified calm response. I may not be a huge buyer of woot shirts, or woot products in general, but I do buy stuff when I like it and as a customer I feel I (and everyone else in this thread) should be treated with respect. If you can't respond in a professional manner to legitimate concerns about a big decision that affects your customers then you should not be responding. Especially if your job is not a community relations/customer service rep. This just makes woot look worse.

I can understand why, right now, woot may not be willing to address all the complaints lodged in this thread. It is not necessarily because they don't care, but likely because they should not be held to revealing everything about all of their business decisions and need to decide what they will and will not say. I cannot understand why it is still being allowed for employees to just stir up anger and belittle customers. Again sorry, but this is not acceptable business practice - even over being a US company the number one determinate for where I spend my money is customer service. Usually that is outstanding with woot, but after this I am not so sure I like the way they handle CS after all.

Narfcake wrote:Likewise, we have yet to have a truly honest answer to why the change in suppliers - and so, some of us will continue to poke, prod, and theorize as to the why.

snarky answer: yes, you did. In the announcement, when we said it was about finding the best possible options for providing shirts to our audience.

Less snarky answer: Shirt.Woot is a business. Businesses have to remain profitable or they cease to be businesses. Everyone has their own theories as to who makes how much and what this or that costs, but theories are irrelevant. To say this is a "money grab" or imply we're suddenly "all about the mighty dollar" is disingenuous. By that logic the site never should've launched; a business of any kind is a "money grab."

Narfcake wrote: ... so let's raise prices and change that product so my boss gets a bigger paycheck!".

Just because you CAN jump to a conclusion doesn't mean it's true. If anybody got a bigger paycheck they would've bought a round of drinks by now.

Wow. This certainly is quite the livewire. After reviewing the old and new size charts, I see that the size I wear is going to be about the same regardless of who manufactured it. In fact, I prefer my shirts shorter, so the Anvil shirts being shorter is a win for me.

Secondly, I really don't care what country my shirts are made in. All I care about is the feel of my shirt. If the new Anvil shirts feel just as soft as the old AA shirts, then I will be a happy, loyal customer. Selfish? Maybe, I know. But there is little I can do to change it.

Lastly, I've watched (as well as everyone else in this country) the prices of my food rise dramatically over the years. Everything from milk and meat, from cereal to Hot Pockets has been affected by this. Frankly, with the cost of essentials and necessities rising, I feel that pretty fortunate that luxury items like graphic tees (with free shipping) have only risen two dollars. I'm fine with this price increase, as well as the cheaper shirts. Woot has never given me a reason to not trust them completely.

llandar wrote:...
Less snarky answer: Shirt.Woot is a business. Businesses have to remain profitable or they cease to be businesses. Everyone has their own theories as to who makes how much and what this or that costs, but theories are irrelevant. To say this is a "money grab" or imply we're suddenly "all about the mighty dollar" is disingenuous. By that logic the site never should've launched; a business of any kind is a "money grab."

The short time span between raising the price (which I had zero qualms of supporting) and changing the supplier to one that many of us know is a lower cost alternative, makes the primary motive look much more like it was profits rather than "the best possible options for providing shirts to our audience." - hence, why many of us are in the position we are in. The PR-type spin didn't help.

When the debut day price went up a month ago, there was plenty of discussion already over at deals.woot (where @snapster ventures much more often), with a variety of perspectives:
- Will you mind paying more for Woot shirts?
- If shirt.woot could have remained at $10 by importing blanks would you approve?

Woot has managed to build up a die-hard community over time with folks that appreciate the humor, the variety, and the transparency of operation. We love the honesty, so even when we are told that the product being sold for the day is complete and utter crap, we still accept that (and buy it anyways!). So to have ignored the community, even with all the feedback, before such a move like this ... is really like a huge slap in the face.

And y'know, it's hard to feel happy about that.

I am not blaming you.
I am not blaming the shirt.woot editors.
I am, however, collectively blaming Woot for the move.

Narfcake wrote:Likewise, we have yet to have a truly honest answer to why the change in suppliers - and so, some of us will continue to poke, prod, and theorize as to the why.

llandar wrote:snarky answer: yes, you did. In the announcement, when we said it was about finding the best possible options for providing shirts to our audience.

Less snarky answer: Shirt.Woot is a business. Businesses have to remain profitable or they cease to be businesses. Everyone has their own theories as to who makes how much and what this or that costs, but theories are irrelevant. To say this is a "money grab" or imply we're suddenly "all about the mighty dollar" is disingenuous. By that logic the site never should've launched; a business of any kind is a "money grab."

Seriously, you must spend an awful lot of time in Willy-Wonka's factory if you're naive enough to tell us that we should take a company's prepared statement as the absolute and honest truth.

If you want us to stop throwing about theories about why this was done, and who's making how much, then give us some facts...or a statement that doesn't sound like it came from a copywriter's keyboard.

Also, since these "questions" came after the original statement was made, the statement can hardly be called an answer to the question.

Narfcake has posted prices on this board about how much the Anvil blanks will cost vs. how much the AA blanks cost. These numbers pointed to a significant savings by the company you work for. Savings that weren't passed on to your customers--in fact prices went up 20%.

So if the truth is that if you hadn't changed suppliers that you would've needed to raise prices to $14....then tell us that.

Could his numbers be wrong? Yes. Could Woot have been having some other trouble with AA that resulted in them not being able to meet demand? Sure. But no one from Woot is answering these questions. Which makes many of us think that the word "Community" up there in the menu is just that: a word. And what you really see us as is customers who will eventually shut up and keep buying your shirts.

Now if your reaction is that you don't have that information, or your company isn't under any obligation to make it public...you're completely right.

But in the absence of real information (and speaking as an out of work copywriter: copy or a prepared statement is not "real information") don't presume to tell your customers to shut up and move on (and yes, I realize you never "said" that, but it's there if you read between the lines).

For anyone who has been around for any period of time, they know that I have always supported shirt.woot in almost every decision they have made. I am not one for righteous outrage for no other reason than to have something to complain about. I have always respected the company's right to make hard choices based on what they believe is best for the employees and the company's direction, regardless of how I personally felt about the decision.

I strongly disagree with this decision. I believe in my country and my country's economy, and feel that the only way to fix our current financial crisis is to keep as much money and jobs in the country as possible. Woot is making a decision based on sustaining their employees' jobs, and I can understand and respect that. I feel it is short-sighted for any person or company to take the cheaper way out and cost Americans' jobs that could then become unable to support themselves and rely on the rest of us to support them. Moving production of this scale outside of the US costs each and every one of us money, whether you realize it or not. Yes, a shirt may be able to remain $12, but that doesn't account for the additional tax burden that each and every one of us has to share to make up for that cheap shirt.

I have donated (literally) thousands of dollars to shirt.woot (the company and the community) in the form of time invested and server expenses over the years through teetrade.org and shirtwhat.com. I have never received or asked for any type of compensation other than discussing if the affiliate program would be something I could include into shirt.what (and based on our mutual understanding of woot's desires for the affiliate program, I chose to keep shirt.what affiliate free). I did all of this because I felt like my time and expenses would benefit shirt.woot and the community. I believe that both the company and the community appreciated my efforts and benefited from them, financially and otherwise.

I do not pretend to offer irreplaceable services or to in any way imply that I haven't enjoyed the ride. However, part of the reason that I have participated and enjoyed helping out is that I wanted to help a small company grow and support the American economy. I am, however, unsure of exactly where this ride will go from here. I will reenable shirt.what's functionality for the community, and continue to respect shirt.woot's right to make decisions for their company as they feel necessary. I do, however, strongly disagree with this decision.

I just thought I'd throw this fact out there. Woot isn't going to lose much profit from all the people who have decided to stop purchasing shirts. In fact, Tuesday's shirt "A Lot Of This Going Around" had 564 first timers. The men's shirts were printed on the new blanks, and 92.27% of the total sales were men's shirts. It has sold 2,449 shirts so far. That's about 2,259 men's shirts sold with Anvil blanks by my math.

Let's face it. Woot doesn't need our business. All they have to do is print some fancy glow in the dark design referencing some meme to bring hoards of new customers. The only ones who can stop this are the artists, but they need the money so that won't happen. Woot has won this battle. Either you accept their new Anvil blanks or you never buy Woot tees again. I still have hope that these new blanks are up to par.

I don't know what Woot! mission statement is but these actions make it clear that either:
A. The mission statement was not constructed correctly and does not contain the customer and the community as a stakeholder

B. Woot! blatantly did not follow its mission statement and take in consideration ALL the stakeholders in this decision. Therefore breaking the very fiber of a good company, adhering to the stakeholders not the stock holders.

C. Woot! does not have a mission statement, which would explain why it made such a poor decision.


For a company who ignores these many well thought posts from active members will not last long. Sure you might get new customers to buy shirts but soon the active members will stop voting in Derbies, the artists seeing that the derbies are decided by a smaller less diverse group of people and cause "dumber" designs to to win will begin to pull out. When the artists pull out, Woot is only left with its crappy day to day shirts (no offense to those artists)then there won't be any new customers attracted by good designs. When there are no new customers and no die hard left customers then you are left with a warehouse full of shirts soaked with tears of the old woot customers, the tears of the few AA workers who have to go home and tell their kids that they can't afford dinner, the tears of the Honduran workers who was fired because when faced with adverse working conditions were fired when they complained or attempted to unionize(Link) and finally the tears of the Shirt.Woot staffers that have lost their jobs from a decision that did not included all the stakeholders.

I'm disappointed woot has decided to move away from American produced blanks. Woot's use of American Apparel has been one of the primary reasons I've purchased their shirts.

Woot, please consider reversing your decision to abandon American made blanks. Even if you decide to no longer use American Apparel, please find an American manufacture.

Lagbert wrote:Woot, please consider reversing your decision to abandon American made blanks. Even if you decide to no longer use American Apparel, please find an American manufacture.

Given the difference in cost between the blanks, I'd assume this would be the best bet. I don't know anything about them in terms of quality, but they could use something like this and raise the price a dollar.

The 3/8" really does make a difference. I am 6' 130lbs and the small AA shirts fit me very well. I like the tall and skinny of AA and the Anvil shirts just don't fit the same for me. And my AA shirts always stay nice and long and never shrink. You just wash in cold water and air dry.
It sucks they are changing from such a solid style of shirts but I guess that's just Dallas business for you. FYI everyone in the Dallas/Fort Worth area of Texas is a bunch of right-wing redneck [profanity deleted]. And that's an understatement. I was born and have lived my whole life in Texas.

ThunderThighs wrote:FYI, Shirt Staffer ProfHotpants posted the sleeve lengths over in the other thread.

Gotta admit, I'm glad to hear this. Always disliked the size of the sleeves on the AA shirts.

Long time wooter, but i never post anything. I've accumulated a collection of roughly 50 shirts from shirt.woot.com starting in 2008. I've been a loyal customer, and i only wish you guys sold pants as well as shirts.

Now for the real reason i'm posting: I'm not afraid of change, but going from a U.S. company, to a foreign shrit supplier is not what i would expect from you guys. I thought you guys held yourself to a high standard, i would gladly pay the extra three dollars to recieve the same quality shirts you guys have been delivering for years. Prices increase, we're in a recession, i get it. I'm going to try out your new shirts, and if i'm not satisfied with the product you may lose a very loyal customer.

xenador wrote:The 3/8" really does make a difference. I am 6' 130lbs and the small AA shirts fit me very well. I like the tall and skinny of AA and the Anvil shirts just don't fit the same for me. And my AA shirts always stay nice and long and never shrink. You just wash in cold water and air dry.
It sucks they are changing from such a solid style of shirts but I guess that's just Dallas business for you. FYI everyone in the Dallas/Fort Worth area of Texas is a bunch of right-wing redneck [profanity deleted]. And that's an understatement. I was born and have lived my whole life in Texas.

And by small, you mean a size Large, right? I'm a little taller and little lighter than you, and I get the Large specifically for the length.

I'm not a high-volume customer, but I would buy more shirts if you could eventually get Anvil to supply you with shirt blanks made in the USA.

touchdownwoot wrote:I'm not a high-volume customer, but I would buy more shirts if you could eventually get Anvil to supply you with shirt blanks made in the USA.

Not likely; Anvil closed their South Carolina factory back in 2002.

raccoonbacon wrote:
Yes, the price WE pay would be the same but then shirt.woot would have a little more room for their margins because they wouldn't have to pay to get the item to us. All in the hopes that they could have stayed with AA.

Maybe I'm missing something, but if we're giving woot 12 bucks for the shirt, or 10 bucks for the shirt and 2 for shipping, isn't that ultimately the same thing? ABout the only way I can see the two being different is if woot paid less than 2 bucks for shipping (but only because they'd have taken 2 bucks for shipping and be sort of obligated to spend it on such). Anyway...

TIL:

The only cost of a shirt.woot shirt is the blank
That the most important part of a company is who it gives jobs, because it's inherently better to give people from certain countries jobs than others.
That llandar is a dude.
That Anvil only makes one kind of shirt, and everyone already has worn it and it is terrible and awesome and scratchy and comfortable.
That Amazon is the evil overlord and is pulling the strings of tgentry.


Only one of those previous statements is serious.

Seriously guys - I know I'm not nearly as active around here as some of you, so maybe I missed some stuff, but what the f'ing f?

I get why people are concerned about the change from AA. And I can understand nationalism, although i think it's misplaced here. But let's look at this fairly - until a couple years ago, AA was giving those "American" jobs to illegal immigrants. And even now, those aren't great paying jobs - according to AA themselves, the average *experienced* sewer gets 12 an hour. Which means a skilled worker makes about 12 bucks an hour (or less - after all, average means people are above/below the number). I don't know what Anvil pays, but I've made more than that for a whole lot less...but that's getting into other matters. IT's also worth noting that Anvil is US based even if their factory isn't and that American Apparel is an international company with jobs across Europe and Asia, so it's not as if by supporting Anvil you aren't supporting Americans too (just ones in different areas) or that by supporting AA you aren't taking away from those American Anvil jobs.

That aside - think about what's been said here. Woot has been limited in certain areas for a while - a smaller (no pun intended) range of women's sizes. Only recently adding long sleeve shirts. The list goes on. By moving to cheaper blanks maybe they can get less profitable sizes like a tall size for men or the frequently requested sizes for women. Do you think that woot's stuck with a rotation of only 34 (or less) shirts at a time because it only ever wants to sell that many? We've definitely seen them expanding with weekly limited runs on shirts. We've seen them do different colors. Saving money on blanks (so long as they remain quality) to invest elsewhere is fine by me (I mean, did they ever say the cost hike was cuz of blanks or to stay with AA, or was that just people reading into things?)

And finally: We haven't seen the danged things yet! The women's changes look kind of cool. I'm hoping the men's are good as well - but since I haven't seen them yet, I'm not gonna freak out. It's not like the shirts that are clearly the cheapest thing on earth is gonna be what woot goes with - so let's not base this on that shirt you got for free that you really wouldn't have worn more than twice anyway.

Well this sucks. A $2 increase followed by change to an inferior shirt, in other words the price went up %30 or %40 overnight. Is this some sort of joke?

Darquis wrote:

To everything Darquis said... DITTO

Ditto. Calm down. Life will move on. The sun will rise tomorrow.

As for the outcry of support for american apparel. They are a pretty vile company as far as their upper management, sexual harrassment lawsuits inside the company, poor public relations in regards to their ... "curvier" clientele.

Even american based companies can be full of yuck. (or should I say "especially").

solidstiles wrote:So it's only okay to support overseas manufacturing if you have no choice? If it's REALLY that big of a deal to a person, then they wouldn't own a computer, smartphone or car.

If someone wants to make it their priority to purchase American-made when available, that's respectable, however it's a tad hypocritical when the same person jumps up on their high horse for vehemently supporting US manufacturing while typing it out on a device that didn't hit US soil until it was ready to be purchased.

If there is no one in the USA manufacturing an item, no US jobs are threatened by buying it from somewhere else. You can't threaten jobs that don't exist.

On the other hand, every time you buy something from elsewhere that *is* produced in the US, you take away from the US market for that product.

You can't compare apples to oranges.

I'm looking forward to this world of chicks and dudes in foreign midriff shirts.

llandar wrote:The new blanks are less than a half inch shorter and do not shrink as much. You should survive with minimal discomfort.

llandar wrote:I was talking about the female shirts. The length difference is the same as the men's. The big difference is in the chest.

Actually, according to the women's measurements posted here:
http://shirt.woot.com/Blog/ViewEntry.aspx?Id=21882

The length difference changes depending on the size.
S - 3/4 inch shorter
M - 3/8 inch shorter
L - No change
XL - 3/8 inch longer

TobiasAmaranth wrote:[s]An extra ounce may not sound like much but it's a 28% increase in weight. I like how light the AA shirts are, and I have a sneaking feeling that I will notice the moderate change in weight by the end of the day, so to speak.[/s] (Apparently, 3.5 was meant to be 4.3...)

Also, your post still doesn't explain why this change was even necessary.

You will notice. I ordered a few shirts that ended up being printed on Anvil...cute design, but are my least favorite shirts because of the quality/make of Anvil. So disappointed.

Gonna let my geek flag fly:

The avalanche has begun. It is too late for the pebbles to vote.

All we can do now is vote with our wallets. We'll see how it turns out.

lozerette wrote:If there is no one in the USA manufacturing an item, no US jobs are threatened by buying it from somewhere else. You can't threaten jobs that don't exist.

On the other hand, every time you buy something from elsewhere that *is* produced in the US, you take away from the US market for that product.

You can't compare apples to oranges.

apples have a lot thinner and smoother skin than oranges. also, the fruit of apples is a lot whiter. huh. I guess you can compare apples to oranges.

lozerette wrote:Actually, according to the women's measurements posted here:
http://shirt.woot.com/Blog/ViewEntry.aspx?Id=21882

The length difference changes depending on the size.
S - 3/4 inch shorter
M - 3/8 inch shorter
L - No change
XL - 3/8 inch longer

True, but many of us won't be wearing the same size anymore. I wore an AA WL, which was 27 inches long. To keep the fit in the chest, I will now wear an Anvil WS which is 25 inches long. So I lose 2 inches in length which is too much.

Lane03 wrote:I don't see how you can say taking business away from one company (AA) wont lose jobs, but giving business to another company (Anvil) will create jobs. That just doesn't make sense.

It's certainly possible. If a company that used to make 50,000 of something per month, then gets a new customer that adds ANOTHER 50,000 per month, they're almost definitely going to have to make some new hires to handle the 100% increase. On the flip side, if a company that makes 5 million of something per month, then loses a customer that bought 50,000, they might not need to let anyone go because of the 1% decrease. I'm pretty sure that's not the case in this instance, as both Anvil and AA seem to be fairly large companies with several very large customers. Just pointing out that it's possible.

cmillard1 wrote:Anvil is based in NYC. While the costs of production (i.e. wages) might go to central America, most of the money goes to (US) Americans.

I seriously doubt that most of the money comes to the US. Obviously, they have to pay their employees working in the US offices, and they're paying rent, utilities, etc for their US offices. But all their profits can be invested/banked directly from Honduras without bringing them back into the States. And of course they're paying for the labor in Honduras, as well as the rent, utilities, etc for their Honduran factories & offices. It's possible that the US costs outweigh the Honduran costs + profits, but I don't think it's likely.

lozerette wrote:If there is no one in the USA manufacturing an item, no US jobs are threatened by buying it from somewhere else. You can't threaten jobs that don't exist.

On the other hand, every time you buy something from elsewhere that *is* produced in the US, you take away from the US market for that product.

You can't compare apples to oranges.

That's got to be one of the most ridiculous things I've ever read. If there was demand for the foreign-made stuff to be made domestically (As in enough demand to override the demand for cheap stuff), then jobs would be CREATED domestically to be able to manufacture that stuff.

Darquis wrote:Lots of really reasonable, well-thought-out comments

Hey now! That kind of reasonableness isn't allowed in this here thread!

greenlightgo722 wrote:As for the outcry of support for american apparel. They are a pretty vile company as far as their upper management, sexual harrassment lawsuits inside the company, poor public relations in regards to their ... "curvier" clientele.

Even american based companies can be full of yuck. (or should I say "especially").

I had never had a reason to learn anything about AA before Tuesday. Once this all blew up, and several people mentioned AA's (And specifically Dov Charney's), erm, "problems", I decided to take a look. And wow, I didn't think it was possible for a company in the US to be so horrid. I'm actually GLAD that Woot! is moving away from them, even if they are going to a company using Honduran manufacturing. I'll take a stand-up company from anywhere over a sleazy one from the anywhere (including the US), any day. I'm also not sure if there's even an AA store around here, but I plan to find out, to try to make sure that my nieces never, ever shop there.

sunflowergirl17 wrote:You will notice. I ordered a few shirts that ended up being printed on Anvil...cute design, but are my least favorite shirts because of the quality/make of Anvil. So disappointed.

Wait, you've received some already?? Maybe Woot!'s using the savings to somehow print & ship the shirts quicker?

I've read this whole thread and while I know no one will care about what I have to say, I will say it.

As a customer I feel disrespected by what I've seen in this thread. I know that I haven't been here as long as a lot of people but this thread shows me that Woot doesn't show concern about customers. I don't think anyone was attacking individual staff members. They just wanted answers and their concerns/opinions to be taken as valid. Show that you understand that this change is hard. Don't attack and snark back at the customers.

If I had ever treated my customers like this at my job, I would have been out of the job myself. Wow!

Today was the first day that shirt.woot wasn't the first site I checked when I woke up.

Darquis wrote:A lot of things..

I think this whole outcry matters more because of the price increase. Even though $2.00 is not much, You don't increase price AND change the product.

geegee63 wrote:
As a customer I feel disrespected by what I've seen in this thread. I know that I haven't been here as long as a lot of people but this thread shows me that Woot doesn't show concern about customers. I don't think anyone was attacking individual staff members. They just wanted answers and their concerns/opinions to be taken as valid. Show that you understand that this change is hard. Don't attack and snark back at the customers.

If I had ever treated my customers like this at my job, I would have been out of the job myself. Wow!

To be fair, the interaction between Woot! and its customers has NEVER been typical. I mean, they sometimes tell us outright that what they're selling is crap, or that it's useless, or that they can't imagine why people would want to buy it. I mean, if employees at most retailers described any of their products in the way that Woot! describes the vast majority of their's, those employees would be out of a job, also. There's also always been plenty of snark from all the employees & mods, and that's a big part of why most of us love Woot! and its employees.

I understand that people are wanting real answers to their questions, but face it. The official reason is what was originally stated, and they're not going to give a different one. And really, I'm sure there's at least some truth to that explanation, even if it's not the whole truth. But, the employees are answering the questions they can, and not answering the ones they can't. And are doing it in the same way they've always answered questions & dealt with the community.

I find it sort of interesting that in a thread complaining about Woot! changing how they do things, people are also asking the Woot! employees to.. change how they do things.

elezar wrote:I find it sort of interesting that in a thread complaining about Woot! changing how they do things, people are also asking the Woot! employees to.. change how they do things.

You may have been referring to others but I never said that I would want them to change. I would however like to just have someone say something like, "You know what we value you as a customer and change is hard but we do care. Don't give up on us yet because we haven't given up on you guys." which I don't see. Snark has a place but I think it wasn't needed here. Meh, my two cents. Take it or leave it.

elezar wrote:Wait, you've received some already?? Maybe Woot!'s using the savings to somehow print & ship the shirts quicker?

Unless they overnighted, it's doubtful.

I will say that #0001 of Lucky at Last, printed on an AA tagged blank, arrived in my mailbox on Tuesday.

SnailPost isn't always slow ... just usually.

chennai8 wrote:I think this whole outcry matters more because of the price increase. Even though $2.00 is not much, You don't increase price AND change the product.

I get that. I really do - I don't think I've bought a shirt since the increase. And it's not because I don't think they should have (though I wish they hadn't), but it just makes you think more about it when you hit your big button. And I understand why people are seeing that, combined with the move to a shirt blank that costs less to purchase and associating that with dollar signs in woot's eyes (or at least, getting very displeased).

But, and I'm certainly not the only to point this out, woot's cost doesn't end at the shirt blank. They have to pay people who do the printing, packing, distribution of the shirts. Ink, machines, all the stuff that goes into making the shirts costs. Storage, manufacturing facilities, etc. costs. Heck, maybe smartpost costs more - who knows. I don't. I'm betting most of us don't. SO while I totally understand and sympathize with the frustration, I also understand that there's more to a shirt.woot shirt than, well, the shirt.

bluchez wrote:For anyone who has been around for any period of time, they know that I have always supported shirt.woot in almost every decision they have made. I am not one for righteous outrage for no other reason than to have something to complain about. I have always respected the company's right to make hard choices based on what they believe is best for the employees and the company's direction, regardless of how I personally felt about the decision.

I strongly disagree with this decision. I believe in my country and my country's economy, and feel that the only way to fix our current financial crisis is to keep as much money and jobs in the country as possible. Woot is making a decision based on sustaining their employees' jobs, and I can understand and respect that. I feel it is short-sighted for any person or company to take the cheaper way out and cost Americans' jobs that could then become unable to support themselves and rely on the rest of us to support them. Moving production of this scale outside of the US costs each and every one of us money, whether you realize it or not. Yes, a shirt may be able to remain $12, but that doesn't account for the additional tax burden that each and every one of us has to share to make up for that cheap shirt.

I have donated (literally) thousands of dollars to shirt.woot (the company and the community) in the form of time invested and server expenses over the years through teetrade.org and shirtwhat.com. I have never received or asked for any type of compensation other than discussing if the affiliate program would be something I could include into shirt.what (and based on our mutual understanding of woot's desires for the affiliate program, I chose to keep shirt.what affiliate free). I did all of this because I felt like my time and expenses would benefit shirt.woot and the community. I believe that both the company and the community appreciated my efforts and benefited from them, financially and otherwise.

I do not pretend to offer irreplaceable services or to in any way imply that I haven't enjoyed the ride. However, part of the reason that I have participated and enjoyed helping out is that I wanted to help a small company grow and support the American economy. I am, however, unsure of exactly where this ride will go from here. I will reenable shirt.what's functionality for the community, and continue to respect shirt.woot's right to make decisions for their company as they feel necessary. I do, however, strongly disagree with this decision.

Quality Post! Thanks Bluchez for the hard work you've put into your sites and for taking a stand. I'm also very disappointed in Woot and would at least like more explanations.

I have around 25 woot shirts and counting and only came to find out about woot about a year ago. That being said, I have always loved graphic t-shirts, but have always had a hard time finding websites that sold awesome t-shirts that fit me well. I was so excited when I found shirt.woot! cause the shirts were obviously high quality and were always worth it because of how well they fit and felt when I wore them.

I am quite disappointed that shirt.woot! would make such a huge change like this, especially considering that they are moving to a non-US supplier. I have always been impressed by the use of AP for blanks, but now you are considerably lessening your quality as a means of increasing profit. It's really not right. Like many people have said, the number of shirts that I buy is probably gonna go down now if the shirts don't fit quite the same way (and I'm expecting that they won't). Dimensions can easily be comparable, but FIT is something completely different. It depends on craftsmanship and material quality. You can pretend like this isn't a big change... but it IS A HUGE CHANGE!!