Customizable apparel app for self expression attracts music industry partnership [Interview]

The Sociable caught up with Billy Shipp, the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) of custom apparel app, Yoshirt, to find out more about how his company is leading the industry and partnering with the likes of Fall Out Boy.

Taking photos and actually doing stuff with them – i.e., not leaving them to fester on your coffee table just to bore guests with – is popular these days, isn’t it? Personalized cards, mugs, and more are now all the rage.

But what about clothing? Typically, printed t-shirts have been nothing more than tacky band logos and terrible jokes. However, that’s now starting to change. Here’s what Billy from Yoshirt has to say. 

“Self expression should be about more than just a book on your coffee table or a photo on your wall.”

The Sociable: So, Billy – how does Yoshirt combine clothing and social media?

Billy: Yoshirt lets people design custom apparel on their iPhone. People create designs that they can share via social media, you know, on Twitter or Facebook – even via SMS. Making and designing your clothing can be a collaborative process, like writing a song as a band. Even if someone creates the initial base design, they can send it to a friend for more work. It creates shared meaning through real tangible products.

Do you consider Yoshirt to be an industry leader?

Absolutely, we are the leading mobile platform for custom apparel, and we are growing faster than any other mobile app that provides custom apparel. But this isn’t the only reason. The quality of the products we produce is really high; our apparel is custom printed, cut and sewn and over 95% of products ship within 5 business days.

What’s the secret to your popularity?

People just get it, you know. They drop into the app and they can instantly start creating. It’s very clean, it’s very easy and anyone, young or old, can use Yoshirt effectively.

Been working on any cool projects?

We are leading with a number of partnerships, recently including Fall Out Boy. The band takes a selfie from the stage and, before the gig finishes, we text everyone in the audience, alerting them that they can buy a t-shirt that puts them in the same picture as the band. Even these t-shirts are customizable – for example, users can add the names of the people they went with. This has never been done before in the history of apparel and it’s never been done before in the history of music.

What motivates you to provide your customers with high quality goods and services?

Mostly, it’s the phenomenal feedback we get from our customers. They are constantly posting to Twitter and Instagram.

What inspires us is taking memories and turning them into products, you know, taking a photograph and making it real, making it something you can hold on to. We take photographs out of albums and turn them into something you can wear and carry with you to represent you and your life. Self expression should be about more than just a book on your coffee table or a photo on your wall.

What trend does Yoshirt fit into, if any?

Yoshirt fits into two big trends, the first of which mobile. Mobile technology has revolutionized the world and the rise of the smartphone is incredible. It’s arguably the single biggest moment in humanity. We have super computers in our pockets with the best cameras the world has ever seen. Coupled with the rising popularity of customizable goods, we are the people helping to bring mobile technology and customization together. Yoshirt is the platform that helps people go from mobile image to real world goods.

Where do you see Yoshirt going from here?

Our long term goal is to democratize customizable apparel and make it accessible for everyone. We want to create a world where reality is much more malleable for the consumer. As a future prospect, it’s a really incredible idea that people can get exactly what they want, on demand, from their mobile device.