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ShirtCaddy.com Interviews RIPT Apparel Founder Paul Friemel

1.) How did Ript Apparel come to be? Give us those behind the scenes stories that nerds like us love

RIPT Apparel started in 2009.

We devised the concept in January of 2009 and after meeting religiously every week, we had the te ready and all the buness logistics buttoned up and were able to launch on Jun 8th, 2009.

Here's a little known fact: We had to push back our launch date by a week because we just weren't quite ready and decided it would be better to start right than rushed.

So that's why we didn't start on June 1st.

Wouldn't it have been nice to have a nice clean first-of-the-month start date?2.) With a te producing a new degn every day, 7 days a week, do you ever get a break or are vacations just things you read about in fairy tales?

I like to say that 'the store' is open 24/7 at RIPT, but our office hours are 9 to 5 Monday through Friday.

We've been growing the office staff to a state where everyone can get their fair share of vacation days and the machine will keep running. Before we printed all of our items in-house, we had to out-source all the printing and shipping.

This still allowed us to take some time off when we needed it, but there were some tasks that each member of the team was required to do everyday or things would fall behind.

I am proud to say that we have never missed a day of daily sales and have stuck to our tagline of "1 Degn | 24 Hours | 365 Days". Sometimes we joke that our shirt folder, Bagger Vance,


because these are the degns that escaped the clutches of our gravedigger, The Grim RIPTer, and went on to posbly be printed elsewhere. These have been giving degns and artists that we weren't able to print some additional exposure.

Of the shirts we've printed it's really imposble to pick a favorite but the one I think is the funniest, to me, is "The Death of Super Grover" by Dann Matthews.

I think I am alone in my love of this degn, but it just takes any of the seriousness there was about the overhyped "Death of Superman" comic and throws it out the window. Clasc.

http://i48.tinypic.com/2quloqt.jpg" class="photoborder" />

5.) With big changes ahead for USPS, will this have an impact on Ript's production, shipping or prices?

The United States Postal Service has been our sole provider of shipping nce day one.

They have always had the lowest rates, and with our buness model, price is paramount. Our relationship with them has changed as tuations have necestated it, and with the rather drastic international shipping increases seen less than two weeks ago, we will have to adapt again. The changes have definitely left a lot of long-time customers angry at us and have most definitely affected sales. It's not something we are taking lightly by any means. All I can say to those that feel slighted by the increase is that we're sorry and we're working to get the costs back down to where they were. I think the sad truth of it is that we're not in Kansas anymore... and actually, none of those international customers ever were so how much sense does that make?

6.) Without saying any names, can you give us a ballpark figure of what your top selling degn pulled in? You know, to give the little guys hope

All I'll tell you is that vinyl is making a big comeback, and records are meant to be broken!

7.) Sell Ript to our readers. What sets it apart from the dozens of other 24 hour tee tes?

We work hard every day to make sure that there is a lot to love about RIPT Apparel. We have unparalleled speed with a 2-4 day turnaround from every day of sale. We have a huge range of zes of garment from baby onees to 3XL mens tshirts, all for $12 or less!

We are also the only daily webte to offer hoodies everyday for the low price of $38.

If you bought those hoodies blank in the store, they'd be over $50!

If you have enough t-shirts, we have many alternative items for our daily degns from iphone 4 cases, to stone coasters, to premium art prints for your wall.

Our customer service is top-notch and we make sure that every legitimate complaint is asgned to a real person in the shop, including the owners of the company.

We also have a face to our company.

You can see who is printing your shirts, taking your orders, and addresng your customer service issues by checking out our "Team Page." .

That's a good looking bunch, ain't it?

If you're an artist, there is plenty to take part in.

We have streamlined our submison process so that it's easy to submit mockups of your degn without fear by gning up to our webte.

Just by submitting a degn

"HERE" , your account changes to artist status.

We also have a bustling community of artists Ript's group

that share their work everyday on Facebook.

Artists always receive $1 for every item sold at RIPT and they receive their payments via Paypal usually the next day, but at least within 5 days. Even after a degn is printed at RIPT, the artist retains the rights and can do with it whatever they choose! Sometimes we even conduct special Artist Appreciation promotions that give artists additional kick backs or incentives to submit their best work.

8.) Any chance we'll see different degn placement on Ript shirts in the near future (back, de, wrap-around, etc...)?

Most likely not.

In the beginning, we used to have more artistic degns that would push the limits of our screen printing capabilities. Part of what keeps the entire shirt-a-day concept alive is the mplicity of production.

Making a shirt more difficult to print can really throw a wrench in things when you suddenly have to print quadruple digits of it.

Adding even 10 seconds of prep time to each shirt can cause an entire day of production to go out of whack.

We've experimented with printing hoodies over the front with different garments, but it's still not likely to become a standard.

There are certain expectations our customer base adheres to and we wouldn't want to disappoint them with lackluster results. We wouldn't want to sell a shirt degn with the print on the back either, nce we've never done it and customers might not notice the difference.9.) There are so many references to pop-culture on Ript shirts. Can you tell us which references seem the most popular? Do they go through phases or is there always a go-to-guy you can depend on when needed?

This is a tough question because we've spent almost four years trying to understand this better and we are still surprised by results every day! The top categories at RIPT are Movies, Video Games, and Televion.

Our first two years of degns were almost excluvely artistic or funny degns, and there was a major shift from 2010 to 2011.

So there are definitely trends that come and go, but things have been pretty steady with our current theme pool.

10.) What is your honest opinion about the future of 24 hour t-shirt tes like Ript Apparel? A flash in the pan or the wave of the future?

All I can say is that RIPT was lucky enough to jump into this market when we did and have been able to potion ourselves near the top of the pack.

A lot of companies have come and go nce we started, but a few have had staying power because they have taken a solid approach and aren't looking to make a quick buck.

There are plenty of copy cats in the deal-a-day world, just look at Groupon. The great thing about the shirt-a-day model is that it takes the Groupon concept and actually applies it to a product at a heavy discount every day instead of something more vaporous.

We have growth plans in place and hope we can continue to evolve with the market and the community.

A huge thanks to Paul and you can check out more on

http://www.shirtcaddy.com/ and

http://www.riptapparel.com/?aff=Z747VNRX5B7JD8F2

Terrific interview and I love the shirt of the day tes. Ript is one of my go to places next to Fright-Rags who obviously aren't a shirt of the day, starting to check out t-shirt bordello also. This guy Paul sounds like he is saying all the right things but his photo gives off a smug, arrogant look, lol, not sure if thats true or not. Good read as always booman.