New website & the introduction of Girly Geek

Its been some time since I did any real social media posts or any blog posts for that matter (if you know me you'll know how bad I am at these anyway) but all for good reason for once! The site has had an overhaul and its looking nice new and modern thanks to a bit of help from our friend Jon.

Jon in his 30 Rock Music Band T-shirt, as made by Zen-oh-tee *wink wink*

Seriously, thanks Jon. The site is looking purdy.

There are still a few little changes to be made but nothing important really, just a few new photos for buttons and a bit of a change to the blog. But otherwise its all looking great and a little less blogger basic!

As mentioned on the Facebook page, with the new site comes new designs! Or more accurately new style.

Introducing Girly Geek! A small range of items printed up for the girls who are sick of short sleeve round neck T-shirts. Mainly made up of slouch style sweatshirts similar to that of my Studio Ghibli sootball jumper, girly geeks range started out on Etsy but soon met the same fate as my Etsy shop for Zen-oh-tee. Competitors are miserable little bitches.

 

  Zenohtee's Studio Ghibli Sootball Jumper        Girly Geeks LOTR One Ring Inscription Jumper

So with the threat of closure on the Girly Geek Etsy store, its time to send the girly geek range out into the world via an independent website and shopping cart. So let us give a warm welcome this feminine geek range, of which I actually have many pieces in my own wardrobe. Including this Spiderman slouch sweatshirt

For now 5 items have been added from the Girly Geek range, with more to be added in soon. These include the One ring inscription slouch jumper, the Dr. Who Tardis slouch jumper, the Game of Thrones house Targaryen slouch jumper, the Spiderman logo slouch jumper and the Star Trek Spock Slouch jumper.

    

These five have proven to be super popular both over on Girly Geeks Etsy page and Ebay store, so fingers crossed their new home here will prove to be just as popular.

On another note for new items, 3 more designs were also added in for the original styles in the site. These include the Gravity Falls inspired Pterodactyl T-shirt (The T-shirt made by Soos in the episode Land before swine) and two Game of thrones hoodies; A house Stark hoodie and a house Targaryen hoodie.

Plenty more designs, blog content and promotions on the way soon from both Zen-oh-tee and Girly Geek, so don't forget to check back.

Comic Con Stuff!

Unfortunately, there was no way I was going to make it to Comic Con, One day I will go. I will live the dream of going to the San Diego comicon and spend all of my money buying stuff to fill my new house up. So I've been keeping up to date with all the stuff from the weekend via constant geek news website hoppings and a few youtube channels. There's so much cool stuff that I'm already wanting to design new geek T-Shirts for! I'm only going to talk about a few of my favourite bits for it (its all trailers anyway), cos there's so much stuff there that I just couldn't write about it all. 


So big one for me is the Final Fantasy Kings Glaive. I'm annoyed that its only getting a North America theatrical release, so my American friends will see it before I do, but the news now that its going to be releasing for the download places on August 30th should be good. I've  been a constant FF14 player and still do regular runs with my FC on Cerberus, but its an MMO, and I used to love the big huge single player story lines of 8, 9 and 10 so I really cant wait for FF15, I never got a long with 13... I liked the characters, but I suffered with the combat and the story never really gripped me as much as I thought it would. Could be that I end up just sketching designs whilst my boyfriend plays it so I can watch the story. That's been happening just recently as he's played through the entire Uncharted series again (I swear he likes Nathan Drake more than me).   But anyway I thought this might give me an opportunity to highlight a few final fantasy T shirts I have.

The Sherlock trailer looks great, really cant wait for the next series, and Moriarty is just an amazing bad guy. Interested to see how he survived shooting himself in the head, not a lot of people come back from that! I know I'll be digging out my SHER locked Tshirt

Justice League trailer!!! Ok, so I wasn't impressed with Batman V Superman. This isn't a review blog, so I wont go into too much detail, but I basically didn't like any of the bad guys or that whole thing with both their mums being named Martha. "Oh your mums names Martha? Well this changes everything. We're best friends now". 

The new trailer though! It looks great! To be honest it really needed to be. It looks a lot lighter than BVS, almost like they've taken a few pointers from The Avengers.... maybe a few too many... I'd still like them to try stick to that traditional comic style that Marvel and DC are known for - With Marvel generally covering the lighter more colourful superhero world and DC covering the dark, nasty, psychologically disturbed sides. Not that they don't both do the other very well. When Frank Miller did the Daredevil series that went seriously dark and definitely my favourite Daredevil comic arc. Either way I'm looking forward to expanding my super hero clothing range   

American Gods also got a trailer! I'm glad its happening. If they ruin this book I will not be happy at all. If you haven' read that book I would recommend going out and reading it straight away, it really is an amazing book. Neil Gaiman is an amazing author and wrote Stardust and Neverwhere, another amazing few books. He also wrote Good Omens with the Late Terry Pratchett (who I also love). 

I might just update this again if it turns out there is something else I missed that happened, but at the moment, those are the things I am really looking forward to.

  

Every day is Earth day at Zen-oh-tee

Since I'm taking a huge leap back into writing for the blog, I thought I would post a little something for Earth day. What better day to waffle on about how good my hand printed tshirts and hoodies are! Seriously, they are good for the earth, and here's why:

Sustainable Clothing 

Each geeky T-shirt, gamer hoodie and every piece of anime clothing I sell is sourced from a supplier who practices sustainable garment manufacturing. I will soon post a "Why choose Zen-oh-tee" article that will list the suppliers and their policies and standards so you can see for yourself. :)

Ethical Clothing

I ensure all the manufacturers of the blank T-shirts have high ethical working and living standards for their workers. My suppliers help their local communities and believe in safe and fair working conditions and wages. Sometimes helping the environment can begin with something as simple as taking care of your fellow man.

Made to order, not mass produced. 

That's right, I only make what is ordered. This is why items can take a few days to be posted. Your gamer T-shirts are being made just for you! They are not mass produced on the cheap and stored in a warehouse to sit and rot, and so there is no way any unwanted designs are going to end up in a landfill when the latest fad has been forgotten. This also means less energy and materials being wasted.

Better printing materials

The printing media I use is PVC free and so it's better for the environment, its also perfect for my made to order policy. Printing and the chemicals involved can have a huge affect on the environment, I save every off cut and again as I only make clothing to order, this further reduces the negative impact that printing textiles has on our planet.


Degradable mail bags

I bet you didn't know this one! Yes that is right, all gaming t-shirts and geeky hoodies posted are sent in a mail bag that is degradable. It took me a long time to source these but to me they are worth every minute spent trawling the internet. I also don't bag items individually in garment bags. I mean what's the point of putting a bag in a bag?


Seriously though, these are beautiful selling points for my geeky t-shirts and hoodies that I hardly touch on. I must admit I'm not sure how many people out there care about this sort of thing, or even look for it. But I know I'm one of those people, so hey! There's at least one :)

So there you have it, sustainable geek T-shirts, organic anime clothing, environmentally friendly gamer clothing. Geek and gamer clothing that we can be happy to wear! I've always been a sort of casual hippy I guess. In my circle of friends I am the most eco-conscious, I care about being wasteful and recycling, I like the planet I live on and the animals I share it with. So its something that is always on my mind, in a way a sort of hobby, and something I wanted to incorporate into my little business.

When I first worked for one of my suppliers, one of the clothing manufacturers came in and did a presentation on a new brand they had introduced. The brand was, plain and simple, organic clothing. They explained that for every T-shirt there is a cup of pesticides used, we're talking a cup the size of one you might get from the water cooler at work, so when you consider the amount of clothing in the world, that's a lot of dangerous chemicals going into the soil, and some of that cup of pesticides stays in the clothing, and ends up on our skin.

It was something I had never considered. You never do consider things like this until you are actually told about it. As a species we produce a lot, and sadly we are wasteful. So when you think about all the clothing out there, all the damage done to produce it all, it's something to consider when you are looking to help the planet.

When I started my little clothing company, being green is what I wanted to do. That brand that produced some of the worlds first organic T-shirts was an inspiration. I could actually make a conscious effort to have an environmentally friendly business. And so my Etsy shop started out with sustainable and organic geek and gamer clothing.

As time goes on things do change, and the brand that I used for my organic and sustainable T-shirts no longer produce those specific items I sold all that time ago, or in one particular case they stopped making the women's styles. I wasn't happy. But that didn't stop me!

So anyway that was about 4 years ago now, and today I can celebrate Earth day in my own little way, knowing I've built a little company that cares about our planets future, and I certainly wont stop here. I'll always be sure to keep an eye on my suppliers and their practices, and every time I find a new supplier that is green I will introduce a bit more to my geek and gamer clothing range. Happy Earth day people! I hope you are all doing your bit :)

Pentakill? Okay.

It finally happened, I've been playing league of legends for about 4, maybe 5 years now. And I'm really not the best player, I never had enough confidence to try very many ranked games. I never made it past bronze purely because I gave up on the toxic players associated with ranked games. But last night, a great night for me. My first pentakill, and in a ranked game too. Oh yes, I feel good. Thank you Rammus ult!

So for a while now I've had my League of Legends themed pentakill T-shirt on sale, and I've also for a while had a few other LOL themed T-shirts that I haven't brought back to the range yet.

(After my great disappointment over my Etsy shop being closed, GG Valve.... GG  T_T  )

But after the joy of my first Penta, I thought I might finally deserve one of my LOL T-shirts, so I thought I'd start with the one that came to mind the moment it happened.

Also, I thought I'd bring in one that never made it to my shops before Etsy shut me down. This one always reminds me of the time I denied my other half his Pentakill. I still keep hearing about it. Some people may have great skills, and yet are just always falling short of that penta. Not yet worthy of the pentakill T-shirt? Have the Quadra Kill T-shirt instead. 

And of course, lets not forget the one that honors the trolls, the flamers, and all those toxic players. Good Game T-shirt 

Anyway for anyone who is playing League I hope you're all doing well and not taking the game too seriously. GL, HF and make sure you check back for some more of my League of Legends inspired stuff ;) 

Oh yes! speaking of GLHF, I almost forgot this one. GLHF T-shirt

A personal favourite

This weeks reintroduction is a personal favourite of mine, but I must admit one that I have never actually printed for myself, something which I may have to change with a treat. (its always nice having new clothes!)

This particular design came to mind after having seen it a few times when going through my available prints, and with some recent discussion about the Harry Potters studio tour, I thought it was time to get my Potter designs back into my collection. However I thought I would start off with a crossover design, one that really made me laugh. What better way to ward off Dementors than with an awesome Patronus charm in the form of Batman! So this new addition is of course a Harry Potter batman T-shirt

This has been added into the Ebay shop and also here on the site in just the Men's T-shirt for now while I see how it does. I know it had a few sales in its short time on Etsy but that's not to say its going to have the same popularity elsewhere. So depending on its success I may bring out the hoodie and girls version soon.

Next up though is the Harry Potter themed designs that I posted about last year, I'll get them all back up so that they are once again available for purchase so check back soon. :)

Something for the LOTR and hobbit fans

The ebay shop has recently seen the addition of two of my old designs for all the lord of the rings fans out there. With the Hobbit trilogy now finished and leaving our cinemas I thought it might be worth bringing back these two that sold quite well on Etsy.

First off the Tree of Gondor T-shirt, printed in lovely silver vinyl onto a black T-shirt. 

And secondly for all the Land rover owners out there, we have "One does not simply walk into Mordor" with the Land Rover logo, printed in the gold vinyl that's used for the One ring T-shirt. Currently available in mens: Lord of the rings land rover T-shirt 

Speaking of which, its about time I introduced the hoodie, women's and kids versions of the Lord of the rings The one ring T-shirt. So these have now been added to the shop as well as Gondor's white tree T-shirt and Land Rover designs. You can find them on these links

Womens The one ring T-shirt
Kid's The one ring T-shirt
The one ring inscription hoodie

With Tolkien's Middle Earth based adventures being so popular even without the films I'm thinking of creating a few more designs to bring into my range. So watch this space if you want more. 

Kodama T-shirt updated

Hey guys and girls, time for another upload. The next addition the range is more of a revamped version of the Kodama T-shirt I had originally uploaded to Etsy.

The original Kodama t-shirt design taken from Studio Ghibli's film - Princess Mononoke - had three of the little tree spirits which was printed on the chest area of men's and women's T-shirts. The little guys I actually took from screen shots of the film itself to try and keep them as close to the original idea as possible, but what I wanted to include was one of them smiling. Just like the one that prince Ashitaka asks "Hey little fellow, are you showing us the way or just getting us more lost?"

So the new additions for this upload are for the updated version of the design which includes that little odd smiler. Available in T-shirts and hoodies in men's, women's and kids styles.

I have considered perhaps adding the little Kodama tree spirits to the same style jumper as the popular sootball slouch jumper (but in black) for any of the girls out there who like the off the shoulder style. If there is enough demand then I'll more than happily add this one in for everyone :)

Lucky dip. and the winner is ..... The clone troopers!

It's surprising just how much time a new design takes to create and upload to all the different shopping platforms available out there, especially when there are so many variations to take into consideration. It also doesn't help that some of these shopping sites are a bit difficult to navigate, Bonanza currently being my favourite (in terms of awkwardness) in that it only allows you to set up your shop items in dollars, and I can't quite get my head around applying different shipping options. I want to be uploading designs! Not messing around with settings. Ah well, it has to be done.

Anyway onto the next new upload! I say new, it's a design that I had on the Etsy shop that wasn't uploaded to any of my other shops, so for some it might seem new but to me its been sat in my design folder for a while.

Originally I had planned to work down my list that I had set up but then I realised that I have a folder full of prints that haven't been touched for a good while that I should probably look at clearing first. So at random, drawn from the box of ready and waiting designs we have.... (drum roll please)

Oooooooh its a Star wars T-shirt!

Yes I know the "say no to order 66" has been done, But I found that every design (be it desktop wallpaper or clothing) had the traditional Storm trooper helmet design, and I figured for me that Storm Trooper design is not what I associate with the execution of order 66. So I created mine based on the original clone troopers helmet. Clone Trooper Say no to order 66 T-shirt

So this piece is being brought back into the range, as promised in men's, kids and womens in both T-shirt and hoodie.  Available in 3 colours, black, white and charcoal. And also while I'm at it I will also take the time to add in the other variations on the other Star wars designs. 

Suddenly in need of a Star wars marathon weekend. And of course, speaking of clone troopers it had to remind me of this little gif. 

League of Legends Twitch T-shirt (as promised)

As part of my fresh start for the new year I decided to set myself a few goals. Number one being:

UPDATE FREQUENTLY

Last year wasn't a very social year for zen-oh-tee, and between setting up new sites. moving house and the Christmas rush, I lost out on making and uploading new designs. It means that everything has gotten a bit messy really, so a lot of my original prints are missing, some appear on ebay and some only on my main site and I seem to have heavily weighted my stock range in the men's T-shirt section which is a bit unfair really. Its winter, people need hoodies and jumpers! 

Anyway, the goal for this year is to make regular posts on the new and old designs I'm adding in. And to try and keep things evenly spread with each new design being added to all my online shops, and to be available across the whole range (men's, women's kids, tees, hoodies, and hopefully more) where possible of course. 

I had wanted to start out with the top item on my list that has been missing from the range since Etsy closed my shop (DAMN YOU VALVE!) But then I remembered my last post I mentioned someone who had contacted me and accidentally ignored. He'd asked about one of my old items in the hope I would re-list it. I never did, how embarrassing. 

And so here it is, for any league of legends Twitch fans out there. I give you my two Twitch designs. Available across the whole range. They are currently only available on the main site here (a quick Twitch search will turn them up or of course links are available below) but by tomorrow evening Ebay and Bonanza will have these also (for those who feel a bit more secure ordering from the big sites)

Hopefully this will be the first update of many this year. As usual if there are any want uploading sooner rather than later just give me a shout :)

Twitch quote T-shirt "They are the plague"
Twitch quote T-shirt "What doesn't kill you just isn't finished yet"

  

New year, new stuff?! Soon my friends.... soon...

Happy new year boys and girls! I hope its been a good one for you, and of course that the new year brings you many nice things. I have to start off the year by giving a small apology.

Christmas and the months leading up to it provided more than enough long hours and hard work for me, and as a result I fell off the radar. I think my last post was at the end of August and even facebook hasn't seen an update from me since before even then! The amount of work that came in meant I had to limit the orders I was taking so I know a few people had trouble getting their hands on some items, I'm very sorry if anyone didn't manage to get a toothless hoodie order in in time for Christmas.

It also meant that unless your message to me was order related I may have accidentally ignored it. (Special shout out to Sebastian, I'm so sorry I never replied to you! Things just got so busy, the Twitch T-shirt will be up soon if you still want it)

On the plus side I want to say a big thank you to the customers who had the patience to wait for their orders at such an awkward time of year! The feedback has been brilliant and I can't wait to get started on uploading some of my old items and also begin making some new ones.

The online shop will be reopening this weekend for a fresh start on Monday. As usual any requests or feedback is always welcome, and of course keep checking back for new stuff. Thank you everyone and once again happy 2015 to you all :)

Toothless Hoodie

After a fun week of uploading current product to new sites and sorting out the shop here on my main site and facebook, I thought it was time to sit back and honor one of my favourite new additions to the zen-oh-tee range.

Night Fury Toothless hoodie :) Inspired by the cat like black dragon from How to train your dragon, this one has been unbelievably popular on ebay and was also a hit on Etsy for the few days it got to run. Available in adults and kids, this Toothless hoodie can be found in the shop here, just pop toothless in the search box, click one of the links, or you can just click the image below to be linked directly to the adults one in the zen-oh-tee shop. 

Printed in black vinyl onto a black hooded sweatshirt, and of course Toothless's gorgeous bright green eyes. A few scales printed on the sleeves too. I've had requests for this as T-shirts and vest tops, so once I get some sample stock in I'll get them printed, photo'd and uploaded to the shop too. 

Don't forget these are made to order, so if you want something a bit special (maybe a child's name on the back) I can put that on for you no problem :)

Oh Etsy. Oh Valve. Why?

I think I pretty much jinxed it when I had my little rant about items being banned from Etsy because of complaints from Fox broadcasting and Microsoft about my Futurama T-shirts and Mincraft T-shirt .

Valve software complained to Etsy about one of my items, my Good Game T-shirt to be exact. And it was banned for copyright infringement. And shortly after it was banned, my whole shop was taken down, as I had ventured into the realm of the repeat offender.

I'm a little sad about it, I loved my Etsy shop and all of my customers. This is the item that was banned and lead to my Etsy shops uncompromising death.

I'm really shocked that they pulled this one up to be honest. Lets face it, its only text. Its not even full words! There is no reference to any of Valve's products here at all! 

My mistake was in using DOTA as a search reference for the item. I asked Etsy if I could get my shop reopened as this particular offence seems a bit unfair, and I have always done as they ask on these matters. But no, Etsy wont budge, shop closed and my request for my product data ignored. 

Either way Valve, I can't believe this is how low you stooped sending out your minions to deal with copyright infringement. Thanks for sniping the little guy. 

All is not lost though, there are plenty of other ways to get my creations out into the world. But it involves a lot of work (which I should have done a long time ago) So there will be a lot of fiddling with the blog and Facebook page in the next few days while I set things straight. 

Expect more frequent but much shorter posts on here relating to items. Mostly new product and maybe revisits on a few best sellers I haven't touched on yet. :)

Anyways on with plan Z