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.

  

Pokemon Go themed T shirts and hoodies!

Well it had to be done. Pokemon Go wasn't even available in the UK, but as soon as I saw someone post about it being released in the US, I had to have it. And of course in less than 24 hours my boyfriend has declared himself as my rival. I took Charmander, he took Squirtle, we've joked about using a bicycle indoors, it was a great day.

If you haven't already downloaded Pokemon Go to your smart phone, I suggest you get on it as soon as you can, as everyone is already taking over the local Gyms and out leveling you! Haha, seriously I can spend all day on this and there are still players that are miles ahead. It's unreal. But yes for anyone who lives in a country where Pokemon Go has not yet been released, just do a google search for the apk file, you will soon be out catching them all! But of course have patience, the servers have issues from time to time, Niantic are still working out the bugs. (I think the English players who snuck on before the official release may have caused a few!)

I must say I'm having great fun with it though, it is a fantastic fitness app. I've never wanted to walk everywhere so badly! But of course it's early days for the game yet, there is so much that could be done with it and its nice to see how it's bringing people together. But don't forget guys, everyone needs to play safe. Be aware of your surroundings and don't be chasing Pokemon down dark alleys in the middle of the night, there has already been reports of muggings involving Pokemon Go. Play smart and play safe, more importantly don't let it rule your life. Resist playing in work/school or you could end up in major trouble.

So the release of Pokemon Go has inspired me to pull up a few of my Pokemon T shirts and add them to the gamer hoodie section! I don't know about where you are but here in our part of the UK the summer has been especially rainy, so my hoodies haven't really been packed away. Just sort of been included in the "summer" wardrobe. Such sad times, I really am a summer loving geek so all this rain is very disappointing.

No matter though! An old favourite is the Charizard T shirt! One of the original first generation of Pokemon, this big guy was so popular but at such a great cost. Starting pokemon Red/Blue with Charmander meant you were basically playing Pokemon in hard mode!

So from the Charizard T shirt I have decided to add into the pokemon clothing range, a Charizard hoodie.

Now maybe you were like me all those years ago, and when Pokemon yellow was released, you had to have it. Even though it was just a copy of Red and Blue, you needed to have Pikachu as your starter Pokemon right? I know! But I totally evolved mine into a Raichu. So in honour of that cute little Pokemon mascot, I give you the Pikachu hoodie.

From starters to legendary's, I can't begin to tell you how much I love Mew. The amount of times I cheated the game so that I could have Mew, even as my starter Pokemon! Pink, cute, catlike, floaty and OP as hell! I think I might actually be the person who goes out of their way to some event across the other side of the country to be able to catch a Mew.  Mew was actually one of my first T shirts for Etsy when I was still up and running a shop on there. I never actually brought the Mew T shirt into either the Ebay shop or my web store, so I thought in honour of Pokemon Go's release, I would bring back the Mew T shirt.

As a little something new for myself, I also decided to create an Ancient Mew T shirt. Ancient Mew is something I remember from the very first Pokemon Movie. The one and only Pokemon movie I ever saw. But back them when it was released to the big screen, if you bought a cinema ticket to see it you got given a promotional Pokemon card, one of which was Ancient Mew, and I happened to get one. Sadly though I sold it off on ebay a long time ago, but I still loved the artwork for it. So on a special heather purple T shirt, printed in gold print, an Ancient Mew t shirt.

Back to Pokemon Go itself though, I thought I would try and get in early on those who are really appreciating their roles as Gym leaders. If you really want the world to know that the only reason you are outside today is to catch Pokemon, (or hatch that Poke Egg of course) then why not go for a Pokemon Team T shirt? Currently available in men's T shirt (with womens t shirts soon to follow) I have the Pokemon Go Team Valor T shirt, Pokemon Go Team Mystic T shirt, and Pokemon Go Team Instinct T shirt.

I'll hopefully have the Pokemon Go Team T shirts available in women's sizes this weekend. But do check back on the Anime hoodie section too as I'll be adding these in as Pokemon Go Team hoodies as soon as I can.

Marvel Super hero T shirts and hoodies for the earth friendly geeks

The big screen has a fantastic line up of super hero and super villain films that has stirred the geek community and sent us back to the cinema's to um and ah over how badly we want over priced popcorn and cola. With both Marvel and DC pouring their creative efforts into movies, I have to say I'm loving every second of it even though I've loathed the cinema for some years now.

I'm pretty sure I've mentioned it before, but I do really feel like Marvel and DC have done a fantastic job (although some may disagree with me on DC's contribution after watching Dawn of Justice) for there are many heroes and heroines that I had no interest in when growing up, or perhaps had even never heard of. You'll have to forgive my half hearted effort of an inner geek on the subject of super heroes, I was much more into anime when I was younger, and the internet was much more limited in my teens than it is today.

A great example of this lack of enthusiasm for certain heroes is both Captain America and Iron man, I really was not a fan of either back in the day. But Marvel's cinematic universe has definitely sparked an interest that has inspired me to not only watch the Captain America and Iron man films, but to consider them as a part of my collection of favourite movies.

With the recent Captain America film Civil War (and again on a lesser note, Batman Vs Superman Dawn of Justice) I have of course decided to expand my range of Geek T shirts and hoodies, to include a few more comic book hero T shirts and hoodies.

Giving praise to Marvel for its fantastic collection of films, lets start with a Captain America Shield hoodie, I love this one because picked up a new metallic printing film that makes the shield look awesome. My photography skills are not the best, but I tried to capture how the light hits the print to show of that metal shield. Again I may not be his biggest fan, but I did make this Captain America's Shield hoodie as a women's T-shirt for myself to test the print. I'll have to add that in later. But for now you can find the Captain America hoodie here

Speaking of Shield, I know we have quite a few Agents of SHIELD fans, so I put together an Agents of SHIELD hoodie. Shamefully I have not yet actually watched any of Agents of SHIELD, there just isn't enough hours in the day for me to keep up with the geekdom. But that doesn't mean it's not on the to do list. Either way I made it because you guys asked for it, so here it is. A Marvel Agents of SHIELD hoodie. 

Keeping in with the love for Marvel comic hoodies, I've expressed my love for the new Spiderman that was introduced in Captain America: Civil War. This spiderman logo hoodie is my way of saying thank you to Marvel for not screwing this up. Civil War is one of the comics I have actually read (a lovely present from my other half) and I must admit at first I was skeptical about the movie. The original comic featured so many heroes that with such a small selection available to use in the film, I was worried it would be a real let down. Add in the current experience of the big screen spiderman casting done by Sony, I was worried it would have been awful. Lucky for us, Marvel came through. So in honor of that success I give you my Spiderman hoodie. 

And of course no Spiderman logo hoodie would be complete without a matching spiderman T shirt. 

It will take some time but eventually I will have a little something put together for all the members of the Avengers, as again the Avengers films and the films for the individual characters are something I'm really enjoying at the moment. For the latest film The Avengers: Age of Ultron I went with a distressed scraped metallic look for an Avengers T shirt. I did however add in a few other colour options on The Avengers T shirt as I know not everyone can wear black. So here's my take on an Avengers logo T shirt.

But of course I shouldn't just concentrate on the Avengers. A T shirt design I've had knocking around for a while was a Guardians of the Galaxy T shirt. Another film I absolutely loved and really can't wait for the next one. Anyway I kept it subtle with this one as at the time I wasn't really sure what to do for a design, so I just went with a Nova Corps t shirt. Hopefully I'll have a new Guardians of the Galaxy T shirt available for when the next film comes out. 

Anyway enough about the Marvel T shirts and hoodies, I really thought I would fit some DC comics clothing into this post but it turned out a lot longer than I though it would, and I know I already have so many Batman t shirts and hoodies I could easily fill a post. So I'll do just that and have my next post as a DC comics hoodies and t shirts post. :) 

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 :)