Canadians can now order our “To Make as Perfectly as Possible” T-shirts through our Zazzle.ca store.
The T-shirts use exactly the same design as the shirts we sell in the Lost Art Press store. The images are printed on 100-percent cotton American Apparel T-shirts. The shirts are $35.25 (Canadian) each with reasonable shipping (about $6 on average).
You can order the shirts directly through Zazzle.ca using this link.
We will be opening other Zazzle portals in Europe and Australia in the coming months.
As these T-shirts are being made by a third party, we do not have complete control over the quality (this makes us a little nuts). If you have a complaint about a shirt – and we hope you don’t – let both us and Zazzle know.
— Christopher Schwarz
Not that I need or care for another T-shirt, but just to point out that a $20 USD T-shirt becomes $35.25 CAD, even though the two currencies are nearly at par. Your books, on the other hand, sell for the exact same price at Lee Valley in CAD as USD even though there is a slight difference in exchange rates (not in their favor currently). You would do well to find a different distributor or get out of the T-shirt business altogether (which I think is a better idea).
Thanks for the business advice.
Long time listener, first time caller … er, responder?
Personally, I love the t shirts. No one is obligated to buy them. My only issue, is that given the fact that I have so many LAP t shirts, that I literally wear one everyday, I feel like perhaps some small advertising fee could be thrown my way. I dress like a damned employee of LAP for goodness sake’s. I do hope the Roubo shirts will be kept in stock for a while, as since buying them one at a time, does drive the cost of the shirt up to that of a Polo. But if they will just be kept in stock long enough, perhaps I can group a purchase and combine shipping. Or since I have pre ordered your next book, if coordination could just be considered, and I could add a shirt to that shipment.
I love supporting this company, but I’m not made of money, and would rather buy merchandise than give the money to UPS.
We’re not an apparel business. We make almost nothing on the shirts (we buy expensive American Apparel shirts and have them screened in small batches by a local printer – that’s pricey). We do them for our amusement only.
So lowering the price or the shipping would mean we’d never do them ever.
Was I not clear that I simply wondered if enough coordination could be considered so that shirt could be slipped into the same box as my book?
I don’t know, perhaps my support is waning. Usually small companies try to work with repeat customers.
Do what you want, very obviously, the company is yours to run and produce what you want, ship how you want, and treat people, how you want.
Nothing more needs be said.
Peter,
I’m afraid more needs to be said.
We split shipments to save our customers money. If you buy books and a T-shirt and we put them all in one box, then we cannot send it Media Mail. It has to go Parcel Post, Priority or Express Mail. And the shipping cost doubles (or more) simply because of the shirt in the box.
If we send the shirt separately, then it can go first class and the box can go Media Mail.
Order fulfillment is a very complex business. And just because something seems logical, it’s not.
I am happy to answer these questions – we get them all the time – but John and I quite simply try to do the right thing.
Chris
I ship regularly, and a book and a shirt can easily fit in a $10.99 USPS one rate box. I hear what your saying. I don’t question your rite to handle these things how you want, ship from where you want etc. However I’ve been a VERY consistent customer, despite shipping problems in the past, etc. I continued to support the cause. Customers like me, would love to have a complete LAP inventory, including special little tools made as one time buys, t shirts, books, etc. However more and more I hear very rigid verbiage coming from you with rules, THAT YOU ARE TOTALLY WITHIN YOUR RITE TO MAKE, but that exclude some of us that have tried to be there and be supportive.
Despite your very good book, The Anarchist Tool Chest, I find, for me personally, and I speak only for myself, that your rules are more rigid than the Giants like Walmart and Amazon. Which, I believe, again my opinion, is one of the reasons they have gained the ground they have over small companies.
Keep making all the rules you feel will make your company successful. If I can make only one point, it is that, me, myself and I, am beginning to feel like I’m perhaps not as important to you as I feel like a longtime customer should be.
But that’s me, and I’m sure it’s a result of my issue’s not yours.
Sooooo … when should we expect the hoodies to be released?
Right after the Roubo-a-thong.
If we can get a book and anything else into a one rate box and ship to Canada I will be more than happy to do that. I will look into it but in the past we have had hurdles like NAFTA certification to avoid duties and lack of tracking. JH
I live in Lafayette, LA good ole US of A. NAFTA should not apply. I appreciate any efforts to make your products more affordable and to represent a more personal marketplace and shopping experience.
For domestic customers a $10 flat rate box will increase shipping costs as we still have to pay to have the order picked and labeled. I think a shirt and book cost for shipping is $9. I comes in two packages but one package flat rate box would likely increase the cost more. We are always working on ideas to make things flow better.
Answer received. I’ll purchase in the future accordingly.
I just don’t get it, Chris.
You’ve been at great pains over the past 3 years to provide folks with the very best you could afford to, while continuing to put bread on the table, and continue the kind of woodworking and writing that others want to read about. Every time the volume of business rises to yet another rung on the ladder of corporate success, you have to apologetically find new solutions. Long gone are the days when you fulfilled every order from your own home, and carried shipments of books in from out of the rain. You do what you have to do to provide a high quality product, while still keeping it within the range of most woodworkers’ wallet.
And each time you have had to alter your product deliver model, it has moved you further away from the more personal approach you would appear to prefer. I get it that you can no longer sign every one of your books, though you do still provide bookplates – while you can.
But comparisons of LAP to huge international corporations is beyond unreasonable. In the grand scheme of things, you are tiny, have virtually no economy of scale, and do not have the same proportional profitwhen compared with someone purchasing paperbacks by the ton. Amazon succeeds because they are so huge they undercut everyone in the business, and get by with a huge number of very low profit transactions.
Chris, you folks are in what is often the back-breaker transition for many small businesses – you are more popular than you can afford to be just now. But you continue to have a huge audience that appreciates your products, and are willing to pay what it costs for high quality.
Keep up the great work.
Dammit, Chris. You are just too darned popular for your own good.
Oooooohh, I feel sufficiently spanked.
FOR ME, the experience of purchasing through LAP has become less personal than those large corporations I hate. The statement IS COMPLETELY reasonable, because I related it TO ONLY MY OWN experience with the company, and no one else.
Take as an example, this very blog entry. LAP took the subject to the cost of shipping, when my initial post also dealt with the longevity of their product offerings.
Read very carefully, slowly, try and look at each word, I at no time ridiculed Chris, said he was wrong to do what he does or called him a little girl.
I simply find that the experience is harder, less personal than is pleasurable for me at this time.
Chris has PLENTY of my dollars in his pocket.
OK. Everyone go back to your shops. This is going nowhere.
If anyone has a customer complaint or comment, please use our “contact us” link at the top of every page. We will, as always, take care of problems as promptly as possible.
If you want to comment on our business model to the public, I recommend using one of the forums, which are filled with other people who like to discuss stuff like this.