This week we have made a lot of changes to how we make and ship the things we sell.
First: All books now ship via FedEx’s SmartPost service. SmartPost uses FedEx to move our books across the country, and a local USPS carrier to take it the last leg to your door. The service is reliable, the packages are tracked and you can expect delivery in 5-7 days from when your order ships. We switched to SmartPost because USPS’s Media Mail service collapsed last fall during the holiday shipping season.
Second: We now offer international shipping to many countries on books and apparel. To be honest, shipping books internationally is crazy-expensive. You will be better off buying our books from one of our international retailers. However, sending apparel across the globe is actually quite reasonable. And that’s because….
Third: We have changed how we make T-shirts and hats. Until now we made T-shirts and hats in large batches that sat in John’s office until you ordered one. We had to print about 100 to 200 shirts at a time, and we usually lost our own shirts on the deal.
We now use a fulfillment service in California to print and ship our U.S.-made shirts and U.S.-made hats worldwide. The shirts are the same (American Apparel), as are the hats (Bayside). The print quality is better than we were getting in Indiana. They are in a wider range of sizes – XS to 3XL. And the packaging is fantastic.
So now when you order a shirt or hat from a store, our fulfillment service prints the shirt or embroiders the hat and sends it to you, anywhere in the world.
We will soon be able to offer many of our old T-shirt designs (and additional new ones) very easily with this service. So you should soon be able to get the shirt you always wanted.
Incidentally, we make these shirts and hats for fun, not for profit. We make almost nothing on apparel. So on that note, I’m headed back to editing some books.
— Christopher Schwarz
you just keep doing what you do best. I love your writing style.
I don’t know if LAP or Roy owns the artwork, but the cover of Calvin Cobb Radio Woodworker would make an amazing t-shirt. I’d also love ruobo plates, chairmakers sketches, or just a big ol’ set of dividers (to name a few designs I’m sure you’re already mulling over)
This might be an unpopular suggestion, but have you thought about increasing the t-shirt costs by $5? Not that this would make you rich, but I’d love to know some of the apparel money was going to help your bottom line.
T – S H I R T ! ! !
Thanks Chris!
All this begs the question — What shirt do you wear when you edit?
Wesley
Way COOOOOOOOOOOOOLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thanks for looking out for your customers.
Good news on being able to get the old ones. Thanks!
Must be a heavy book,( that chair makers notebook)
LAP quote $342.43 shipping to Australia
Better John, but not much better. $147.63 shipping for a $47 book ?
T-Shirts arrived yesterday and look great. A note on sizing: these run narrow in the neck and shoulders, so if you’re a bigger guy, you might want to consider adding a size. The arm length is also a tad short; although the overall length is average to long. (This all sounds pretty standard for a kids’ fashion brand like American Apparel, but I’d failed to take it into account when I placed my order.) Oh, and the shirts are very soft and comfy. Thanks again John and Chris.