This is a special edition of Behind the Shirts, because we also have a guest interviewer. Andy from Thunderfrogs talks to Darren Miller, the man behind Regal Clothing, about his designs, his shop, and unique marketing techniques.
Thunderfrogs: Hi Darren, thanks for agreeing to the interview.
Regal Clothing: Aww, there was nothing good on the TV anyway. 
TF: When did you set up Regal Clothing, and how has it been going so far?
RC: When? October 2008. How’s it going? Amazing!
I never thought that what I imagined to be a part time hobby would start to consume all this time. It’s great though – I get emails all the time from people telling me how much they love my stuff!
TF: Where did you get the name from?
RC: The name just arrived, I didn’t thrash too many ideas around… I thought of it and stuck with it.
TF: Tell us a little about the t-shirts. (Printing method, which blanks you use, where you get your ideas?)
RC: Personally, I don’t “get” the whole American Apparel craze. My size makes me look even fatter than I am, and I don’t need that! So I did some shopping around – I tried unbranded stuff which was a bit baggy, Gildan, which fitted like black bin bags, and I finally settled on Stedman. They are the business! The colour range isn’t huge, but the quality is amazing: the weight of the shirts isn’t too heavy, and they are softer than your softest Andrex!
All my shirts are screen printed, not by me but my lovely people at the printers. However; watch this space because I’ll be experimenting with flock and vinyl and camo prints… It’s all go!
My ideas are usually a result of that split second inspiration you sometimes get… Maybe it’s something I’ve seen before or maybe it’s something I think I can improve… More often than not it’s something my mind created!
TF: Which is the best-selling design? (My guess: I’m tweeting this)
RC: Good guess! But no… It’s the “Sex Drugs & Sausage Rolls” tee. People can’t get enough of it…. I’ve recently been getting some Intellectual Rights grief over it so I changed the design… That hasn’t stopped it selling! If I’m honest they all sell quite evenly. So it’s nice to know that I haven’t created any useless t-shirts… YET!?!
TF: You were nice enough to send me some badges (buttons to you Yanks) and stickers, which were quality merchandise down to the packaging. Discuss?
RC: Do we really need to discuss it? I send ACE good quality free stuff to people I like the look of or have the balls just to ask for it! But seriously, I believe that presentation is 80% of the WOW Factor… I try to give that.
TF: Is there a Regal Clothing demographic? Who are the shirts aimed at?
RC: Yeah there’s a loose demographic, men and women, 16-30 somethings… I’d sell my t-shirts to rabbits if they’d buy them!
TF: A lot of startups go the BigCartel route. Why did you choose to build your own site?
RC: I too use BigCartel for the store, I just use the CSS skills I picked up in college! You’re right though, too many people use the standard layouts with no design skills. Come on people, you’re designers… Show people what you can do!
TF: You have your own web store, as well as having some designs up at the Print On Demand store MySoti. What are the advantages of this approach?
RC: Well quite simply it takes the strain off me and they generate good income. I’d recommend sites such as Mysoti to new starts. You’re up and running in minutes!
TF: Some of your t-shirt marketing tactics are traditional – email newsletters, contacting bloggers, discount codes – but some are more original, like stumping up for Tweetcontest prizes, and viral Twitter marketing. Which do you think work best?
RC: Cool! So glad you can see some originality! I’ll try anything, keeping thing fresh means people don’t get bored by you. I like traditional marketing, newsletters are good and good old email works too. Twitter is a great tool, I’m close to my 1000 follower mark which is pretty exciting, the viral side of it doesn’t really work, it’s a total gimmick! However if you re-tweet you get the 25% discount code, so my campaign isn’t conning anyone… Sponsoring contests is just fun, it allows you to shout about your products to people who might not have other wise seen them! I’m on “iwearyourshirt” later in the year too!
TF: Some shops have huge collections, and others only a few designs. Do you have an opinion on the optimum; do you think it matters?
RC: It’s like a good restaurant: have too much and you look cheap and tacky, have too little and people think you’re too expensive. I currently have 19 tee designs. All of them sell quite well and are fairly priced, but it’s all personal preference I suppose!
TF: If you could start again, would you do anything differently?
RC: I’m still pretty new to it all so I think I’ll stick with it just now! I might have put more money into stock though…
TF: What’s next for Regal Clothing? What plans do you have for expansion?
RC: I change ideas all the time… in the pipeline are polo shirts, belts and messenger bags. I’ll be experimenting with embroidery and cool patterned vinyl… Watch this space! [_____________________]
TF: Aside from your own stuff, whose work do you admire? Are you wearing a cool tee now?
RC: I love Eric over at Linty Fresh, he’s a cool guy and the stuff he churns out is neat! I have so many tees clogging up my cupboards to choose from, but I’m currently wearing my own “Guitar Hero” t-shirt. I love it!
TF: What is it like being a leapling? (Darren was born on February 29th)
RC: Super! I celebrated my 6th birthday last year! As someone said to my girlfriend once “You’ve got an everlasting boyfriend”. Cool huh!?
TF: Thanks again Darren!
RC: You, sir, are always welcome!
About Andy/Thunderfrogs:
Thunderfrogs delivers the best of the t-shirt world (sales, discount codes, store and tee reviews, interviews and t-shirt news), updated on a near-daily basis. I love t-shirts with pop-culture references, especially 80s film, cartoon, and computer game nostalgia.
Andy also recently published another interview with James Lillis, a PopCultureTees favorite; read the whole thing here.
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