Every year my brother's best friend organizes a group to walk for ALS in memory of Norman Holzberg. The group, comprised of best friends from college and other walks of life, is called Stormin 4 Normin. It's a great charity and Crooked Monkey has been involved with it for two years now. It's part of our overall effort to give back to charities and philanthropies and to help friends.

Another one of their friends, Seth, is an amazing graphic designer. He designed the shirts, we produced them. This year they raised lots of money for ALS research and also won the best t-shirt design. If you're interested in donating to this worthy cause, please let us know and we'll get you in contact with them.

Thanks!And if you want to buy Funny Guys T-shirts, or Funny Girls t-shirts you know where to go.

Labels: Accolades, ALS, charity, Crooked monkey cares

We've really appreciated all the love for our MJ shirts. It's meant a lot to us because of how meaningful these are to C monkey.

We've gotten a ton of emails and a good amount of bloggers writing about our Michael Jackson T-shirts.

I'm going to repost some of them here for you to see:

Jessica from Toronto wants us to sell to Toronto so she can pick up an MJ shirt:
"I would love to be able to buy one of your MJ shirts if you did relocate to Toronto. Great site though, keep it up, loving the shirts!"

Bloggers:

-My favorite post came from Karen Watkins of the MoCoScene. She read our blog post, Mourning Michael and wrote:
"Micha Weinblatt says in his company blog June 26, 'Since news broke of Michael's passing I have been teary eyed and at a loss for words.' But not for ideas. The master of the wicked double entendre quickly came up with four simple, hip T-shirts in homage to the great one - with V-necks, a first. Straightforward sentiment from Crooked Monkey, another first and an aesthetic winner."

-Coty Gonzales did a top 10 of MJ shirts. Our I heart MJ shirt was # 1! Thanks.

-Kelsi Smith from Dedicated Follower of Fashion called our Michael Jackson t-shirts "gems."
She added that our Michael Jackson shirts are "stylish [and] a genuine tribute from a company that has always been influenced by Michael Jackson since their launch in 2007 (you can watch their monkey bust a groove and do the moonwalk here - click on the speaker).

-Northern Virginia Mag wrote:
"You know I’m a huge fan of locally-based crookedmonkey.com" And added: "I couldn’t be happier to let you all know about Crooked Monkey’s new shirts designed in honor of the music legend who, according to Jessica Kades, has long served as an inspiration to the company."Dexie Wharton wrote that we were the first place she checked for MJ shirts.
"They didn’t have them last week because as I found out yesterday from one the CM folks, they were making sure the shirts look perfect. I think you won’t be disappointed with what they came up with."

Thanks everyone. Good work Jessica on contacting these blogs.
And go ahead and check them out for yourself. Our guys Michael Jackson t-shirts. Girls Michael Jackson T-shirts.

Labels: Accolades, As seen on, blogs, Michael Jackson, MJ, Press, RIP, Testimonials, tribute shirts

Crooked Monkey was established in 2005. In May, it will celebrate its 4 year anniversary. We've accomplished a lot in our short history--featured in magazines, picked up by department stores and trendy boutiques, and put a smile on over 120,000 happy customers. And now, finally, we can add, "receiving an oversized check (a la Happy Gilmore) to our list of accolades."

Starting in 2006, Kevin Plank (the founder and CEO of Under Armour) has hosted an annual business competition for the Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship at the University of Maryland, called the Cupid's Cup. In its first year, Crooked Monkey was nominated for the award and finished as a runner up in the competition. This year, Crooked Monkey could not compete for the award because our annual sales volume exceeded the upper limit.

Luckily BB&T launched the BB&T invitational--which features companies connected with the University of Maryland. It allows us to showcase our businesses, and invites students, alumn and other entrepreneurs to get a taste for each company. The attendees then vote for their favorite company and the winner is announced at the Cupid's Cup, in front of the entire Under Armour Executive team. There was stiff competition from a list of other strong, thriving entrepreneurs. But in the end our Funny t-shirts were a fan favorite and we took home the prize money and an oversized check!

Than you to: Kevin Plank, Asher Espstein (from the Dingman Center) and BB&T.

Labels: Accolades, Awards, BBT, Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship, Entrepeneurs, Free Money, History, Kevin Plank, Micha, Oversized check, Press, Recipient, UMD, University of Maryland