I hadn’t heard of the popular t-shirt company Crooked Monkey until I was invited to an exclusive party they recently held. You see, even though they get great press from actors wearing their shirts in movies and magazines talking about their fashion styles, Crooked Monkey is based in Washington, DC – not widely known as the fashion capital of the country. And they wanted to do some local brand building.
This wasn’t just any party. Sure, there were attractive guests in a cool setting with great drinks and music all the usual stuff. It was what they did differently that made it the most memorable event Ive been to in a long time.
Lets start with how I even found out about the event – a secretive email from someone I didn’t know telling me that my friend recommended me as a guest for the event. This is somewhere in between Facebook and Eyes Wide Shut. Then, a request for my home address, to which was mailed a package containing an envelope with a paper invitation, and also a sparsely decorated white t-shirt, which I was required to save for the party two months later and bring with me to gain admittance. Finally, a bag of tart banana candies finished the package.
Further inspection revealed that the event was on a Sunday night (no night is safe from parties!) at a secret location to be given to us later. Keep in mind that I dont know the person behind the party, nor the other guests, and now also not the location. Still later I discovered by email invitation that the event would be in a warehouse in a not-so-savory part of Washington, DC and that we MUST bring our white t-shirts because wed be doing something with them on the night of the event.
When the day of the event came, I really couldn’t stand not knowing anything! I texted the contacts I had for the event to ask questions, but they revealed little. I emailed some socialite friends to try to figure out who else would be there we knew it would be all tastemakers of different sorts, but no one really knew who was going, which was exciting. I used Google Maps to investigate the location of the warehouse. I stressed about what one wears to such events (I think I chose well!).
Even the party itself was very engaging. An artist created a mural from our white t-shirts that we used for entry right in front of our eyes. An old-fashioned photo booth let us take pictures with each other, and the photo strips had (what else?) a Crooked Monkey logo on them. Even the name of the event Photoshoot at the Warehouse gave the party an active quality.
Do you detect a pattern here? Crooked Monkey kept busy, elite attendees who get invited to tons of events mentally engaged with their event for weeks. They made us part of telling their story. They got us to talk about their brand before, during, and after the event. And in the end, the event delivered with a cool venue, outstanding bar, fun atmosphere, and lots of fashion.
Photoshoot at the Warehouse is a great example of putting the public back in public relations and brand engagement. How great? Im writing an entire post about them – and I dont even like wearing t-shirts!
We haven't had a chance to write the follow up blog to the Photoshoot at the Warehouse, but I wanted to give a small glimpse of the night. We transformed a beat up warehouse in Chinatown into an impressive lounge--with lighting (pictured above), a full bar, a kicking DJ and a live graffiti artist. Everyone who attended said they were blown away with the ambiance--that this was probably the coolest party they've been to this year. Nice! Our 6 weeks of work paid off! On Monday we'll post a blog with all the details. In the meantime read up on the press that we got for the T-shirt launch party:
6 weeks into the making and 100 invites later, the day has finally arrived. We've been preparing the warehouse this whole weekend--bringing in lighting, furniture, and toilet paper.
The invitation went out on August 17th--people were informed of the party via a t-shirt mailed to them in a black envelope. Since then we have sent out three emails: giving the address of the party, instructions on what to do with the t-shirt and regretfully informing people that there would be no plus 1s.
There will be lots of surprises, good times and brand new t-shirts. So sit back, relax and read people's live tweets about the party.
We've spoken a little bit about our Photoshoot at the Warehouse party, but not too much about it. Mostly because were not allowed to. It's a small venue--it only fits 100 people--and the guest list is sealed. It's next Sunday night, from 9-12Pm.
We're pulling out all the stops for this party. The invite was sent out in a black envelope, with banana candy, and a t-shirt as the formal invitation. Guests will bring the t-shirt to the party and be met with a myriad of surprises. We have an awesome DJ lined up--one of DC's best. Open bar is being provided by Emperor Vodka and Magic Hat. The Bar tenders are being supplied by Mie N Yu Restaurant. The photobooth, which will provide endless entertainment and awesome pics with Crooked monkey t-shirts, is provided by PoshBooth in DC.
The surprises and good times will be documented and published on the blog on September 14th. We're super excited for bringing Crooked Monkey's new graphic t-shirts and classic humor t-shirts to DC's finest.
We're gearing up for the launch of our graphic t-shirts, with a "Photoshoot at the Warehouse" in Washington DC, mid-September.
It's going to be as much a launch of our graphic line as a celebration of how cool DC has gotten. Over the last few years I've written a lot about DC--how it's become hipper and funner everyday. It's about to get a lot cooler.
The party, featuring our t-shirts and all that DC has to offer--from Emperor Vodka to Mi n Yu in Georgetown to graffiti artists--will be a true testament to Crooked Monkey's roots in Washington DC. Now all we need is a professional sports team that can win games.
Details about the party--including the invitations, timelines and guests--will be on the blog throughout the month.
We did it. We reached 1,300 facebook fans. We dedicated today to the 1,300th fan. I believe it was a dog (no joke) by the name of Amos Cogan. I wish it would've been a monkey, but we'll take a dog.
Speaking of which, we had always said that when we made it, we'd buy a monkey for the office. But we need a milestone to set for this goal. Any suggestions?
We finally have the audio clip from the Ryan Seacrest show. And we finally made our first Crooked Monkey YouTube video. It took us a little bit of time--we wanted to make sure YouTube was a safe place and that it was here to stay. Next we'll launch a "website." (Just kidding we already have one).
Anyways, Manny from the On Air show with Ryan Seacrest talks about our Thats How I roll t-shirt and our I recycle boys t-shirt. This was aired on April 23rd on Kiss FM in LA. Pretty cool, hunh? Those lucky winners got free Crooked Monkey t-shirts. We'll be coming out with a bunch of new YouTube videos this summer. Kind of funny that it took us 3 years until we uploaded our first video.
Four years ago, on May 4th 2005, Crooked Monkey launched at a bar in College Park called Cornerstone. The world was without Crooked Monkey. And having a "monkey on your back" meant something totally different.
Four years ago I was a senior at the University of Maryland and my former business partner had just graduated from the University of Pennsylvania. We drove around town selling shirts out of the back of a Honda Civic. And we were the only company innovative enough to use Facebook for business purposes--launching "Crooked Monkey hotties" groups on 20 different college campuses. Four years ago, Seventeen magazine had to use other t-shirt vendors and were forced to fill their pages with less awesome t-shirts. Ryan Seacrest had to look elsewhere for funny t-shirts. And Miley Cyrus, well Miley wasn't around back then.
A lots happened since we started four years ago. We've accomplished so much and we're extremely grateful for the opportunity to be able to provide you guys with funny t-shirts and cool graphic shirts. There's a lot still to come in the years ahead--so stick with us!Thanks to everyone for allowing us to grow and for appreciating our sense of humor. And above all, for giving us the ability to keep on Livin' the Dream.
We're going to run a 20% sale for the week as a small thank you. But the real thank you, is that we promise you will love us, and our shirts, even more this year.
This is actually the 206th blog post, but who's counting?
To celebrate our 100th blog post we wrote an awesome post, but promised a few things that we didn't follow through on. This blog won't be as good as that one, but it will follow through on all those empty promises. Specifically rating our top blogs.
If you notice, on the bottom of all of our blogs, we assign different labels to make it easier for our readers to search through our different topics/subjects. And to direct readers to our favorite blogs, we invented a label entitled "top blog posts" that we give to posts we deem hilarious. Its a bit presumptuous, considering the fact that we assign that label as its published, before receiving any feedback or before anyone's even read the blog. But I guess we really only make jokes that make us laugh anyways.
So here's the Top 10+1 list. We chose funny blog posts, informative blog posts, milestones in our history, and sometimes politically inspired posts. And of course all of our posts have a deep connection to our Funny T-shirts.
(P.S. The photo above is a picture of cupcakes that were made by Julia for my birthday last month. If you look closely, you'll notice that the cupcakes are monkeys. Amazing. Look out for her new cupcake shop coming to DC in 2011.)
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