I'm back. It was a trip for the ages. A little bit of business a lot of pleasure.

First day, I got in and headed straight to a meeting with Jay from Kitson Men's. It's always good to check out that store for new trends and see how our shirts are selling. V necks, V necks and more V Necks. Thats what I saw. We'll be coming out with some of our very own V necks soon. After the meeting I met up with my friend David (he will be featured in this post quite prominently) and we went out to a bonfire on the beach. We raged til midnight which doesn't sound too late, but LA closes real early, and I woke up at 4 AM that day to catch my plane.Second day was full of meetings. Met up with our showroom, our newest designer, our production manager, our LA screen printer, and one of our biggest accounts. All the meetings went better than planned. We got the biggest orders ever from that retail store, and the rest of the meetings were fantastic. At the end of the day, we made some time for the required Baywatch photoshoot in Venice Beach (above).

That night was pretty fantastic too. David and I met up with Sasa--the guy who put the Maxim party together. We went to the STK steakhouse 1 year anniversary. For those of you who were following my updates on Twitter, you'd know that I ran into Kim Kardashian (great ass), David Spade (to whom I asked, "Do you know where the weight room is?"), and Courtney Cox (still looks good).

Next day I met with the guys over at the Ryan Seacrest Show. We sat down for lunch to plan the User Generated contest we'll be doing with the Ryan Seacrest show. Details to follow.

That night the Maxim Hot 100 party went down. Some of the most gorgeous women in the world descended unto the Santa Monica Airport Hanger. And Ari Gold (Jeremy Piven), two cell phones in hand, showed up. Open Bar, Terrell Owens, Popcorn, Heidi Montag, Ferris Wheel, bottles and models. Awesome awesome night. You should've been there.I'm wearing our Coke Healthier than Crack T-shirt.

Labels: a day in the life, Ari Gold, Company Pictures, Kitsons, Life stories, los angeles, Maxim, party, retail, Ryan Seacrest, sales, Sales trips, showroom, top blog posts, v necks

As a wholesaler of funny t-shirts, Crooked Monkey has always found creative ways to get our t-shirts into the hands of the end consumer (that's you!).

In the beginning we used to drive around in our Honda Civic--making appointments and delivering shirts on site. Then we started attending tradeshows--really launching our brand further. We started to get recognized at these tradeshows and attending more and more of them. At the height of our love of tradeshows, we probably attended 20 shows/year. Buyers from retail stores all over the country, and the world, came to check out our newest lines and see what new wholesale opportunities were available for them.

Then came the recession. Buyers realized that a trip to Las Vegas, with all the associated costs, was just not in the cards, baby. They decided, and rightfully so, that they'd rather use their money on clothing, and not on frivolous trips. By August of 2008, we decided that Crooked Monkey would significantly reduce its presence at tradeshows and increase its direct contact with stores--either thru road trips (returning to the glory days), phone calls, emails, and other methods.

It is with a bitter sweet feeling that I report that we made the right decision. The Tradeshow is dead. They have become a waste of time. Crooked Monkey has managed to reduce its presence at shows, while still growing during this great recession--proof that quality and awesomeness at the right price is priceless.

Here's one other issue that really irks me about tradeshows. The slowing economy causes less retailers to attend tradeshows. Meaning that wholesalers, like Crooked Monkey, sell less clothes at these shows. The logical progression would be that Tradeshows should drop the price of their shows and offer incentives--yet they continue to charge astronomical prices. How does that make any sense? Not a sermon, just a thought.

Oh and the picture below is from our first ever tradeshow 3 years ago! That's Jon, Della and Me.

Labels: About us, Boutiques, not a sermon just a thought, Office Stories, recession, reflections, retail, ruminations, Tradeshows, wholesale

Crooked Monkey is run by under 30 year olds, so sometimes, shady retailers like to think they can take advantage of us. It's time to think again.

A store that carries our shirts on the East Coast, (We're going to keep the name under wraps for the time being) buys a lot of our shirts. They've been buying our shirts for over 3 years now, but have only been paying for our shirts for 2.5 years. Jerks.

For some reason, they decided not to pay invoices from April of 2007 (2 years ago) until February of 2008. Before, and since, they have paid all their invoices (always late and never without incident, but at least they paid). During that span, they decided to take a break from paying for the shirts we sent. I believe that's called stealing.

Over the last two years we have sent them countless notices, invoices, and statements. In return they have avoided phone calls, not responded to emails and played dumb.

Two months ago we decided to take it to another level and demand payment. They then told us that they disputed the invoices, "I totally dispute all about 2007 story. and i will not even look at it."

In comes our legal team.

Here's an excerpt from the letter, "Should we fail to receive payment in full within thirty (30) days, we will be proceeding with legal action which will not only mandate interest and attorney’s fees, but the cost of enrolling the Judgment in New York."

Take that, assholes.

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Labels: bill collection, collection, History, Lawyers, Legal, Office Stories, retail, top blog posts