Hey hey hey, Whyville!!! Believe it or not, it is I, Bigfoot! And this time, the Times Editor has to publish my article, hehehe....
Did you ever have one of those days when the ocean wouldn't let you sleep, when the breakers cried out with might curls and a frothy, "Hang ten, big-footed buddy!"
Okay, so maybe that's just me and my surfing addiction. It doesn't hurt that the only surfing I've gotten done most of this summer has involved a mouse and a monitor. Whoo-hoo!
But everything has its upside! It was during one my intrepid internet interactions that I discovered the source and subject of this here article. A website wrapped in mystery and hope, an opportunity for you, for Whyville... it's people who make t-shirts!
Some of you may ask, but why can't I go to my local GAP or Limited Too or Hot Topic to pick up a cool Whyville tee? Well, big international companies like those require a huge investment from both companies before they start anything -- and a huge investment requires a huge promise of profits. To be honest, we have no real sense of how many citizens will buy how many shirts. The last thing we want to do is get a big company unhappy if we tell them to put a hundred shirts in every store and they only sell one each!!!
Here's where the magic of the web comes to our rescue: when you buy a t-shirt from us at our brand new store, a fresh shirt is taken off the rack, printed with the Whyville logo, and sent straight to your home! If a million people want them, CafePress (the company that produces this merchandise) will make a million shirts. If nobody does, then no shirts are made, and nobody loses.
Well, okay, if nobody buys a shirt (or one of the other dozen cool items we've got) after all my hard work, I'm kinda going to 'lose it', but that's beside the point. ;-) I know you folks are as excited about getting a real life piece of Whyville and helping our your town as I am to give y'all the chance.
So grab a board and let's boogie!
Some dedicated reporters may quickly observe that there are other shirts and items that we could sell through CafePress. Wondering why we aren't doing that, are you? Well, firstly, it takes a bit of work to draw up new logos for the merchandise, and if only a few folks buy anything, then that's a bit of work gone to waste; time better spent drawing up new stuff for the inside of Whyville. I'm sure you agree with that!
The other reason is, as Giggler01 suggested a while back, we'd like to run an artwork contest, which we'll add to new merchandise, from t-shirts to Frisbees(tm). In the longer term, we *really* want to make it so you can get a t-shirt (or whatever!) with your very own Whyville face on it! A creative parent suggested we include you *and* your friends in these pictures; that would be even cooler, I think. But what do you think? What would you like to be able to add to make the perfect Whyville shirts (and other stuff!) for you?
So, to sum up, here's what's happening:
- The new store is right here.
- Gear merchandise is like Why-Passes -- it helps Whyville pay the bills and buy more servers.
- Sometime soon we hope to have an art contest where citizens get to vote on the next shirt design!
- If we sell tons of shirts and other things, we may be able to convince a mall-type store to start selling stuff for us, too!
- There is also a newer layout for the Passes department, and very soon you'll be seeing a Kits department, where you'll be able to get your very own hands-on science kits.
