Shop Partner Interview with Matteo from Milktees

What inspired or motivated you to open a shop and how long have you run the shop?

I think that drawing t-shirts could be a great way to be brilliant.

I’ve always had a passion for customized tees, since I was a baby. I had fun picking up coloured pens and drawing on shirts, or printing my designs using rudimentary transfers that my mom fixed with the iron! 😀

Then, I started to work as a graphic designer and a whole world made of vectors and pixels appeared in front of me! So, I decided to open my Spreadshirt Milktees shop last September.

How did you learn about Spreadshirt?

There was a time in which I was searching for a way to start “my own label”. The step from Google to Spreadshirt was, effectively, quite short 😀

How much time do you invest in your shop? Do you create designs yourself?

Oh, being a freelance graphic designer gives you a lot of free time. I spend so much time drawing my graphics, but most of them quickly find their way in the bin.

I’m so strict with myself!

I use to create ’em by myself, but every design is “critiqued” by my sweet-half Irene <3

Where and how do you market your shop and make it well-known?

Obviously I use social networks. Having a lot of “friends” on Facebook is a great way to make your brand well-known to a great variety of people.

Sometimes I just publish my designs on the Spreadshirt page. I think that the ones who know the way it works like much of your work 😀

Who do you think your customers are?

I usually take a look to the stats of my Facebook page, and I see that the most of my customers are between 15-25. Yes, I think that I could define this as my “target”.

What advice would you give to a newcomer on Spreadshirt?

Well, I think it’s important to have cool ideas, but sometimes, to sell more, is necessary to stop thinking about what individuals want and start thinking about what the MASS adores.

There are some popular themes that a Spreadshirt shop partner MUST take into consideration to earn some money.

Another point to take care of is the price of products: everyone loves American Apparel tees, but if you want to have a make some money in the beginning, you have to offer some products that are less expensive.

These are just a pair of compromises I never gave a thought when I was starting out. 😀

What was your biggest achievement up to now (with or without Spreadshirt)?

Reading your e-mail where you asked me to have an interview was a great achievement 😀 But, seeing my brother Giulio growing up is an unbelievable satisfaction. Anyway, I think my greatest moment is yet to come 😀

Have you ever seen a stranger wearing one of your shirts?

Sticking to the point, just a few days ago I saw a guy I don’t’ know wearing my “cappuccino” t-shirt. It was amazing 😀

What do you do for a living, or better said: what do you do when you are not fiddling around with your shop?

I’m trying to become a graphic designer, so next year I’m gonna start a graduate program in Graphic Design in Milan. At the moment, I’m in the art director of a disco club. A kind of “event planner”, you could say.

If you were a t-shirt, what would you look like?

If I was one of mine, I think the “morning coffee shirt” (I am addicted to coffee 😀 ) or a 3-DEE one!

Which question have you always wanted to be asked and what is the answer?

“Hey, Matteo! Would you like to join our graphic staff?” “Yes, guys! I’d be honored” 😀