Our Chicago office founder and MD recently turned 39 again, and in honor of his birthday, his loyal troops wanted to find a cool little t-shirt store and print up a customized tee (”39 4Eva”). It’s not too hard in Chicago (or any big city) to find these niche type boutiques, and none really seemed to stand out until they found the T-Shirt Deli.
One thing that inspires us at Egg is finding brands that really pay attention to their story. In order to be able to do that, they have to be obsessive about the details. The T-Shirt Deli’s story is about mimicking the best delis, offering t-shirt aficionados as many fonts as cheeses as well as the promise of something fresh and totally unique.
There are two elements of the story that they deliver so well. One virtual, one real world.
First their T-Shirts are served up wrapped sugmarine/hoagie/hero style in butcher’s paper with the packaging held together with ironically contradictory stickers like “lean ham and kosher meat”. Great little details that show they care. Second, on their website the navigation looks like an old plastic deli board complete with miscolored letters and their mailing list invitation is a deli “take a ticket” stub. Nice little touches like this make a difference and suggest that if they care enough about these details, then their product will be similarly high quality.
August 6th, 2009 at 3:43 pm
Excellent “case study”!! As you eluded to, I think the real strategic genius here is in their recognition that the concept of custom t-shirts alone won’t likely resonate with people. Into what might seem a stale, commoditized and/or uninteresting space to the consumer, they’ve ridden in on an already established mental ladder rung in the heads of their customers. Their ability to execute (and their commitment to detail in this capacity) is what earns them the right to occupy that rung… And with that, they stand out as a true brand within their industry.