Wow – this is amazing stuff.

Over the years we’ve found that T-Shirt and gift design prove an amazing barometer of public opinion, and provide a great gauge to what people are thinking about. Based on the new product designs we’ve seen on CafePress over the past few days people have just one thing on their mind – the Presidential elections. More specifically – Vice Presidential picks!

As we said in a post a few days ago, current news often inspires people to create new products – and what we’ve seen so far with VP related merchandise is truly amazing!

This morning Senator McCain announced that Sarah Palin, Governor of Alaska, would join his bid for the Whitehouse as the Vice Presidential nominee. This took quite a few people by surprise; rumor had it that the most likely candidates were Mitt Romney, Tim Pawlenty, Tom Ridge and Joseph Lieberman.

When we walked in the door this morning we had a total of 2,310 products supporting a McCain Palin ticket – now, just a few hours later, that number has jumped to 9,400. The numbers grow by the minute – for the latest designs click here.

A few days ago we reported the phenomenon we saw after Barack Obama announced Joe Biden as his running mate. Before the announcement there were just 6,800 designs supporting the Obama/Biden ticket, and within 48 hours the number had skyrocketed to over 45,000. As of right now that number has hit meteoric heights with over 107,000 products available. These numbers also grow by the minute – see the latest here.

As the designs keep rolling in we remain glued to our seats wondering what new design will pop up and make us smile, cringe, think, or laugh out loud…

At least that’s what I’ll be able to say in another 3 weeks!

Yes I have joined the push-up craze started by, Steve Speirs and his “one hundred push ups” website. Since starting his site a few months ago, he has been featured in numerous blogs, newspapers and a few tv spots. Steve, great job!

Well, I took the challenge and have seen some great improvement in my first 3 weeks! Ok, I’ve been doing it for 5 weeks now but I got stuck on week 3 and had to repeat one day several times . I’m back on track to my 100 (week 4 day 2 today and my arms are tired)!

I can’t wait to post this badge on my personal website, and I have reserved my purchase of the “Doing The Hundred Organic Cotton Tee ($17.99)” as a reward for finally hitting the mark! (who knows, maybe I’ll post a YouTube video too!)

I would love to hear if anyone else has taken the challenge and how it is going! Come on! Flex those muscles!

Last Saturday morning Democratic Presidential hopeful Barack Obama officially announced his running mate for the 2008 presidential election – Senator Joe Biden of Delaware.

News like this creates quite a buzz within the walls of CafePress – it perks our ears up and makes us wonder what kind of amazing designs are our Shopkeepers will create. On Monday I overheard another presser comment “I can’t wait to see what our Shopkeepers come up with” – it’s a common thought at Cafepress. We’re constantly amazed and inspired by how our community reacts to news by creating timely, insightful and often funny merchandise.

Of course we haven’t been disappointed…

Before this announcement on Saturday our users had designed about 6,800 different “Obama Biden 2008” products. Within 24 hours of the announcement the community had designed over 20,000 new products, and as of today there are over 60,000 different products available. It looks as though Shopkeepers had a very busy weekend!

What you see here is just the beginning, new designs roll in by the minute, and you can see all 60,000-plus here.

BuzzCowboy has made her way back to camp.  But, as always, she has not forgotten her friends here at the CafePress blog…

Some of you might have noticed that the Olympics have been going on now for a couple weeks. There’s been some great highs – Phelps mania, the U.S. Mens’ Gymnastics snaking a surprise bronze, the U.S. women’s soccer team beating Brazil for the gold in a nailbiter of an overtime.

And of course, there’s been some controversy. The judging in gymnastics has been questioned; a Jamaican sprinter who ran so fast in the 100 that he celebrated before he crossed the finish line – and still broke the world record – has been taken to task for showboating. But one controversy in particular has stood out as a clear “This could have been easily avoided with the right t-shirt.” And that’s the Spanish basketball team’s promotional photo that was published in a Spanish newspaper.

This photo has been widely criticized as racist; the Spanish team explained that the photo wasn’t meant to be racist, but was instead meant to be a “wink” to their participation in Beijing.

And that’s where you realize that all of this could have been avoided if the Spanish basketball team had simply put on a Beijing t-shirt to give a nod to its participation in the games. In this case, a t-shirt’s worth avoiding 1 ill-considered hand gesture seen ’round the world.

Not to be outdone, the Spanish Tennis Federation posted a photo of their Olympians – making the identical gesture – on their official website. The photo was captioned “We’re ready for China.”

(Well, technically it was captioned “Estamos preparados para China.” Because, you know, they’re Spanish.)

And yet again, we find a t-shirt that would have served that occasion well.

What’s additionally interesting about the Spanish photo controversies: Madrid was on the short list to host the 2012 Olympics but lost out to London.

Madrid is now looking to host the 2016 or 2020 games; we might suggest that they send some nice t-shirts to the IOC as a gift to demonstrate their non-controversial enthusiasm toward this end.

Or at the very least that they avoid showing their zeal for the Olympics with hand gestures of any kind.

Four ears, have I

Perusing the pets section over at petsugar, I ran across this seemingly Photoshopped photo of a 4-eared cat named Yoda.

It’s not Photshopped, though.  Fox did a story on this fancy feline, who was born in a bar before Halloween, thus frightening away potential adopters who feared he might be a feline Damien.

Now, I have seen 6-toed cats.  And if you put “6 toed cat” into our Search engine you actually get a few results.  If you put in “polydactyl cat” you get 970 results.

But there is a zero result for “4 eared cat.”  And truly, it’s not every day that a real-life word/thing/saying lends a zero result in the CafePress Marketplace – 185 million products, and not a single one of them discusses the 4-eared cat phenomenon.

There are a couple results for mutant cat, and even a couple artist renderings of cats with multiple eyes.  But no multi-eared cats in that bunch.

And so I intended to congratulate Yoda on stumping not only his owners and vets and all the other cats with mutli-ear envy, but our Marketplace.  And that is indeed hard to do.

But then I decided to try “four eared cat.”  And wouldn’t you know it:

So there you go.  We really do have something for everyone.

At 11AM on August 20th (today), Rock the Vote is going to release 100 exclusive framed prints created, signed and numbered by Shepard Fairey.

So if you’re reading this and it’s after 11AM and you really want one, get on over to the shop before they sell out.

This limited edition art – also available on t-shirts, buttons and canine couture – was designed by Shepard Fairey exclusively for Rock the Vote in an effort to rally and encourage young people (and their dogs) to show their support this election season. All proceeds go to Rock the Vote.

Shepard Fairey has long been known for taking his art to the streets; this time, he’s taking it to your interior walls for charity. So if you want a cool piece of election history that helps fund a nonprofit that encourages young people to get out there and cast a vote, now’s your chance.

PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) is known for using controversy as a means to activism.  Sometimes it’s tomatoes; sometimes it’s video games.

This time it’s a t-shirt.

Some dog breeders have taken umbrage to PETA’s latest fashion statement, and they’ve called and emailed us to remove this shirt from the system.

We’re not going to remove the shirt, though.

CafePress is, at its core, about self-expression.  Our Terms of Service provide an outline as to what is and isn’t acceptable, and for the most part what is acceptable is expressing yourself in a way that doesn’t infringe on anybody’s rights.

User-generated commerce is just that: user-generated.  It was only a matter of time before bumper sticker activism made its way to the almighty t-shirt, and as of this writing there are 131 million t-shirts in our public catalogue, all created by people like you.  Our t-shirts are a reflection of the public discourse – and it’s not so surprising, really, that a country raised to think independently with the First Amendment as the backbone of our liberties has come to find the t-shirt a perfect canvas to state an opinion.

Thing is, when that many people voice an opinion there’s bound to be some disagreement.  So while breeders might not like the shirt above, I’m fairly certain that PETA supporters can find any number of shirts that they find equally offensive…

Thing is, the shirts aren’t the issue here.  The opinions on the shirts are the issue, and at the heart of t-shirt activism is the desire by the wearer to start a conversation – even if it’s an internal monologue on the part of a viewer.  People make and wear these shirts to raise awareness as to their opinions and causes, and without the shirt that person still has the same opinion.  You just might not know it by lookin’ at them.

So if you’re offended by somebody’s t-shirt, think of it as a chance to start a conversation about the issue at hand.  Or get out there and make your own t-shirt.  And if you’re not someone who likes getting it off your mind and onto your chest, no worries: you can always let the dog do the talking.*

 
*As far as we know, dressing your dog in a t-shirt is sanctioned by PETA.

We had the fantastic opportunity to do some down home cooking in our very own CafePress Kitchen with YouTube celebrity, Jolene Sugarbaker, the Trailer Park Queen!

Watch and learn how you too can cook peanut brittle in the microwave!

Thanks Jolene!

(See more episode, find out more about Jolene and see her fantastic trailer park designs at jolenesugarbaker.com)

He has a slogan.  He has a seal.  And now Obama has his own salute.

Some are calling it The Big-O, some are calling it The Obama Salute.  And some are calling it a gang symbol, a Nazi salute or a cult phenomenon.

Other critics are comparing it to a Star Trek salute made famous in “The Way to Eden” episode.  Hmm.

Whatever you want to call it, Rick Husong’s creation is raising eyebrows and headlines this week as people from both sides of the political fence voice opinions as to how they feel about it.

As of today, supporters of the salute can go hands-free with official Obama salute t-shirts, relieving salute-happy California drivers everywhere.  And if you like to keep your salutations private, you can always start a thongversation.

I spoke with the salute creator today, and he explained that he created the symbol out of a desire to do something inspirational because this is a “moving time in history,” and that after the last 8 “despicable” years he feels that it’s high time that America is inspired by politics.  He also, for the record, has not seen “The Way to Eden.”  But perhaps he might watch it now…

One interesting point in the debate behind the salute is that this kind of debate didn’t arise with Nixon’s double-handed V, Phil Jackson’s trademarked “threepeat,” or even George W. Bush’s prong-fingered inaugural contribution to the custom salute.

(Well, not this debate specifically, i.e. the debate of gangs and cults and Hitler and Star Trek.  Apparently the Norwegians misinterpreted the Bush salute as a nod to Satan, but hey.  That’s Norway.  Norway has, however, thus far not commented upon the Obama salute.)

Coincidentally, we do publish official Star Trek scripts.  So out of curiosity I took a look at the “The Way to Eden” script today to determine whether the salute in question was specified by the writers, and whether the Big-O might be one in the same.

It seems that this episode is about a bunch of space hippies cruising around the galaxy.  It would also seem that the symbol in question means “One,” which is interesting given that the script seems to call for an egg shape rather than an “O.”

Indeed, the Big-O may have been more appropriate for this episode than the actual symbol demonstrated.  And Leonard Nimoy seems to have taken some artistic liberties with an egg shape, unless Vulcan eggs are in fact triangular.  Hmm.

So: pop culture phenomenon?  Inspired contribution to political history?  Worrying evidence of despotism, a cult following or gang mentality?  Or a sign that Obama’s popularity reaches beyond our atmosphere and into the realm of intergalactic hippies?

That, readers, is for you to decide.  And some good homework to do on the matter is reading some “Star Trek.“  Or, if you prefer…