New TV And Film Apparel Possibilities At CafePress

I suspect that many of you have heard of CafePress.com at some point, but even if you have, you may not know about a lot of the newer possibilities. The internet standard for custom apparel and gifts for years, the site has branched out recently in terms of not only the offerings, but your ability to make your own items.

Not only are you now getting a lot more options for TV and Movie merchandise, like dozens of great designs for Kick-Ass apparel and Twilight merchandise, but many of the brands available let you create your own. ABC has some options available for fan-designed merchandise of all kinds, and I'm sure the ability to custom-design LOST T-shirts is leading the charge. On the other hand, what I really like about the availability of such a scheme is that Castle, a solid performer, but not quite the biggest thing on television, has more than 200 designs to choose from. It's a show with fans who are very serious about their devotion, and not only do they now have tons of great choices in showing their support, they can make their own.

I'm really hoping that people will take advantage of this, not just as a way to make their own fan products, or buy a wider variety of items than normal, but as a way to show support in the less obvious sense that a lot of sales and traffic will perhaps ring a bell. For example, the fate of Legend of the Seeker is looking grim right now, and not only is the Team Confessor T-shirt awesome, but a strong showing for such products ought to make it pretty clear that the show has serious fans.

I also hope that more shows and films take advantage of the idea, and while the whole thing may sound fine in theory, it doesn't hurt to give it a spin. It's easy enough to do. A lot of great ideas only involve text anyway, and if you read the official rules of creating fan products, you can use most logos and so on. The majority of the work is done for you, you just need the clever idea.

Just to figure out how simple it was, I whipped this up.

Smashing, yes?

Take a look at the possibilities, fine some great stuff for your favorite shows and films, and take a crack at your own theories for showing support.

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About Marc Eastman

Marc Eastman is the owner and operator of Are You Screening? and has been writing film reviews for over a decade, and several branches of the internet's film review world have seen his name. His reviews have brought him personal praise from the director of a major motion picture, and have been used as required reading in a course at a major University. These priceless rewards, along with just bags of cash, keep him from straying from freelance writing. He is also a member of The Broadcast Film Critics Association and The Broadcast Television Journalists Association.

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