Testing at StumbleUpon

StumbleUpon is a site where you can download a toolbar for websurfing. With each click, the StumbleUpon toolbar serves you up a webpage based on your interests and the recommendations of other stumblers.

You can rate each page "thumbs up" or "thumbs down" and Stumbleupon learns what you like.

Every sixth webpage is sponsored. That is, an advertiser has paid US$0.05 to Stumbleupon to show that page to you. That's where we come in.

As an advertiser we can see a report of how many people rated our site thumbs up or down. That's a marvellous test since it's a completely impartial rating of our site. Advertisers can target by gender, age, country and subject category.

A few months ago I advertised the old GMtee website to 2,000 people worldwide aged 18-55 and interested in fashion. A 58% majority gave us the thumbs up.

I just repeated the same test for our new website and I am pleased to report that we are now rated thumbs up by an enthusiastic 75%. That's pretty good, I think. Now I'm starting some new experiments with variations on gender and country.

If you are a stumbler and a fan of GMtee, take a moment to give us the thumbs up!

...And In With The New!

It's up! The new GMtee website is live!

Out With The Old...

It's a big day at GMtee. Our old site is gone forever.

Later today you'll see a new site with a new look and a new collection. (Yes, the word "new" features in our marketing plans.) New shirts with new designs, new styles, new fits, a new direction.

I will have much to write about here and I might even have a few readers in future. I'll be reporting on our advertising efforts and results, both for the new website and this blog. Our marketing has been very minimal in recent months but now we will be spending some advertising dollars at Stumbleupon, Shopping.com and Facebook for instance. More about that later.

We'll operate the new site quietly for a few days to check that it's working properly and then build up our marketing into the new year. It should be an exciting time for GMtee.

For now, it's out with the old...

Dear Departed Design Game

In a sombre ceremony this morning we paid our last respects to the GMtee Design Game May it rest in peace.

The Design Game served us well for many years. Every week we displayed twelve draft shirt designs and asked players to vote for two. Any player who correctly selected the two most popular designs that week won a US$20.00 credit for their next purchase. Hundreds of people played and won. Many players were Canadian, due to the promotion of our game at a popular Canadian website devoted to winning free stuff.

The results of the game helped us decide which designs were most likely to be successful. And it gave our customers a chance to influence our creative direction.

But by this time next week you will see our new and improved GMtee website. As we soar onwards and upwards, sometimes painful decisions have to be made about what to leave behind. The ruthless hand of the editor sweeps out the old and brings in the new. Fashion demands constant renewal!

As we mourn the passing of the Design Game, we eagerly anticipate the rebirth of GMtee. Coming soon to a blog near you.

It's later than you think!

Hark! The herald angels sing,
Soon it will be last mailing!


The season of giving is almost upon us and it's time to alert you to the last mailing days for Christmas from Hong Kong. According to the wonderfully efficient Hongkong Post, airmail packages must be mailed before these dates if they are to reach their destinations before the holidays:


8.12.2007 UK
10.12.2007 USA
11.12.2007 Canada
12.12.2007 Australia, New Zealand
14.12.2007 Singapore, France
15.12.2007 Netherlands, Spain


GMtee sends out packages by express airmail, not ordinary airmail, so that would improve delivery time by a day or two. If you are willing to pay a much higher shipping charge, we can send your purchase by international courier which guarantees delivery in four working days (e-mail us for these rates).


Please don't leave your Christmas shopping to the last minute. Take care of it now. You know it makes sense!

Top Ten Inspirational Asian Quotes

Here's my top ten inspirational Asian quotes:

1) Do not impose on others what you yourself do not desire.

2) Hold faithfulness and sincerity as first principles.

3) Enjoy yourself. It’s later than you think.

4) Sow much, reap much; sow little, reap little.

5) He who sacrifices his conscience to ambition burns a picture to obtain the ashes.

6) Everything has beauty but not everyone sees it.

7) The gem cannot be polished without friction, nor man perfected without trials.

8) If we don’t change the direction we are going, we are likely to end up where we are heading.

9) He who conquers himself is the mightiest warrior.

10) Mastering others requires force; Mastering the self requires enlightenment.

I wonder if you have any others that you would add? Which is your favourite?

The GMtee philosophy

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step and GMtee took it’s first step in May 2003. We have come a long way and we know that the journey to come is much longer still. We’re building Asia’s next great fashion brand!

GMtee found inspiration in our hometown of Hong Kong, this sophisticated and vibrant East-meets-West city in the Pearl River estuary of southern China. We make “Inspirational Asian Fashion” that aims to bring a taste of ancient eastern cultures to the west.

The fashion comes first. Our shirts are beautiful and manufactured to the very highest standards. But it’s the Asian inspiration that makes each limited edition GMtee so unique and meaningful.

Despite Hong Kong’s breathtaking modernity, Confucian values still underpin our society and guide our philosophy at GMtee. We live by Confucius’ sage advice: “Do not impose on others what you do not desire for yourself.”

Many thousands of inspired fashionistas have GMtee shirts in their wardrobes and we are forever grateful to the loyal customers who have journeyed with us this far. We wouldn’t have made it without you.

Celestial's heavenly Asian dub

Click on the Play Music link at GMtee home page to treat your ears to the mystical sounds of Asian dub by Celestial. Celestial has released four albums since 1992, the latest of which is "Electric Road".

Celestial is a Hong Kong based collective led by our friend Pete. He describes the music as "a laid-back mix of Asian sounds over an empyreal electronic dubscape".

Here's what the music press has to say:

Asia's "answer to Massive Attack".

"...a kind of aural Shangri-La."

"...like taking a mini-vacation to faraway and exotic destinations, and having samples of every great song rolled into one...Irish...Thai...Nepalese with reggae B-side dub rhythms and blended with sitars, erhus and even harmonicas! If you're a fan of dub then you'll love Celestial..."

Well, we love Celestial so much that we designed a special edition T-shirt to celebrate the release of their third album, Hong Kong Dub Station.

G.O.D. busted for triad T-shirts!

The South China Morning Post (Nov. 2nd) leads with the story of Hong Kong police busting local lifestyle chain G.O.D (Goods Of Desire) for selling T-shirts emblazoned with the Chinese characters for 14K.


The problem is that the 14K is a major triad society. Anyone found in possession of any symbol relating to a triad breaks Hong Kong law.


You can't buy publicity like that! Perhaps GMtee should design something special for the Wo Shing Wo or Sun Yee On.


We already have one shirt inspired by the tattoos of Tokyo street gangs, our Tokyo Tribes T-shirt.

Perhaps we should turn ourselves in to the authorities in a similar blaze of publicity!

The three greatest eBay feedbacks ever

If you have ever bought or sold at eBay, you will be familiar with their feedback system.

Feedback comments can be a wonderful source of entertainment. If you have several days to spare, you should read this long-running thread from the eBay Feedback discussion board.


For me there are three stand-out classics. Here they are in no particular order:



Neg left by Buyer: Very Bad, Sick Seller! No credit and raise S/H after the end of bidding!

Reply by Seller: TotalPsycho!EmailedMePicturesOfDeadBabiesinSoup!Reported2AmnestyIntl SO SCARY!


This one was left for a seller who sells teeth-whitening trays and gel:

Neg left by Buyer: how do you expect me to endure the pain of trimming my own gumlines!!

Reply by Seller: HHEELLLLOO!! Trim the TRAYS to the gumline... NOT YOUR OWN GUMS!!! WOW!!!!!!!!

This third one I'm paraphrasing from memory, since I can find no trace of the original feedback:

Pos left by buyer: Great service, fast shipping, cool item. Very pleased, highly recommended!

Reply by seller: Yes, but don't plug it in or KA-PHUCKING-BOOM!!!

And finally, here's the infamous eBay kettle photo. Look closely. Eeeeewwwwwww!

GMtee Babe of the Month

October's GMtee Babe of the Month is a Virginian!

A few weeks ago, we invited you to send us your photographs wearing your GMtee shirt. We were thinking of starting a gallery. We'd love it if you sent us your pics.

Scott Murray of Harrisonburg, Virginia ("The Friendly City"), who recently bought our Red Tiger T-shirt and Tao T-shirt, overcame his shyness to send us this:

Scott says "Here's a picture of me in my GMtee getting ready to perform an evening of acoustic music in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia!"

I replied to ask permission to use the image here and assured Scott that we would protect his privacy. But happily it turns out that Scott is not seeking a life of anonymity.

"Babe of the month!!! I am truly honored!! You can certainly use my name if you'd like. (Scott Christopher Murray) I received a grammy nomination back in 2000 for "contemporary folk album of the year" and they can find my music just by doing a search on my name.

I'm just tickled pink to be GMtee Babe of the Month!!"

Thanks Scott :)

Writer's block, here's a pic instead

Who would have thought it would be so difficult to knock out a new post once a week?

But when all else fails, I can always give you a picture...

SAMURAI TEDDY bear blue V-neck T-shirt tee new M Medium

Aaaawwwwww! Isn't he just the cutest thing you ever saw? Samurai Teddy - when an ordinary teddy just isn't enough.

It's official...

This blog is not just a place to communicate with our buyers. We believe that "Genuine GMtee" can be useful in improving our search engine results. In particular we think it's useful to create links to our site, with relevant anchor text.

Here's an example: Cool Asian dragon design T-shirts

In a few days the search engines will find that link and register that http://www.gmtee.com/ is a place to find cool asian dragon design T-shirts.

In idle moments I sometimes make searches at Google, Yahoo and MSN to see how we're performing. Here are some results today:

Search term "Asian T-shirts"

Google: results 1 and 2 (of 12.1m) GMtee website
Yahoo: result 8 (of 5.02m) GMtee ebay store
MSN: results 4 and 5 (of 2.57m) GMtee website and eBay store

Search term: "designer T-shirts"

Google: result 1 (of 2.52m) GMtee website
Yahoo: result 4 (of 14.3m) GMtee eBay store
MSN: not on first page (22.45m)

Isn't it interesting that Google prefers the GMtee website and Yahoo likes the GMtee eBay store? And MSN seems to rate the two equally. It goes to show that the major search engines do offer distinct results. It's another great reason to maintain an eBay store in addition to the website.

So there it is, it's official. For designer Asian T-shirts, according to a scientifically proven mathematical algorithm devised by leading internet boffins at Google, GMtee is number one in the known world. True.

About discharge prints

A primary consideration with new designs is which kind of inks to use. Nobody wants to wear a shirt that's heavy with multiple layers of rubbery ink, so our large prints are often created using water-based inks. This results in a soft print that still allows the fabric to breathe.

We've learned to avoid plastisol inks for large prints. I must congratulate the production manager at the factory, who brings so much knowledge and experience to the production process and gets so little credit! I don't even know his name, but he is greatly responsible for our outstanding product quality.

We've used a new printing technique (new to us at GMtee, that is!) on a couple of shirts. The technical name is discharge printing, but that seems such an unattractive term that we prefer to call it bleach printing.

The screen print is achieved not by adding ink to the fabric, but by discharging dye from the fabric to leave the colour of the natural cotton.

This is GMtee's new "Samurai and Serpent" T-shirt in long sleeves with a crew neck:




It's a spectacular image of samurai Saginoike Heikuro battling with a giant serpent, and I think it's one of our nicest shirts. I love wearing it. But perhaps the coolest thing about this shirt is that it has no ink on it.

RONIN manga samurai Japanese white crew neck T-shirt

I know, it's a cheap trick to stuff the title with keywords.

This is "Ronin" in short sleeves with crew neck:

Ronin is a new version of a shirt called "Shuriken Attack" which has been very popular. It comes in a choice of short or long sleeve, crew neck or henley collar.

Here's the detail at the back of the neck:

The kanji characters mean "Ronin" which was the term used for a samurai without a master, a "wave man" or rudderless wanderer. The main graphic depicts Itto Ogami, the lone wolf assassin. Nice shirt.

Check it out at eBay: RONIN manga samurai Japanese white crew neck T-shirt

Oops! There I go with the keywords again! I have no shame.

(Not a) SALE 30% OFF!

We've quietly marked down some prices at GMtee.

It's not a sale, because we're too classy to have a sale. Haha. It's just that we're going to be editing out some old designs as we introduce our newest collection and update the site.

It's difficult to choose which designs to remove from the site. Some are old favourites that have nearly sold out, others were overstocked (ouch!). In future these T-shirts will live here in our eBay store.

They've been discounted by 30%. But it's not a sale :)

Nine Dragons of Kowloon

The most popular design we ever made was Dragons Inside. So naturally dickie did two new versions in our new collection.

This beautiful shirt is named Nine Dragons, for the nine hills of Kowloon. It's the long sleeve version with henley collar. Like all our new shirts, it's available with a choice of short or long sleeves and a choice of crew neck or henley collar.

There's another version too, with a purple print on a khaki shirt.

You can buy these new shirts now in our eBay store.

You wouldn't ask Armani

Customers ask us sometimes if we can print them a custom shirt.

This is what I don't say: "Who do you think we are? Do you think that GMtee buys blank shirts and prints them to order in our back room? You wouldn't ask Armani to knock you up a special shirt, would you?"

Of course I reply politely. The rules of customer service forbid me from speaking my mind. I explain that GMtee designs and retails but we do not manufacture.

It's our fault. Apparently GMtee looks like a shop that prints up shirts and flogs them on the internet.

And that's why we're investing time and money in a new look for our website.

Never mind the website, check out eBay

I'm frustrated that we have a sensational new collection of shirts in our warehouse, but we're far behind schedule in our website update.

It could be a couple of months yet before we complete the work. I'm resisting the temptation to offer excuses.

At times like this, I remember why we have an eBay store.

Right now our eBay store is a great fallback. Even though it will be some time before the GMtee website is updated, I am already listing the new collection at eBay. So you can buy new shirts now at the GMtee eBay store .

I'm not even halfway finished yet, so you'll continue to see new additions over the next week or two. It's pre-launch, until the website is done.

Before we begin

There are many reasons for setting out to write for you. But don't think that I will list them all in this post; that could be material for at least a dozen future posts. I'm not going to blurt it all out at once. A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.

I hereby swear to write a new post at least once a week. The least you can do is click on "Add to Favorites".

Sometime in the next few weeks we will customise the look of this page to fit with a new look at GMtee. I plan to integrate "Genuine GMtee" into the website, as if it were part of the site. In the meantime, we're in beta phase!

"Genuine GMtee" has a nice ring to it, don't you think, for the name of this blog? Or do you have a better idea for a name? I feel a marketing promotion coming on. I'd better go lie down until the feeling passes.

Let's keep in touch

Let's start with an introduction: I'm Don and I'm one of the two partners at GMtee. We're in Hong Kong and we design and retail fashion T-shirts at www.gmtee.com

My partner is dickie (with a small d), who's the creative genius. I do all the dirty work. We've been friends for many years and we started GMtee back in 2003. We've come a long way, but we have much further still to go.

We're creating this new blog to be a feature of our website. Yes, it's a commercial blog. I'll be writing mostly about the trials and tribulations of building our brand. I hope that our customers (that's you) will enjoy checking in to find out what we're doing, and that we will use this blog to keep in touch with each other.

I'm looking forward to reading your comments, positive or negative, and having a real dialogue with the thousands of happy people who already have a GMtee in their wardrobe. Thanks for wearing our shirts!