4 ms·

Show HN: Shirt URL – redirect your T-shirt to new content every day

18 points by cagriaksay 12y ago

vinod_s19 12y ago
The concept is nice. People at Product Hunt tend to appreciate these kind of things well. Hope you are on track with posting on PH as well.
- cagriaksay 12y ago
  Thanks! I'll post on PH this week.
cagriaksay 12y ago
This is a side project where we are trying a new concept and I would love some feedback. If you want to try it, use discount code 'HACKERNEWS'.
coderdude 12y ago
You might consider adding an option to display a QR code on the shirt instead of a URL. It would be really cool if you could also provide the ability to embed a logo/icon into the QR code (a la http://hackaday.com/2011/08/11/how-to-put-your-logo-in-a-qr-code/ http://hackaday.com/2011/08/11/how-to-put-your-logo-in-a-qr-...). Would be good for companies. I was a little disappointed that it isn't possible to order shirturl.com/1337 (minimum 5 characters). The 'Home' link in the footer is a 404 (https://shirturl.com/home https://shirturl.com/home). I think you should add a privacy policy. That said, good luck!
- cagriaksay 12y ago
  Thanks for taking the time. Logo in a QR code looks really cool. We decided to leave shorter codes for later but when we do open them, I'll reserve 1337 for you :) I’ll fix the home link right away and add a privacy policy. Thanks again!
humanarity 12y ago
I like that so much. Thanks, for bridging the gap between the online and the tangible. Feedback: find a way to market it really well, because it would be cool to see lots of people walking around with these. Also, maybe consider "couples shirts" as sometimes couples like to wear shirts that reference each other, a la the classic (?) "I'm with stupid" :) Conferences could be another big win for you -- bulk orders, and maybe you could "include" shirt urls atop another suppliers merch so everyone can be "URLing" their wares on their backs for all to look up. It would be cool to have a "shirt url" spotted-at Instagram feed, like, "post some pics of where you wearing your shirt url, <x> one gets free special edition shirt." x in superlative of your choice :) The name is really good. This whole thing made me smile so I'd say you're definitely onto something if you can make people feel good.
- cagriaksay 12y ago
  Wow, thanks for this :) This is exactly what we thought when we came up with the idea. These are great suggestions. We thought about the benefits at conferences but never thought of couple shirts or shirts referencing other shirts. There’s definitely room for creativity in this area. Thanks again!
  - deleted 12y ago
    [deleted]
aaronpk 12y ago
Consider using only the character set in NewBase60 to ensure all your URLs are print-safe and unambiguous. If you follow the NewBase60 algorithm it has built-in error correction (e.g. O is considered the same as 0) Character set: [0-9A-HJ-NP-Z_a-km-z] More background: http://ttk.me/w/NewBase60 http://ttk.me/w/NewBase60
- cagriaksay 12y ago
  I didn't know about NewBase60, so we only allow lowercase and numeric characters, and we picked a font where 0 is distinctly different. NewBase60 looks like a much better alternative, I'll look into it. Thanks :)
chatmasta 12y ago
Wow very cool idea. As others have mentioned QR code would be cool but maybe hard to accomplish with wrinkles in shirts, etc. If you can get it to work, a companion app would be cool. See someone wearing the shirt, scan the code, see the message. Of course with augmented reality it would be even cooler!
- cagriaksay 12y ago
  Thank you! We were hesitant to use QR codes because there is so much friction with its usage. But I love the augmented reality idea, using T-shirts would be a feasible way to make AR interactions work.
js4 12y ago
Cute idea. I like it. Dress up your page a bit and drop it on product hunt. Im sure people will love it on there.
- cagriaksay 12y ago
  Thank you. I'm on it :)
drvortex 12y ago
You need to printing QR codes for that, not just the plain text URL.
brackcurly 12y ago
I don't think QR-codes wouldn't be an improvement at all. They are ugly and akward. Instead consider printing the URL on the back as well.
- cagriaksay 12y ago
  I agree with you about the QR codes. We currently support printing on the back, but not on both sides.

18 points by cagriaksay 12y ago

The concept is nice. People at Product Hunt tend to appreciate these kind of things well. Hope you are on track with posting on PH as well.

cagriaksay 12y ago
Thanks! I'll post on PH this week.

cagriaksay 12y ago

This is a side project where we are trying a new concept and I would love some feedback. If you want to try it, use discount code 'HACKERNEWS'.

coderdude 12y ago

You might consider adding an option to display a QR code on the shirt instead of a URL. It would be really cool if you could also provide the ability to embed a logo/icon into the QR code (a la http://hackaday.com/2011/08/11/how-to-put-your-logo-in-a-qr-code/ http://hackaday.com/2011/08/11/how-to-put-your-logo-in-a-qr-...). Would be good for companies. I was a little disappointed that it isn't possible to order shirturl.com/1337 (minimum 5 characters). The 'Home' link in the footer is a 404 (https://shirturl.com/home https://shirturl.com/home). I think you should add a privacy policy. That said, good luck!

cagriaksay 12y ago
Thanks for taking the time. Logo in a QR code looks really cool. We decided to leave shorter codes for later but when we do open them, I'll reserve 1337 for you :) I’ll fix the home link right away and add a privacy policy. Thanks again!

humanarity 12y ago

I like that so much. Thanks, for bridging the gap between the online and the tangible. Feedback: find a way to market it really well, because it would be cool to see lots of people walking around with these. Also, maybe consider "couples shirts" as sometimes couples like to wear shirts that reference each other, a la the classic (?) "I'm with stupid" :) Conferences could be another big win for you -- bulk orders, and maybe you could "include" shirt urls atop another suppliers merch so everyone can be "URLing" their wares on their backs for all to look up. It would be cool to have a "shirt url" spotted-at Instagram feed, like, "post some pics of where you wearing your shirt url, <x> one gets free special edition shirt." x in superlative of your choice :) The name is really good. This whole thing made me smile so I'd say you're definitely onto something if you can make people feel good.

cagriaksay 12y ago
Wow, thanks for this :) This is exactly what we thought when we came up with the idea. These are great suggestions. We thought about the benefits at conferences but never thought of couple shirts or shirts referencing other shirts. There’s definitely room for creativity in this area. Thanks again!
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]

aaronpk 12y ago

Consider using only the character set in NewBase60 to ensure all your URLs are print-safe and unambiguous. If you follow the NewBase60 algorithm it has built-in error correction (e.g. O is considered the same as 0) Character set: [0-9A-HJ-NP-Z_a-km-z] More background: http://ttk.me/w/NewBase60 http://ttk.me/w/NewBase60

cagriaksay 12y ago
I didn't know about NewBase60, so we only allow lowercase and numeric characters, and we picked a font where 0 is distinctly different. NewBase60 looks like a much better alternative, I'll look into it. Thanks :)

chatmasta 12y ago

Wow very cool idea. As others have mentioned QR code would be cool but maybe hard to accomplish with wrinkles in shirts, etc. If you can get it to work, a companion app would be cool. See someone wearing the shirt, scan the code, see the message. Of course with augmented reality it would be even cooler!

cagriaksay 12y ago
Thank you! We were hesitant to use QR codes because there is so much friction with its usage. But I love the augmented reality idea, using T-shirts would be a feasible way to make AR interactions work.

js4 12y ago

Cute idea. I like it. Dress up your page a bit and drop it on product hunt. Im sure people will love it on there.

cagriaksay 12y ago
Thank you. I'm on it :)

drvortex 12y ago

You need to printing QR codes for that, not just the plain text URL.

brackcurly 12y ago

I don't think QR-codes wouldn't be an improvement at all. They are ugly and akward. Instead consider printing the URL on the back as well.

cagriaksay 12y ago
I agree with you about the QR codes. We currently support printing on the back, but not on both sides.