Selling Hamb stuff online is not the same as Ed Roth hawking merchandise in the back corner of a coliseum in nowhere USA. This is today, and is current, not a warn out rod hero in his later years. Keep the Hamb stuff coming.
Well,good perspective only comes from time in!,,Having before time good,is often not even close to filled out. Always find time to polish something! Always look for some up side,when it seems every thing looks done or down.. Me at 84,for sure sees more then I knew younger. Down,is I can't strip any more,it comes out as barbwire,but I still draw,just with some extra flairs not planed. I'm still playing with my old hotrod n helping out a few other rodders! The story joke* is still "976-ASK-DANA*",an find it fun. We're never too old for hotrod stuff,just hearing new storys can be LOL. Thanks many times over ,for big help of holding things more too-gether then our world would be !!
Thank you for the reminder that I need to come up with a T-shirt design for the upcoming 2025 car club shirt.
Loved the article. Never met Roth - my loss - Maybe he was really enjoying selling his stuff at car shows, that was a big part of his life after all. I was at the clinic for a blood sample and saw this quote , asked nurse if I could photograph it she said yes.
Great looking shirt, just ordered a 2X. Hope it fits? Normally need Fat Boy 3X. Couldn't resist, normally fuck around and miss out. Thanks Ryan.
I saw Bo Diddley live at a local swap meet that cost less than a dollar to enter. You know what? I enjoyed the show out there on a summer afternoon, all of us on the flat asphalt with the stripes. I kept looking around and thinking this isn't right, but the small crowd and him were connecting and I didn't get another chance to see him locally. I can't speak to his frame of mind, but he seemed to be having a bit of fun and put on a good show. It meant a lot to me to be able to see him perform.
I’ve never hired anyone to run a booth at a car show. If I’m selling something, I figure it’s my job to stand there and bark like a sideshow hustler. The problem, of course, is that I hate crowds. Always have. And if you hate crowds, car shows are hell on earth—hot asphalt, sweaty bodies, and the unshakable smell of regret. So, selling online it is. Which works—mostly. But there’s a catch: I like to get weird with my merch. Experimental. Tangential. And the internet is a piss-poor medium for things that need to be seen, touched, and felt to be understood. Case in point: the baseball shirts I made last year. They were killer—seriously top-notch. Anyone who saw one in person wanted one immediately. But online? Crickets. They didn’t sell worth a damn because a photo can’t capture what makes them cool. And now I’m staring at this new brick-red shirt, knowing damn well it’ll probably suffer the same fate. Sometimes I think I should simplify. Stock two shirts, year-round. One, a general issue Jalopy Journal design. The other, a general issue HAMB shirt. That’s it—bare-bones, no frills. Then, once a year, I could indulge my urge for something wild and weird, just for the hell of it. A limited run, no expectations, no pressure... and not necessarily shirts... Maybe that’s the answer. Or maybe I’m just rambling into the void again. Either way, here we are. I'm doing something different in a couple of days I think...
I think I was thinking along the same lines, but more from a fan and not a business person. I saw him at the Pleasanton show in the mid 90s and thought that sucks for someone who had such an impact of the Hot Rod world.
Just ordered 2XL for me. Wanted to get one for my brother, but he’s a 4XL size. Our family has a bunch of Big Ol Boys in it. Any chance on carrying larger sizes than 3XL next time?
It is, in the current vernacular, Merch. It is to generate additional income and to advertise the product. If it's not generating income worth the effort, drop it. You have limited resources and that can be used to either generate the money in another way, or provide the satisfaction you aren't getting. If you have the common, human reaction of having your artistic creations not gain the acceptance you expect, either nut up or bow out. That's harsh and cold. Just like the world when you put out there something you have done your absolute best to conjure out of thin air. If it ain't for fun or money, why bother? I'll also mention that it's better to have it continue to be emotionally taxing and a struggle than to have it become a flash in the pan, where everything you do is revered and sell out, only to have it all fail after a short run, leaving you to question if anything is real and have what you did become derided and the butt of jokes. Unless of course, it made you filthy rich and immune to detractors.
Or be so obsessed with what you're doing or what's fueling your fire to create that you don't even notice anything else. You're the only one you need to amuse, all the rest is Bantha fodder.
Honestly, I don’t do shit for money. In this grind, the moment you start chasing the dollar, the wheels come off, and suddenly you’re neck-deep in bad decisions and compromises you’ll regret forever. No, if I’m gonna do something, it has to be for passion—for the raw, unfiltered thrill of it. Profits? Sometimes they follow, sometimes they don’t. But they can be never the driver. Given all that... a long time ago, I made a decision: screw the business side of it. Forget the spreadsheets, the projections, the soul-sucking grind of “strategy.” If it all goes up in flames tomorrow, so be it. The ads we run for the unlogged riffraff? They’ll cover me. Beyond that, I couldn’t care less.
When I was in the T-Shirt business, I had the luxury of not having to depend upon it to pay the mortgage, it was a side hustle, as my "Teamster" Truck Driver/rigger/machinery mover day job, took care of that. So in essence, I was my own subsidy, and never had to worry about really making any true profit from my artwork or from the shirts sales as well. So I did make a short run of these personal shirts, to reflect what my line of merch was truly all about! I am glad @Ryan, totally understands that, and is still striving to do what pleases his eye! Thanks from Dennis.
I can relate to the not doing it for the money part. I had a job, that is what I did for money, now retired what I do in the shop is for the challenge, the exercise in creativity and the thought that maybe I can share or encourage others with a similar passion. if I need to I can ask enough for whatever it is that I've created to help pay for the time and materials but it's never been about creating an income, the cash generated if any is not the focus.
Ryan, the offbeat, non-standard, tangential designs that are the HAMB/ JJ shirts, is what is attractive to me. There is not a single shirt I've bought from you that I regret buying. Only bummer was getting too porky to wear some of them... (someday I'll fit back into them... I swear! ) So if you have some wacky merch ideas, toss it out there. See what happens.
The Jalopy Journal
