Merry Choke-mas Getaway Details!

Well, it's that time of year again... whether you like it or not the air is getting chillier and the sun goes down WAY too early. We can all agree that the only bright spot of this time of year is the holidays... so we here at Choke have decided to make it a little brighter this year!

We're heading up to Vancouver, BC in December for a holiday retail show called the One of a Kind Show. It's going to be pretty exciting! Tons of vendors from the US and Canada selling all kinds of unique, handmade items. And we want to share that with one lucky Choke fan. So we're giving away a trip! And not just any trip... it's a "Canadian Holiday Shopping Adventure"!

One lucky winner and a friend will win the following:

• (2) Entries to the Vancouver One of a Kind Show
  
• (2) Round trip tickets on Amtrak from Seattle, WA to Vancouver, BC (up on Saturday, December 10th, back on Sunday, December 11th)
• (1) One night hotel stay at the Luxury Downtown Vancouver Pan Pacific (one room, 2 double beds) located next to the Vancouver Convention Center
• (1) $200 Choke shopping credit at our One of a Kind Show booth
• (2) Drink tickets and (2) recycled shopping totes (courtesy of Vancouver One of a Kind Show)

All you have to do to sign up for the contest is click the "Merry Choke-mas Getaway" link on Facebook or orange link on the bottom of our website. Make sure to share us with your friends, so they have a chance to win!

The last day to enter is November 18th and the lucky winner will be randomly selected on November 21st.

Annoucing Our New Location!

We announced last week that Choke is moving from our current Print Shop space to a new, larger space in Seattle.

Right now: We work out of a 425 sqft studio workspace on 1st Ave S, just west of Qwest Field. The space has been amazing to get us started in the world of screen printing and managing a graphic tshirt company. The only problem (well... there's a few) is that we've outgrown it.

The 8ft rotary screen printer fits snugly in the 10ft x 15ft room that includes a conveyor belt dryer, flash dryer and 3 work cabinets. A second room houses our computer, printers, samples and exposure box. Did we mention windows? Oh, no we didn't... that's because we're in the middle of the building with only one door and no way for air to circulate. Let me tell you... it gets toasty in here.

The bathroom (which we don't use for our personal businesses) doubles as a "light safe" darkroom where we have screen racks, a pressure washer and a spray out booth that drains into the bathtub. We know... classy.

We're also on the second floor (no elevators) and have to buzz our customers in for meetings and pick ups. And not that we want to spend a lot of time bitching about our current space... but you know the worst part about going to Mariners/Sounders/Seahawks is the traffic and parking situation. Well... welcome to our lives everyday.

NOW THE GOOD NEWS: The NEW Choke Shirt Co. + Print Shop will open in September in a 1500 sq ft. space at the corner of Holgate and Airport Way in SODO. The space is a flexible use industrial style commercial unit in the newly built Holgate Square retail complex. The space has a large garage door in the front and a 500 sqft loft mezzanine. The space will include everything mentioned in our old space, as well as the full line of Choke tees, hoodies and baby apparel.

We'd love to post pictures of the space... but it's not even built out yet!
Why SODO you ask? Many people ask us why we don't open a retail location in a busy Seattle "walking" neighborhood like Ballard or Fremont. And here's the answer: We don't want to run a retail store: with retail hours, retail weekends and retail customers. 75% of our business is destination based (customers who need screen printed tees and are willing to travel outside of their neighborhood to get them). We love SODO. We love the industrial feel of this neighborhood. It's relatively easy to get in and out of being that it is so close to I5 exits and the city. Plus we enjoy the community feel and the flexibility of the neighborhood markets and festivals that we participate in and will continue to be a part of those.

On that note... we'll leave you with a few pictures of the outside of the new shop. Stay tuned for more info about the space and our Grand Opening shindig to be held sometime in September!

Guy Photoshoot

Check out some of the pics from our photoshoot with Arden on Saturday. We're hoping to have a Girl photoshoot soon, so we can update those pics on the site. It hasn't really been that long since we had a pics taken... but we've definitely grown our line a lot this summer.

Seattle Square and our return to blogging...

It's been way to long. And we've done so much in the beginning months of Summer. But one thing we haven't done is keep up with the blog. So that's our mid-new year's resolution. And it starts right now...

Today we're up early with tons of new stock to head down to Seattle's newest outdoor market "Seattle Square".
It's located in Pioneer Square's Occidental Park. There's going to be a ton of vendors in a Euro-style market format. Hopefully we'll meet some other sweet graphic tee designers.

So if you're in Seattle, have nothing to do on this beautiful Saturday and are actually reading our blog today... check us out. I think we'll be there until 5pm.

Finally, a Baby/Toddler Photoshoot!

We finally took the time to have a baby and toddler photoshoot! The pictures turned out great!

Special thanks to Misty and Kristen for hosting the shoot and to Eowyn, Mackenzie and Addison for the expertise in modeling. Here are some of the pics:

Print Shop April Special...

We have a Print Shop special of 100 white tees with 1 color ink print for $340. That's only $3.40 per tee. You really can't beat that!

Back in the Swing of Things...

After a crazy holiday season and a slow (but still really good) winter... we're getting back in the swing of things.

We've already launched the first half of our Spring line with 3 new tees, 2 new baby onesies and 2 toddler tees. You can check them out online at www.chokeshirtco.com The pictures kind of suck right now, but we're hoping to have a shoot in the next few weeks so we can get some real people in the tees. All of the new designs have sold pretty well in the past few weeks which is very enouraging. It usually takes a few weeks before people bite when we launch new stuff. One of our wholesalers -- Solstice in Pike Place Market -- is going to pick up Cogs and Fahantay in a few different colors and test them out.

We've already printed a fourth design and it should be online soon! Stay tuned for more (and more often) updates!