T-Shirt Fashion Trends: RAZRWING Mixes Storytelling With Social Media Marketing to Create New Art Form

BRISBANE, Calif., Feb. 15, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- The T-shirt apparel fashion world is bracing for the next evolution in design and branding thanks to a new blend of technology and social media marketing by RAZRWING, a nine-year-old fashion company with deep roots in Silicon Valley. 

"Today's Gen X, Gen Y and Millennials want to create stories and share their own ideas. They don't want to be manipulated by big brands or mass media advertising campaigns," said Gian Ruggeri, director of operations for RAZRWING (www.RAZRWING.com), based in Brisbane, just north of Silicon Valley and south of San Francisco, the technology and gaming capitals of America. 

"We've created an interactive storytelling and gaming platform where our readers can identify with the characters and share insights, story ideas and plotlines with other readers," he said. "And we've created highly detailed artwork for the characters using the latest T-shirt printing technology that allows us to present images in ways never before seen."

T-shirt design has always been a leading indicator of style and expression. 

"But T-shirt apparel has become stale in terms of artwork and expression. While video games and movies are presenting vast amounts of details, stories and atmospheres, apparel designers have found it difficult to capture the imagination, quality and value today's audiences want. RAZRWING feels there is a responsibility to bring the back story and visual elements to T-shirt apparel design by developing new mediums through textile, vinyl and social networking devices," he said.

RAZRWING is using new vinyl technology from SISER that allows for texture, shading and backlighting that is not available on traditional silkscreen or custom T-shirts. The shirt material is incredibly soft, stretchy and machine washable.

RAZRWING product is currently available on the company's store site, www.Zazzle.com/metalbat. The company is talking with several national retailers and mall stores about carrying their line.

"To help drive customers to retailers, we are using games, puzzles and ranking systems via social media like Facebook and Twitter on the Internet and through other interactive technologies, introducing our customer to a point structure system. With these points, readers will be incentivized to use points to obtain free products or move points to help other groups in the ranking system," Ruggeri said. 

Instead of relying on branded characters, RAZRWING is tapping into the dark side of human emotions as a way to appeal to a broad base of customers on a deep, psychological level that cuts across their core demographic market because those emotions resonate with people's core motivations.

Those emotional themes are aggression, obsession, seduction and attention and are represented by the stories SEEKER, VICTIM, SNATCH and BURN. 

To see images, go to:
http://i330.photobucket.com/albums/l417/RAZR39/STOREFLYER1810.jpg  

To see videos of images, go to:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HlU-yb70g7A

"These images tap into the behavioral dark side. If I show a picture, they get it. There was a time when we were forced to use our imaginations. Now we are in an age when everything is visual," Ruggeri said.

"These story lines provide a vast platform for a brand to jump and spin new concepts into existing markets and start new markets as well," he said.   

"We wanted to come up with something that is unique and different. We use the idea of dark humor. We appeal to an artistic and expressive audience which is perfect for the gamer community and the dark humor of the Goth and hip hop communities," he said. 

"We are pushing the envelope on the creative restraints that have held the industry back," Ruggeri said.  "We will now visually appeal to apparel buyers and bring back value and creative fun to the markets."  

ABOUT RAZRWING

Founded in 2003 and based in Brisbane, CA, RAZRWING is a female-owned company and is a new type of apparel design company offering exciting new expressions of style through identifiable silhouettes and graphics through a new classification system, based on psychology, iconography and an Internet ranking system. 

Products are sold through AMAZON, ZAZZLE at www.zazzle.com/metalbat, Spread Shirt: RAZRWING 1 Store: www.razrwing.spreadshirt.com and RAGSF.COM

SOURCE RAZRWING