Recently, we came upon Chris Easter of The Man Registry, a website and blog for resources for grooms. He was an interesting fellow and we loved his attitude, so we decided to feature him on our Men's Lifestyle Blog as a Young Guy Doing (some pretty) Cool Shit.

When you think of weddings, you don’t normally think of the groom getting very involved in the planning process... until now. I recently came into contact with the guys over at TheManRegistry.com. They’ve created a one-stop shop for everything a guy could possibly need while getting ready to take the plunge. While the main attraction of the site is a wedding registry for grooms, The Man Registry also offers content, local wedding guides for men and groomsmen gifts. Personally, I think the coolest groomsmen gift is a custom men's dress shirt you designed (but that's just me).

One of the coolest things about The Man Registry is that all of their products make great gift ideas – even if you aren’t buying for a groom. Chris Easter, one of the co-founders of TMR pointed out these three products as huge sellers during the Christmas holiday:

RC Cooler – A real, working remote control beer cooler. This baby holds a 12 pack plus ice making trips to the kitchen or garage for beer a thing of the past.

NCAA Grill Toppers – Grill your favorite NCAA team’s logo right into the burger, steak or chicken that you’re grilling. Over 30 popular teams are available.

Bacon Explosion – Do you like bacon? Do you like Italian Sausage? If you answered yes to both of these questions, you must try the Bacon Explosion: The World’s only bacon stuffed, bacon wrapped Italian sausage.

To connect with The Man Registry, visit them on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.

This post was written by Danny Wong, Blank Label's Social Media Maven, scouring the internet for young guys doing cool shit to feature on our Men's Lifestyle Blog.

Ever wonder why your gifts suck? That’s because you take too much time thinking about buying your friends and family that expensive cruise to the Bahamas, that new iPod that everyone else already has, that $450 watch he’s only going to wear once in his life.

This year, your gift giving will be at its peak!

Why?

   1. Because the economy’s in a downturn so now, instead of thinking about a higher price tag for a luxury product, you’re going to think more about something really meaningful, not just something that costs a lot of money.
   2. Because it’s the Holiday season! And you’re going to do anything to top last year’s gift-giving efforts.
   3. Because you absolutely love your friends and family and want to give them the sweetest and nicest gift you can think about.
   4. Because Blank Label launched its men's dress shirt customizer on Halloween day, which allows you to create a one-of-a-kind gift (a custom men's dress shirt you designed).
   5. Because “money’s not an issue” but oh, it really is, so we’re giving you $10 off your next purchase (valid until 12/31/09) with this special promocode (10disc).

Now go ahead and start creating your custom dress shirt gift for that friend that you really love. Don’t forget to monogram his name on the dress shirt. That way he’ll know it was specially made for him.

Happy Dress Shirt Designing.

-the Blank Label team

This post was written by Danny Wong, the Lead Web Strategist for Blank Label and a guest blogger for our Co-Creation Blog.

Our inaugural Young Guy Doing Cool Shit comes from Connecticut raised, Boston and globally educated, San Francisco based, inspired, ambitious and learned social entrepreneur, Dave Adams. Below is a short dialogue on why we’ve chosen him as our first #YGDCS on Blank Label's Co-creation Blog, and you’ll notice that he definitely is a believer of CONNECTED INDIVIDUALISM.

What are you doing these days, and how is it different to what you were doing a year ago.

Well a year ago I was doing some consulting with a marketing firm.  The financial crisis had just hit and it seemed like everyone was running around with their heads cut off.  I guess for me it was just kind of fun.  Everyone knew that a whole new set of rules would emerge out of the chaos, which meant that there would be a whole new set of rules to break.

My partner and I quit consulting one day and started CauseShare the next.  It basically grew from this very prevalent idea that everyone has something to give to their communities, and good ideas usually come from the people who know their communities best, everyday people. I don’t mean communities in just a geographical sense though.  Basically for people who are representing a good cause, we are what it would be like if Facebook let you sell girl-scout cookies and raise a militia. Except our girl scout cookies are cool.   We're bringing in great companies from around the web to offer their products for this new kind of social fundraising. Its online activism, for causes of any shape and size.  You don’t need to be a non-profit, all though it helps, and you sure as hell don’t need to be Bono.

I assume you’re actively working on CauseShare. Can you give us a couple of highlights of your past seven days?

Last seven days… Last weekend I was in Zuni New Mexico hanging out at the Zuni Indian reservation.  Holler at Kiva, they just started micro-finance lending in the US this year with a lot of controversy.  That kind of dignified charity is needed way bad in some spots.  While I was there I got to climb a mesa.  Then I was back in the East Bay area talking to the brands who are offering products for sale in our social fundraisers. During the week, like most weeks, I get to work at the Hub in Berkeley which is a shared workspace for social entrepreneurs.  Bunch of cool people working there, all sorts of projects. I’m lucky to spend my days in that environment, real good coffee.

You’re pretty passionate about doing good as well as doing well. Who is your world changer?

That’s funny, I don't know anymore.  I think we’re living in an age of enlightenment.  I mean, the same cool people are doing the same cool stuff that they did yesterday, but it’s just more visible today.  We see all our friends and our friends’ friends doing cool shit, and it’s like there is absolutely no reason I can't do something like that.  We all have something to give. It’s inspiring.  You don’t need to be Annie Lebovitz to take a killer photo nowadays, you don’t need to be Malcolm Gladwell to write an intriguing article.  My brother makes beer better than most breweries right in his house.  The information and tools are available for anyone to be a change maker, and I like anyone who realizes that they can do something well, then do it hard, until they do it great.  I like them.

What do you think life will be like for you in a year?

Busy and hopefully still fun.  I was admitted into a program at the London School of Economics for development anthropology, and it would be interesting, but there’s a lot going on here and that kind of education would be kind of a luxury.  Would be fun though to seed the CauseShare idea with some people over there though, spread that kind of online activism. No matter where I am, I’m going to do a little homegrown service work, maybe do something in South America, always wanted to go to Argentina.  Also got some side projects coming up that will be taking some more time of mine that doesn't really exist.  I need to get a watch with a few more hours on it.

What does the future look like to Dave Adams?

I don’t know, when you’re a kid, reading George Orwell in school, you say man, this is scary, everyone waking around in gray jumpsuits, people telling you when you can eat dinner and have kids, speaker boxes and stuff.  I think we’re learning now that the future is much more diverse.  We take our cues from central sources less and less, and this allows us to go in so many directions, but we see all the offline fragmentation online so it’s easier to appreciate and understand each other.  It’s also much easier to self organize around these cool movements.  I think the future is a place that has a lot more choice, a lot more freedom and is a much more colorful place, but with many of the same simple troubles and joys that we have today.

Sometime late evening/ early morning Saturday, as people are either partying hard, resting up or patching together last-minute Halloween costumes, the Blank Label site will come alive online. We penned in October 31 about six weeks ago when we first brought on our new Chief Webstuff Builder, Zee, and we're proud and happy to say that we'll be on target for that.

We've been hard at work designing and developing the online men's dress shirt product platform that is a fun and engaging interface that connects our customers with our manufacturers to work together to co-create these unique custom men's dress shirts we keep harping on about. I thought this might be an interesting opportunity  to give you some insight on how that works here in philosophy.

We're a very market driven company. We want to fundamentally alter the relationship between people and products through co-creation. It's really not about us. It's about people and what you want. So if you're happy to stop by on Saturday when we launch, you might not see all the features and functionality you were perhaps expecting, but we really hope that you like it enough that you drop some feedback. Our philosophy is that it's far better to launch now and have 12 components of the 20 you wanted, and for you to let us know what the others you want are so we can build it out, let's say by the end of the year. A lot of other startups instead prefer to keep building, let's say to the end of the year, have 20 components but only 15 of them are the ones you wanted. We have a lean startup philosophy where we want your help in creating what you want to see in a company.

As we prepare for launch, we have an exciting publicity pipeline in the first few weeks so I'd like to take this opportunity to thank the bloggers and journalists who've reached out to us, and have been passionate about supporting something, new and ambitious. We've been lucky that people have liked our story, and want to tell it. If you fit into this category, please do reach out. You can reach me directly on fbi (at) blank-label (dot) com.

Fan Bi

Chief Shirt Maker | www.twitter.com/lifeoffbi

Blank Label | Co-Creation Blog

Aren't you tired of your white dress shirts not being so white after a few wears? Concerned with why the collar turns yellow, or just frustrated that you have to keep throwing your shirts away because you're ashamed of how dirty your collar has become?

Sweat is a formidable foe to collars on dress shirts, not just white ones either. Light-colored shirts are also easily stained and soiled, and restoring them to brand new can be difficult, if not seemingly impossible. Yet the typical person will believe the solution is simple: wash your clothes and cross your fingers in the hope that your color-safe detergent is strong enough to make those shameful stains go away. Do not feel like a complete outcast if you have a dirty shirt or have developed yellow collar; everyone gets yellow collar and stains on their dress shirts. Let’s face it, life’s messy and we’re messy people! You may sweat more than the average individual or you may shower less frequently, but no frequency of cleaning yourself or any extreme avoidances of sweat will stop your dress shirt’s collar from turning yellow.

It becomes extremely costly to purchase new dress shirts every time a collar is ruined, yet you refuse to give up wearing nice, crisp white dress shirts just because they stain or become yellow easily.

OxiClean and SHOUT do fairly well at getting rid of yellow collar. My white shirt, and shirt collars for shirts that were partially white, come out looking mostly new (only pure bleach and other harsh chemicals can make your whites as white as they were when you bought them) after using these products. Simply spray your stains, yellow collars, and dirty spots with the formula until the area is saturated with the solution, let it sit for several minutes, and then hurry over to the Laundromat and throw your clothes in with a normal wash. Watch your shirts come out looking (mostly) new, and save yourself the heartache of losing your dress shirt as well as having to search for one to replace it, which adds to the debt balance on your credit card.

We are not affiliates of OxiClean of SHOUT, but endorse it for your sake to avoid the trouble of washing your shirts 4 times over to see little added results with each wash, as well as throwing good money away at the store to purchase a new dress shirt, never mind the wasted time spent searching for a replacement shirt, paying a premium for a dry cleaning which applies harsh chemicals to the clothes you love (no offense to dry cleaners), or throwing away a perfectly good shirt that can be easily restored. OxiClean and SHOUT are convenient solutions that work and are color-safe too.

Does anyone else have good suggestions for how to clean stains, dirty spots, and yellow collars?

Have you had great experiences with other cleaning products or services that saved your beloved shirts? What have been some bad experiences with cleaning products or services?

Sometimes men's dress shirts just get ruined and maybe you need a new one. Design a new men's dress shirt now. I'd recommend a white dress shirt with a black collar and black cuffs.

[Image Source: Very Quiet]

This was a personal experience post by our Co-creation Blog Moderator, Danny Wong, who is also a huge co-creator of custom men's dress shirts.

This is a weekly post on the Co-Creation Blog from Chief Evangelist, Fan Bi, who founded Blank Label in the Summer of 2008, and has been trying to change the way men buy clothes ever since.

As we move closer and closer to launch day for our custom men's dress shirts, the air feels a little thiner, the hours in the evenings don't quite seem long enough, and the discussions of who we are start becoming that little more intense. When you launch a website, whether it's a social networking site, or a content base, or a product platform like us, you'll know what I mean by the importance of being lean and just getting out there. It's like wanting to go up to a girl you like. It's better to have stumbled and stuttered, than have thought about exactly to the word what you want to say, only for her to be swept up by some other dude. We just really wanted to keep our promise to our fans that we would be live on October 31.

Instead we've spent some good thinking time deciding what we exactly what we want to be good at, and put everything non-essential to getting there on the back-burner. Our ideas list is long, and there are some gems in there, but if they don't fit into what we essentially want to be really excellent in, then we'll work on them later.

For us, that's a few things that I'll do my best to articulate here.

FUN - It's important for us to have fun, because it'll come out in what we do. You'll be able to see it in what we do, what our website looks like, in the products we make, it's all a lot of fun. Essentially we think that if we're having fun, then you'll have fun.

INDEPENDENT - We are young guys who want to do it our way. We are anti-establishment, we hate doing it the old way, and we love young guys doing cool shit. In fact, if you're a young guy doing cool shit, we'll probably want to give you your own individually-made men's dress shirt made individually for you just because we love you so much.

CONFIDENT - We also know that we're taking on larger companies who want to crush startups like us. But we remain confident that if we stay committed to the customer who we love we can make this work. We do this by having an online men's dress shirt design platform that allows the fun, independent individual to be self-expressive and confident in what they wear.

Justin Timberlake is the juggernaut. His pictures plaster building sides and the pages of magazines, his tracks booms out of every club and lingers on the lips of passer-byers; let’s face it, even you’ve found yourself strutting to SexyBack once or twice. These days, the former N’Sync Musketeer is advancing further on the fashion stage, not only building quite a savvy collection of clothing lines and setting the catwalks ablaze, but also emerging as one of the most famed fashion icons and couturier’s of our generation. His style is classic yet constantly avant-garde, simple yet captivating, and his traditional suit/vest/tie collabo with rougher leather pieces put the nouveau Gatsby-ian trend on the cultural map. He could probably cut his nose off while wearing a chicken suit and it’d look sexy. While JT explores various and vast fashions, in most any kind of gala, he is found wearing a dress shirt. Whether is paired with selected accessories and garments, or worn solo, he looks hot and collected. This image speaks readily for the dress shirt in general: simple, versatile, timeless, and above all, clean. If worn effectively, anyone can pull the JT-dress shirt look. So, why does Justin Timberlake so good in a simple dress shirt?

1. His Clothes Fit: Although this sounds like a given, there are so many men out there who wear clothes that just don’t fit; it is always too big or too small. Timberlake’s clothes fit perfect, and the key is to keep it on the slimmer side. If your shirt feels like it could inflate or house a family of three, it’s most likely to fail. Try a palm’s width from your armpit to the shirt’s, that’s about as much leeway you can have. If it feels a slightly tight, then it probably looks perfect.

2. He’s Got His Colors Right: Rather than choosing risky patterns or colors (pinstripes, turquoise, neon pink, neon pink and turquoise pinstripe, etc), JT opts to wear simple, classic colors like black, gray, and white. There’s no going wrong. To spruce things up, JT adds a more elaborate tie or suit that is of varying colors and fabrics. Either way, owning the neutral tones make you look confident and dignified, and not just a yuppy that is riding the currents of a fleeting trend.

3.  He Mixes and Matches: Just because you are wearing a vest and shirt doesn't mean you can’t throw a leather jacket or scarf in. Timberlake collaborates his shirts with jeans, a casual outerwear, a sweater on top, tucked in or out. He never overdoes it or gets sloppy, but he manages to get his money worth out of his shirts.

4. He Accessorizes: Now, this may be a little dangerous, but definitely worth a try. JT is often seen trimming his shirt with a neckerchief or a bow tie. Granted it IS Justin Timberlake, so there is an aspect where he gets away with wearing such items on a daily basis; however, if it’s a night out and you want to make a trendy impression, choose a neutral tone shirt and add a vibrant tie, or grab a vest and put a fun handkerchief in the breast. Little details of fashion stand for greater fashion.

5. He’s Confident: I won’t even elaborate. The importance of staying confident and trusting your look is bigger than you and me.

Justin Timberlake is the juggernaut, but you are a juggernaut in the making. The success that JT gained isn’t from miracles, it was derived from effort and luck, something we all possess. So, on you’re way to becoming the next Justin Timberlake, dress for success and start from the wardrobe up! Then you can bring sexy or cool or whatever you want back.

[Image Source: Joe Shlabotnik]

This post was written for Blank Label's Co-creation Blog by Youmi Park, a new co-creator of custom men's dress shirts.

A lot of new things are happening with the website, and so things with our blog are changing too!

Sure, we’re all for men’s fashion, but what about CONNECTED INDIVIDUALISM?

We’re still going to be talking about Men’s Fashion, but we’ll also post about other young guys (and gals) doing some cool s#@! too. We’re gonna connect with our community to get some interesting opinions on how uniqueness is defined and how people can truly be individual, and we’ll continue to post regular updates on what’s going on with us. Hopefully you can give us some feedback as well, so we can make our website better and easier for you to use. We’re totally open for new suggestions and interesting ideas.

But just stay tuned. There’s new stuff on the way.

If you haven’t already, sign-up early at the Blank Label website for a coupon code for 20% off your first purchase when we launch our men's dress shirt customization application. Get pumped to design your own custom men's dress shirts soon.

Feel free to follow us on Twitter as well, to stay connected.

This was an update by our Co-Creation Blog Moderator, Danny Wong, who is also the Lead Web Strategist for Blank Label.

This is a weekly post from Chief Evangelist, Fan Bi, who founded Blank Label in the Summer of 2008, the Co-Creation Blog in 2009, officially launched Blank Label in Fall 2009, and has been trying to change the way young men buy clothes ever since.

Every once in a while, I push myself away from my computer, take in a breathe, and look around, and smile. I smile because I wonder how it is that we I got here. My life up until Summer 2008 was me, in Sydney, certain that the investment banking cubicle would be where I would spend the best years of my life. Today, offered the large corporate gig, for all the money in the world, I would give the finger to.

Our mission at Blank Label goes so much beyond the cloth on the backs. For us, the passion really comes from what we represent; what it is we stand for. When we're working till late hours of early morning, the thing that keeps us going is the dream of changing the world. Some people call us mass-customization, we've heard mass-personalization, and co-creation, and they all describe what we're doing. But what we really respond to is CONNECTED INDIVIDUALISM, a world of connected individuals.

We dream of a world where individuals are empowered to do it their own way, they are not bitched out by the 'the man'. Our custom men's dress shirts are for the individual, the individual who wants to be empowered to have something as unique as them. Nothing makes us happier when a consumer tells us about their experience of opening up their Blank Label box, and seeing the shirt they designed and helped create. It's just a completely different connection to buying something a designer created for you and every other guy out there.

This is our small little effort to put the attention back on the individual. What are you doing as an individual?

Years go by, and fads come and go. Once upon a time, someone in your family probably rocked a pair of parachute pants paired with a jean jacket and a single glove and felt like the coolest guy on Earth.  Though most of us would like to take ourselves seriously, it’s funny to think about the fact that somehow we end up adopting trends (however ridiculous they are) and wearing them proudly.  Years from now, you’ll probably stumble upon a dusty photo of yourself from back in your “wild” college days and have a good chuckle at your own expense.  We’ve all made some questionable fashion choices from time to time.  But have heart, boys, because as far as fashion goes, you’ve got it pretty good.  While I’ll be laughing at myself years from now for having the guts to wear leatherette leggings, you will likely not have to hang your head quite so far in shame.  What’s your advantage, you say?  Well, when it comes down to it, men’s fashion is a lot less unpredictable when compared to the whims of women’s fashion.  Take the classic dress shirt: while over the decades there have been slight changes in collar size and popular colors, for the most part, the iconic fashion staple has stayed the same.  It’s pretty hard to mess up a dress shirt and slacks, you know?  Just try and stay away from the velour dress shirt.

[Image Source: plaidalicious]

This post was written for Blank Label's Co-creation Blog by Anne Marie Jackson, advising men to stay away from velour dress shirts and try custom men's dress shirts.