Our partner in promoting the Iron Man movie just happens to be the best T-Shirt company on the web! 80sTees.com specializes in pop-culture t-shirts and has graciously provided ComicBookMovie.com with a bunch of awesome Iron Man T-shirts to give away. Enter to win the FREE prize drawing HERE.
We also had the opportunity to interview the founder of 80's Tees, Kevin Stecko, and asked his opinion on a slew of issues regarding his business, comic book movies, and the lasting appeal of T-shirts...
CBM - What was your favorite T-Shirt when you were a kid? And what is your favorite T-Shirt now?
KS - I had a
He-Man t-shirt that I wore all the time. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures handy but it had an action picture on it with He-Man and Skeletor. My favorite shirt now is a split between our
Sweep the Leg Karate Kid t-shirt and our distressed
Rocky logo t-shirt.
CBM - What do you think about all the comic book movies that have been coming out lately? And, has it affected your business?
KS - As a fan I like that all of these Comic Book movies are getting big budgets and coming out, but that doesn't mean I like all the movies. Ever since I was a little kid I was a huge Spider-Man fan, and because of that I like the Marvel Comic stuff best. I try not to get too emotionally involved so that I can enjoy the movies even if they don't live up to the hype. For instance I still manage to enjoy Spider-Man 3 even though fans thought it sucked. I would have liked to have seen things done differently with
Venom but it was still cool to see the character on the screen in a live action movie. As far as the movies helping our business unfortunately that's not the case. We almost never have success selling shirts directly related to the movies and many times the movie results in a slow down in sales of character shirts not related to the movie. The only real exception was the first Spider-Man movie.
CBM - To what do you credit the success of your business? AND, in your opinion, what is the appeal of the 1980's theme?
KS - I think we are successful because we offer great products and great service. As far as the appeal I think that so many people think of the 80s as "their time" whether they were young kids or teenagers during the decade. Many kids that weren't even alive during the 80s recognize the movies, tv, music, etc. because they are exposed to it through reruns or 80s radio stations, etc.
CBM - What shirt(s) is your top seller, and why?
KS - Right now there is a two way tie between our
Top Gun Maverick t-shirt and our
Cobra Commander t-shirt for the top seller spot. The Cobra Commander shirt is hot because we are giving away a free Cobra Commander poster with every GI Joe t-shirt purchase. The Top Gun shirt is exclusively available at 80sTees and people can't seem to get enough of it.
CBM - What do you say to those who believe that T-shirts are for slobs and should not be worn by adults.
KS - I don't hang out with those types of people and think that we as society should shun them and try to deny them the basic necessities of life such as food, shelter, and water.
CBM - What licenses are you working on getting that you do not have now? AND do you have access to most comics characters?
KS - We actually just signed for Old School, Anchorman, Footloose, The Warriors, and Bad News Bears shirts with Paramount Pictures. For comic book characters we have not pursued licenses because our suppliers do a very good job of getting product out there.
CBM - Is it a difficult process to get licenses for images? Are there any you have not been able to get?
KS - Licensing is a very tough business and more times than not there are issues that prevent us from being able to do what we would like to do. There are lots of things we've tried to get and then learned that it can't happen because different companies own a piece of the property. With lots of cartoons the companies that made the cartoons hold some rights to the cartoons but not to the characters. That makes it very complicated.
CBM - Which comics characters are the most popular, and will 80sTees have any NEW ones debuting in the near future?
KS - The usual suspects are the most popular (
Spider-man,
Superman,
Wonder Woman,
Batman), but
Flash Gordon actually hangs right in there with them. No new comics characters in the near immediate future, but of course stay tuned and keep checking the site because things can happen fast in this business.
CBM - Is there a T-Shirt in your product line that you would be embarrassed to wear in public? If so, which is it?
KS - I would be embarrassed to wear many of the girls shirts, but I don't think that's what you mean. We have a few over the top shirts that aren't quite PC that I don't have the balls to wear out. We have one from
Revenge of the Nerds that says "Gimme' Head Till I'm Dead" and I certainly would be embarrassed to wear that.
Our thanks go to Kevin and
80sTees.com. Check out their huge selection of superhero tees and tons of other fun pop-culture properties, and be sure to enter to win your
Iron Man Tee HERE!