Cameesa’s Resurrection

Remember Cameesa?  This promising new company entered the market about a year ago with an innovative concept: crowdfunding.  It started out strong with a community of enthusiastic users and artists, and a burgeoning catalog of beautiful designs from a laundry list of some of the best creative minds in the t-shirt world alongside a handful of talented newcomers.  However, it wasn’t long before it started encountering problems; Cameesa couldn’t get the money needed to support their original model, and when it tried to change t-shirt blanks or raise prices to get the funds needed, the community lashed back.  They tried to make changes to their crowdfunding concept, to the point it was almost indistinguishable from most t-shirt contests out there.  The quality of the designs got steadily worse.  In the end, they threw in the towel, marked all of their existing shirts down to $10, and officially announced they were shutting down.

However, a group of people from Davis, CA  interested in starting their own t-shirt company (henceforth known as TK Tees, the name of said prospective t-shirt company) wasn’t about to let Cameesa sing its swan song.  Long interested in JadenKale’s “Quicksilver Psycho” design, they made an offer to buy Cameesa when they saw that the company was going under.  As a result, I was surprised to receive an email in my inbox letting me know that in fact, Cameesa was not dead.  You can read all of the details in this post on the new forum, which is the current center of Cameesa activity whilst the company undergoes a transitional stage.

What changes will TK Tees be making to Cameesa?  Most importantly, they are putting a bigger focus on artists and helping them make a living doing what they love most.  Printed artists receive a larger amount — $300 plus a $1.50 per shirt commission — and have more control over their own artwork.  Instead of signing over their design permanently, the new Cameesa will “lease” the design for one year.  If the company decides to keep the design for another year, the artist will receive another $300, versus the old Cameesa’s practice of giving an artist $200-250 for all rights to their design.  Artists are also encouraged to plug their contest entries and/or clothing brands on the Cameesa website.

And what about crowdfunding?  It will stay, of course — it’s what got Cameesa a lot of attention to begin with.  In addition to that, the new Cameesa will be periodically hand-picking designs to be printed on occasion.

I’d go on, but I think you’ll get a better understanding of the changes by going directly to this very informative post from the new owners.

It’s always sad when what looks like a successful company with a unique concept flounders and/or goes down the drain for one reason or another — look at Teextile, failing miserably to fulfill orders (by now, I’m pretty sure they’ve just stopped trying), or MySoti, which is currently suffering massive issues with shipping orders on time.  To that end, I’m glad Cameesa decided to shutter its doors before things could go too bad, and I’m even more glad that another company with money and resources is giving its crowdfunding concept a second chance.  Here’s to hoping that Cameesa 2.0 will find the success and popularity it so deserves!

Finally, the new owners are running a free t-shirt contest, where all you have to do is sign up for their forums and comment at this post to enter.

Other great deals to checkout:

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• 30% off at Cameesa
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