Wang Dang Doodle Tees is a new online business that sells custom-designed blues merchandise and is offering a wonderful opportunity to blues musicians that are struggling to make ends meet.
Fight The Isolation Blues is a new program where they are designing custom t-shirts and merchandise at no cost to the musicians and helping to sell them online with the proceeds going directly to the artists. It is a free service to anyone that would benefit.
Scott Kempler, the owner of Wang Dang Doodle Tees, has been a professional Graphic Artist for decades and began Wang Dang Doodle Tees earlier this year, as a way to combine his love of design and his passion for blues music. “I play around a lot and was always looking for cool music t-shirts to wear to jams or gigs but they all looked the same, so I decided to design some myself,” said Scott recently. He combines musical elements and terminology, funny phrases, song references, illustration, and more, into dynamic retro designs.
The idea for the Fight The Isolation Blues program began when Scott designed a logo and shirt for local Chicago area musician Charlie Love and helped him sell them online from a store page on the Wang Dang Doodle website. “It seemed like it affected him in more ways than I anticipated,” said Scott about the experience. “It made him feel good that somebody out there was actually trying to help and it also gave him a job to do selling the shirts, so it kept him busy and made him feel like he was doing something positive for himself.” The proceeds, which are sent directly to the artists, have been “a blessing” said Charlie. Every little bit helps.
Over the past month, Wang Dang Doodle Tees has donated their services to artists like Kid Memphis, Tony Holiday, and all of the musicians on the NOLA BLUE Record Label, and more.
The program works like this. Using either existing artwork or customized original designs, the merchandise is developed. Once the designs are approved by the musician, the products are listed on the Wang Dang Doodle Tees website, on a custom branded store page.
The artists also receive imagery, links and advertising banner images for use on their own websites and social media. Wang Dang Doodle Tees will then promote the shirts and a Band Merchandise web page in their own social media, to help generate interest and sales, as well.
The merchandise is printed on-demand, which means that there is no upfront cost to anyone and Wang Dang Doodle Tees only uses retail quality tees. Whenever a sale is made, the price of the shirt and production costs are simply subtracted from the total price of the shirt and then the proceeds are sent directly to the artist.
The artists can set their own prices or go with Wang Dang Doodle’s established rates. This usually comes out to about $10-$15 per shirt going directly to the musicians, right when they need it most. All at no cost to the artists. “It’s like free money, but better because you’re giving your friends and fans a chance to show their love and help you, in a time of need.
We’re not talking about millions of dollars, but when you are worried about having money for food or gas, every little bit helps” said Scott. “Some artists have made several hundred dollars just over the past few weeks from sales of their shirts. It’s pretty exciting and feels good! I hope I can help as many musicians as possible.
The Blues community is such a special group of people, I’m happy to do it.”
If you or someone you know could benefit from this service then visit the Wang Dang Doodle Tees website information page and use the contact form at the bottom of the page.
For More Info – Wang Dang Doodle Tees
