Hey Brig
I dont want to be taken out of context in this discussion i am i absolutely no way implying a lack of Integrity on the part of springleap, as i said in that Sunday Times article South Africa needs more Springleap’s. I faarkin love this site and everything it represents,however i dont and will not accept the use of my designs without credit/ prior notice/ possible monetary compensation etc. But i am happy with your folks response and am fully satisfied.
I also have to agree with you folks on the self premotion, too many times us South Africans like to be forced fed and handed success to bothered with feeling sorry for our selves to grab success by the nads and force it our way, i am unfortunately guilty of this myself at times, this site is a community and completely for the designer, i think we forget that it is a platform for us and not a garantee for future work.
i apologise for some comments that came out of this discussions cause they are unwarranted.
Im super glad you guys are so involved its really is a breath of fresh air when it comes to anything South African.
I do have a sugestion to russel up some more business, an area on the site where posts can be made for possible business opportunities,the artists can then answer the briefs and get some work done…dunno maybe an idea kind of like bizcommunity type of thing.
So theirs my idea whatcha think?

The fact is IA is that this is the case in South Africa – we have faced major issues in production adn otherwise and overcome most of them.

We have quite a few clients buying from overseas who get their tees without a hitch – It takes quite some time to get tees to America.

One of the worst complaints about Threadless is that plenty of their overseas orders go missing -their response – sorry: we are not interested. We sent the order and that’s the end of that once it leaves our shores.

Our response has been different : we have resent orders, given bonus tees and are constantly looking for a way to solve the problem.

Regarding the quality of the print – evn by your own admission our printing is Top Class.

But I have to agree – there ahve been big issues in the past – but that is the past. Currently many orders are reaching our customers in SA within 1 to 3 days.

We are working on a way to resolve international shipping and will hopefully find a resolution soon. It’s driving us crazy.

We want to take the artists to the top and are making serious headway. In South Africa Springleap’ artists are building their own culture and many international artists are hopping onto that culture.

The issue at hand is really how we resolve shipping at this stage as I feel we have resolved most of the other issues to date. With our new range of t-shirts coming in about 7 weeks our products will reach an all-time new level (plus we will have tees that fit EVERYbody)

The point I am trying to make is that we are working hard and listerning to our artists as well as making some serious headway and that we care. We are ALWAYS interested in discussing how we can get better and taking constructive critisism.

There are no smoke and mirrors or lack of integrity to that.

Hi Guys

We have chatted with the band and have to admit it was a slip up – we asked them to credit the artist always and somehow this all got lost in the system. We have been very clear with them that we need to be informed so we can inform the artist AND that the Artist must CLEARLY be credited on the pamphlet. We recon it’s a great way to get the names of the artists out there to hopefully gain them exposure and generate more sales of their shirts that we hope will eventually translate into more royalties for them.

We have clamped down on the process in a big way. Springleap is ALL ABOUT INTEGRITY – I think the fact that many of the artist have been in major publications – some on the cover of major mags and even on TV in itself is a major “proof of the pudding”.

Most of these artists would have struggled for YEARS to achieve anywhere near this level of exposure – others have also been rewarded with their names on the shelves of some great retailers and to date we have paid HUGE cash to designers – giving them a platform that is dedicated to rewarding them in a massive way. The people who have really taken the risk here is us – The amount of risk we have taken is gargantuan in monetary value to create and sustain this platform.

Sure we may mess up every once in a while – but I think that overall we do a pretty good job.

Don’t get me wrong – we have suffered MAJOR hurdles along the way – but we are really cracking it now – just to prove te point : CropPixels is already being printed and will be ready by Monday for shipping. We are getting faster and better – much of it with the help of the support and criticism of the community and artists at Springleap.com

IntegralApparel – we have no control over the post office here and it sucks for all of us – it’s nowhere as efficient or cost-effective as USA, UK or Europe. This is a very sad reality which we are trying to tackle – if you have a good suggestion – please help us get better by making it.

I really try to keep my personal feelings out of the issue as much as possible – but to question our integrity – that’s pretty darn harsh considering that we are actually doing something to change the situation for artists as much as possible.

I think we are pretty fair and obvious – an that there are no “Smoke and Mirrors”

Understand that development time is HUGELY expensive – and there are lots of issues we are constantly tackling. We are doing our best to take things to the next level, but there are only so many hrs in a day or cash in the coffers.

We are trying our best and criticism is always welcome – but Dusty – we already investigated the matter and apologized for the mishap as well as told you what we were going to do about it over a week ago.

IntegralApparel – we know there have been slip ups in the delivery – but the postal service is not under our control – these are the systems in place and we are constantly challenging them – but it’s a lot of beurocracy.

I have to close by saying this : we appreciate your guys art and amazing talent – we created this site for YOU – it’s a major undertaking of both resources and responsibility. I hope that you guys can help us to find the right way forward.

I just think that “smoke and mirrors” “Got shafted” and questioning integrity is very harsh and quite out of line.

Despite all the problems and issues with selling, delivery etc. I dont mind all that South Africa’s not very good on service delivery and i know it’s not Springleap to blame for these things Im launching my own label and 2 months into the setup its a nightmare, south african suppliers/printers/textiles are absolutely shit, i dont mind this i know the issues.
What i do mind is the artworks integrity, i highley dislike the fact that my design was used in the way that it was with no value, the design was shafted in the rear-end and i didnt hear a thing about it. I came accross it by chance. I want to know what springleap can/cant/ will / wont do to promote me, i cant promote myself if my designs get shipped off to whoever whithout a credit or anything.
R2 a t is the least of my worries as you say R20 for a print run cant buy you a burger, donate mine to a charity i dont care about that what id do care about is their a future for me as a designer with and beyond springleap.
This band that’s used my designs could have contacted me personnely or through springleap and said howdy we want some band graphics heres R500 do up a pamphlet, poster, banner, cd artwork whatever, instead my designs in their ownership and i aint got shit to show for it.
Thats what i thought i got started on this site for, boosting sa designers getting the industry exposure and work.
I need some evidence of boosting SA designers?

hey guys,

i’m getting the developers to generate a report on the royalties, so we can mail each of you to tell you what you’ve earned so far, but a few points:

1. it’s not a lot – springleap is still losing a TON of money each month, coz we’re not selling enough tshirts. (so it would be appreciated if all the designers promoted their designs more)

2. the reason designs are shown as sold out on the site, is not always that they sold out. 2 reasons come to mind:
a. we did a very limited run of them to see how they go – some of the designs we printed only 30, but we wanted to see the demand
b. even the ones we did more of, if they didn’t sell, we took them off the site, and have put them in our showroom (and we’ll work out how many sold there, but we have a LOT of tshirts sitting there)

3. all first print runs were between 30 and 150, so assuming that we have sold half, you can work out how much royalty there is – around R20 to R100 per design that has won

4. we’ve only reprinted about 3 designs – eSimpowenis is the ONLY one we’ve now reprinted twice. And the first 2 runs were also very small.

What I’m trying to say is that until we get more people buying and shops supporting springleap, even though everyone loves us, we’re not going to make profits, and the designers aren’t going to make real money – till we’re selling.

So please send people to your design on springleap and get them to buy, and tell shops to start stocking springleap.

We will get you the reports of how many tshirts you’ve sold, but at this stage, you might be able to buy a Nando’s burger with the royalties – but that will change, as we sell more, and use the designs on more products.

Does that clear up the royalty issue?