Howies cycle clips.
Create cycle clips that people will actually want to wear, after all,
who wants to wear shredded jeans?

Shared cycles to get around Cardigan Bay.
Bikes are placed around Cardigan Bay that local residents can use
to get about. When they’re done, they can leave it for someone else to use.
Bikes will be branded with bright Cardigan Bay graphics to prevent them
wandering into neighbouring villages.

Howies bike trail maps.
Howies could print a mountain bike guide for tourists of South Wales
wanting some local knowledge of great spots to ride. Personalised bits
could include things like: ‘Watch the bump in the road, Ade fell off here’.

Create an organic energy drink with innocent.
Join forces with Innocent to make a special edition energy drink aimed
at bikers, boarders, surfers etc. It could be made with local produce too.

Limited edition artist Tees.
Get artists to create a bespoke design for a Howies T-shirt.
The limited run will make them much more desirable and allow the
materials to be extra extra special, much like the Plantation jeans.
Check out an ace artist called Parra here http://shop.rockwellclothing.com/ 

Howies footwear
The next step?

Howies waterproof socks.
There aren’t many things worse than cold wet feet...

Outdoor/indoor wall prints.
Bring the outdoors in, with wallpaper pictures of forests, rivers,
mountains and beaches in and around Cardigan Bay.

Partner with an unethical company.
In the same way Nike and Apple (admittedly, not seen as ethical brands)
have partnered up, Howies could teach a company the Howies way and
create something great. In an ideal world, it could be ‘The Howies Hydro
Range Rover Sport’.

Tyre tracks.
Music to ride to. Fast, hard music created by local bands or dj's.
They can then be downloaded from the Howies site as MP3’s

'How to' videos.
Video clips teaching people all kinds of things like the baking bread one you did.
Others could be ‘How to be green’ or ‘How to do an Ollie‘.

Outdoor art gallery.
Showcase an exhibition (like Art Think) in a forest, with artworks attached
to trees. It would make a refreshing change to minimalist galleries and
reflect the Howies brand. It could also be done on a beach.

Market plug-in air fresheners with smells of Welsh mountain air or the
Cardigan Bay bakery etc.

Howies ‘Boss Swap’.
David goes into a place of work and takes over for a day/week with the boss becoming
his apprentice. David can make the changes he sees fit, like energy saving lightbulbs,
recycling bins, having a ‘bring in cakes day‘ and basically lots of other things
to make it a better place to work. If David is unavailable, you could send out a...

Howies ‘Manual of Office Happiness’.
Howies could create a book to be sent to the heads of companies.
Inside there would be all the guidance to making a place of work
somewhere nice rather than somewhere people dread being.
We’re thinking along the lines of the double glazing sales team in
the BBC’s The Armstrongs.
http://uktv.co.uk/people/item/aid/574943

Howies cycle to work scheme.
Howies would loan a batch of bikes to a company to promote Eco-friendly
transport. Members of staff could then ditch their cars for the duration they have the bikes.
Rewards could be given to the staff who keep it up as well as incentives to buy
their own bikes like 20% off certain Howies clothes.

Letting off balloons.
At a festival, balloons with messages attached could be released. The messages
could be from Howies staff asking the recipient to write back telling them where the
balloon landed, and a short story about themselves or their area. These could then
be put online.

Organise paintballing on mountain bikes.

Howies 52 things to do before you die.
Howies to publish a book of great things to do before you kick the bucket, like doing
paintballing on bikes! A bit like This Diary Will Change Your Life.

Howies loyalty card. Recieve points with purchases.
Create a clubcard that can give the customer points wherever they pick up Howies gear.
This will help create a Howies community. Owners of the cards would receive special
invites, offers and gifts when they get enough points.

Create Howies fragrances with simple, no-nonsense natural smells.

T-shirt competition.
Get customers to submit a design for a T-shirt which gets put online. It then gets voted on, and
printed up for sale if it gets the most number of votes.

Howies forum.
Create an online forum for people to chat, swap biking experiences, places to skate, let others
know of events, respond to questions and comments by Howies staff etc. This will be a great
platform to find out what Howies customers like and want from the brand. Again it helps
build up a community.

Put helplines in suicide hotspots.
Howies could place phones in hotspots such as railway bridges or cliffs
with a direct line to the Samaritans. Howies like to make people think. If you
could make these people think, hundred's of lives could be saved.

Make Cardigan the first Welsh village to become carrier bag free. (Modbury in England did it).
http://www.modburydevoninfo.co.uk/news_article.asp?Article_ID=13

Organise a Howies pillow fight for charity.

Ask all the schools in the area to let the children spend a lesson watching
‘An Inconvenient Truth’ and a lesson discussing it. We think it’s easier to get
kids to change their attitudes to things, and starting them early can only be
a good thing.

Reversable T-shirts.
These could have opposite messages on each side like:
‘I’m having a good day’ and ‘I’m having a bad day’ etc.

Employ people as ‘buzz marketeers‘.
At biking/skating/sports/festival events get friendly people to walk around in (some) Howies
clothes and tell people about the brand. For example, if it’s raining, a buzz marketeer could
say “I get so sick of the rain, so I saved up for this waterproof jacket, it was so worth it”. 
The real key here is to be really subtle, honest and not come across like a rep trying to sell at
all costs. For example, if talking about jeans, the buzz marketeer could suggest a more suitable
fit rather than the ones they have on. The word of mouth technique is often a lot more effective
than conventional ways as it is very personal. You also get to find out what people want.

Howies Climb-it challlenge.
Organise a sponsored climb of Snowdon in aid of the climate crisis

Create online competitions for bikers and skaters. They could submit videos of themselves
doing tricks and stunts, that then gets judged by you. You could possibly specify which trick
you'd like to see too. For example, March is 'do a 360 degree turn' month.

Partner with a skateboard brand to create limited edition, sustainable wood skateboards.
Gibson guitars did it a few years back with their Smartwood electrics, made from a sustainable source.

Advertising the Howies brand must present a dilemma. Choosing to produce
conventional advertising that has a high environmental impact, for a low-impact
clothing company surely goes against the grain. So how do you advertise a
low-impact company?
The answer’s really simple. Use low-impact advertising. This way the medium
becomes the message. Easy. Done...Oh, you need convincing a bit more...well,
what if we said that lower-impact advertising can actually have a greater impact on
an audience. Conventional ads are a bit tired now, they only have around a 10 second
slot to make any kind of impact on you, because you see them so often, in magazines
and on billboards. So changing the medium can create an ad that will really hit ‘em
right between the eyes.
Our thought is to use natural environments to advertise within. Making marks in the
landscape like this isn't a new idea, but it is when the medium becomes the message.
One thing we saw a while ago and thought was utterly brilliant was imprinting in sand.
This is done by having a vehicle pull a large drum along a beach. The drum has a
message carved into it, and as the vehicle goes along, the drum makes hundreds
of impressions of the ad along the beach (see the attached pic). Think about how
many people will get to see this.
Another way could be to plant flower bulbs, and arrange them to make a sentence
when they eventually grow. Something as simple as ‘Howies organic clothing welcomes
you to Wales’ in bloom would convey the Howies ethos much better than any billboard.
There’s also a technique whereby you can place a stencil over a dirty wall or on a 
pavement and have the surface cleaned with water under the stencil, leaving you with
‘no paint graffiti’. ‘Howies catalogue out now‘ could be seen on pavements across town.
We feel strongly that these ideas are very ‘on brand’ for Howies. We see this as a
campaign too, rather than a one off. ‘Low-Impact‘ is the big idea and different
executions could be seen on/in different towns/beaches/events/festivals/hillsides etc.
What’s also good is that they are relatively inexpensive, don’t use many materials to
produce them and are perishable, so they leave no marks on the environment.

Create a range of skateboard graphic plasters.
We think it’s a nice coincidence that the board on a skateboard is
the same shape as a plaster. So instead of having boring plain skin-coloured
ones, why not have graphics from skateboards on the plasters instead?
We’re sure that plasters get used quite a bit by clumsy boarders so creating
some that people might actually want to keep on might not be such a bad thing.
The plasters could also have messages on, or simply the Howies logo
(which is that shape too).

Farvel
Sat siri akal
Adios
Sayonara
Lehitraot
Selamat tinggal
Au revoir
Do Svidanja
lla lika
Hoscakal
Khonda hafaz
Kwa heri
auf Wiedersehen
Adeeo
Tam biet
Do videnia
Arrivederci
Adeus
Khunda Hafiz
Zai jian
Nabad geiyo
Pirmelenge
Daag
Awjo
Do widzenia
Beannachd leibh
Hwyl

Poppy

Cycle roots campaign
Encourage more people to cycle rather than take cars by reminding them what it was
like to learn how to ride a bike. Arguably one of the best personal achievements you 
can do as a child. Remind people how exciting it was to ditch the stabilizers for the first time
and feel that freedom as you nervously pedal on, not knowing how far you can go before
you stop or fall off. It was such a simple pleasure. Remind them how inseparable
they were with their bikes once they’d mastered it.  The campaign needs to re-ignite a love
for cycling. Generally, people like things that remind them of childhood, things they have
forgotten. Once re-discovered though, there’s a possibility it could turn into a pastime they
do as an adult. The Howies tone of voice would work well for this.

Howies ‘Boss Swap’.
David goes into a place of work and takes over for a day/week with the boss becoming
his apprentice. David can make the changes he sees fit, like swapping to energy saving lightbulbs,
introducing recycling bins, having a ‘bring in cakes day‘ etc. Basically, injecting the Howies ethos
into a workplace. The experiment could be filmed and made into a mini documentary, and posted
online. This could serve as a teaching aid for other organisations. Maybe a series could be done
with workplaces that are totally different eg. from a greasy spoon cafe to lawyers offices.

We really liked watching the video of the pallet mover race in your warehouse. Could you
turn this into an exclusive sport? It’d be fairly easy to set up a tournament. All you need
is something similar to a go-cart track. People are always looking for the next new creation in the
skating world to master (like off-road skateboards),  so we think there could be a great
response to this. Winners could stand on a podium made from pallets too.

Start a series of 'Small World Experiments', highlighting how we are all connected.

Small World Experiment 1
Based on the idea everyone is no more than six "steps" away from each person on Earth.
Give each Howies employee a 'thingy' to send to a random person, somewhere in the world.
(contact them first to see if they would be happy to take part)

Ask that person to send the 'thingy' back to howies - but it can't be sent directly.
The person with the 'thingy' must send it to someone they know personally, and who they think might know howies.

The process is repeated until the 'thingy' is back home.
Here's the science bit: place a GPS tracker inside to track where the 'thingy' goes.
The 'thingy' keeps being passed on, and tracked via the Howies website.

Continuing on from the 6 degrees of separation idea, Howies could create an
official Facebook group. It’s free, quick to do, and you can instantly see who
likes your brand. You can look at people’s profiles and see what other interests they
have, post events up their, start a discussion, ask for ideas. Members of the group
can connect with each other too. There are already a couple of groups up there
such as the ‘Howies Appreciation Society’ group which has 187 members so far...

Howies world record.
Get Howies in the Guiness Book of Records, a more unusual way to get your
name out there. You don’t have to be superman anymore to break a record either,
for example, the Longest Skateboard record goes to three teenagers in Massachusetts.
Their board was 9.17m long and was made in 1995. Are Howies up to the challenge
of making a 10 metre-long one? 

US policy to global warming is a bigger risk to the world than terrorism.
Find a Howies customer willing to become US President, and back a campaign.
Post an online job application.
They must be at least 35 years old and a citizen born in the United States, Guam, Puerto Rico or the U.S. Virgin Islands (or to American parents abroad). You also need to have been a U.S. resident for at least 14 years.

Print:
Crazy Fool
Quit your jibber-jabber
I ain't getting on no plane
for a range called 'MR T-Shirts'

Dress up Fridays
Show your customers how much you feel for them, having to wear suits to the office all week.
All Howies employees pay £1 to come to work (once a month) in suits, ties and skirts (you can make
up your own minds about who wears what).
Take some shots and post it on the Howies website.

Fewer people are opting for a traditional church wedding.
So why not celebrate your customer's love for each other and the great outdoors by selling Howies wedding ceremonies?Howies customer's can book a wedding package consisting of ceremony, reception and evening at a number of remote outdoor locations throughtout the UK. 
Imagine, getting married on top of a mountain (but stipulate that the 'throwing of the bouquet' is strictly prohibited).
Get David, Claire & Ade ordained as ministers.

Small World Experiment 2
This is a concept which would run through one of the Howies catalogues.
It's called: First choice. Then habit.
Show how our decision to do something can become habit forming, and the positive effect it has on the people around us.
E.G. Washing your hands after going to the toilet.
According to The Chartered Institute of Environmental Health ‘Up to half of all men and a quarter of women still don't wash their hands after spending a penny.
It's no surprise then, there's an over 5.5 million cases of food poisoning in the UK a year. These unplanned absences are a real issue. It impacts on a business as well as creating more work for co-workers.
Things like not leaving the tap running whilst brushing your teeth (wasting water), or letting people out at junctions (stress)
could feature as small but positive actions.

Attach Welsh language signs to the street signs near your shop.
Or should that be Siop.
Diolch

Create a howies shoe, and put the soles to good use by
having messages on them.

At a festival, set up a stall where you can wash an item of clothing for festival goers.
With the muddy environment of festivals these days, we can see it being a popular
attraction. £1 for a pair of socks or undies, £2 for a T-shirt and £3 for a pair of jeans etc.

Howies believe in a thing called quality.
Your garments are made to last for many year's.
So why not give all your clothing a birthday - print the day the garment was born onto a label.
This could work particularly well in the new print shop where you have more control over
the products.

To help Doh Boy’s campaign, we’ve created a sandwich board for him to wear (See attached). These could be put on the Doh Boy website for people to download, and put on their own Doh Boys. 
To take the idea even further, howies could hire some fat suits and have ’real’ Doh Boy’s (and Doh Girls?) going round festivals or the skate tour with the life sized sandwich boards on. Maybe they could hang around a stall that sells homemade butties with real bread. Or just go around giving out samples of homemade bread. Spread the word!

Howies are interested in hearing what their customers have to say.
Why not extend this to an 'On-line poll'.
The questions should be a mix of both questions that make you think a lot
or just for a few seconds.
E.G.
WEEK 1
Q: Is the war in Iraq unjust? Answer Y / N
WEEK 2
Q: SALAD CREAM OR MAYONNAISE  
WEEK 3
Q: Should all city centres carry a congestion charge? Answer Y / N
WEEK 4
Q: THONG OR BIG PANTS
Show the weeks answers coming in on a bar chart.
At the end of the year publish your findings.

Grow 'living walls' on buildings within cities that needed to clean up air pollution.
Start at the howies shop.
www.verticalgardenpatrickblanc.com

howies believe in a thing called quality.
Your garments are made to last for year’s.
Let’s be proud of our hand-me-down’s –
They’re both environmentally and
financially friendly.

Based on the cubs badge system.
Design a set of howies badges that cover such topics as:
- likes Bruce Lee films
- likes Chinese food
- Goes running
- Aquarius
- Loves cats
- GSOH
Customers select the suitable badges, Howies stitch them onto clothing.
This saves time, money and effort when looking for a compatible mate.

Can we help out at the manchester skate tour,
or take you out for something to eat in the evening?
We'd love to do either.

For the next five days, our thoughts for the day will run alongside the
howies skate tour, and be ideas on what to do with the chalkboard
van once the tour has finished. Here's the first...
Take the van to schools, and give a howies lesson to kids in the playground,
using the van as a blackboard.

Get a petition going, and use the van to collect signatures. The van could
then be driven to Downing Street as a publicity stunt.

'Eco-pimp up' the van and convert the engine to run on vegetable oil.
The conversion costs around £600 and vegetable oil is around 40p/litre
from supermarkets. Alternatively, used filtered oil is about 25p/litre.
If you use less than 2500 litres per year, you don't have to pay duty either.

We always loved the story of the guy who turned one red paperclip into a house.
If you don't know the story, Kyle MacDonald wanted a dream house. His big
idea was to start off with a paperclip, and make a series of trades for bigger
and better items each time, until he was able to trade an item for a house.
He was able to get his house in 14 steps from starting with the paperclip.
The full story is here. http://oneredpaperclip.blogspot.com/
howies want a wind turbine. (Can you see where we’re going with this?)
Could you trade the van up until you get one? It’d be an eco-friendly way
(recycling) to get an eco-friendly energy supply. And a great story to tell.

Use the van for local advertising, for companies who howies like, but who won't
have a budget for advertising. For example, create a beautiful chalk illustration
ad for Cardigan's tea shop or the chippy. Ads could be done in return for some
of their tasty products. The van could be placed in tourist locations around
Cardigan Bay.

Hold a Best Scar competition online.
Skaters and riders who sport the most 'impressive' scars send in their
pics to the howies website. Each month howies pick the best one and sends
the reader a custom t-shirt from the print shop.

Kit out the Green Party.

Send all your clothes dispatches out with a howies 'goodie-bag'. The bag would be a printed paper one that would have a different message/illustration/graphic on it every month. Inside the goodie-bag could be limited edition howies posters, stickers postcards, badges etc. alongside promotional material from other companies that howies like, who produce organic and environmentally-friendly products. There could be specially designed material from bodies like Wales' tourist board on why it's good to keep beaches clean, or making sure yuo put out your camp fire. The pack could be done with very little cost to howies but collectively, will provide a strong message.
D&AD members receive a 25% discount off howies clothes. With 24,000 global entries in the 2007 D&AD awards,
there are a lot of potential customers to be had. Designers are notoriously competitive, and most will rise to the
challenge of 'who can design the best 'thing'?'. howies could create a howies design competition. Categories could
include 'Best T-shirt design', 'Best skateboard graphics',  'Best green product', 'Best copywriting', 'Best low-impact advertising' etc.
The results could be announced over a live web stream, with all the howies team in black tie dress (maybe in the park, or
on the beach).

Give T-shirts a second life. When someone's favourite T-shirt has been worn so much it’s
no longer wearable, they can send it to 'howies second life T-shirt service'. The old T-shirt is sent off
for recycling whilst the artwork is recreated and printed on a new T-shirt.

Make wristbands (the kind you get at festivals) with a howies message on. At an event, the wristbands
are attached to people who want to take part in a competition. For every year that a person can keep the
wristband on, they get a free howies gift (clothes, doh boy, bike! etc.). This would show good dedication
to howies, and get the message across. Imagine how many people you come into contact with in a whole year.

Do a sponsored bike ride, with a difference. The howies team would rig an exercise bike up to an
electrical generator, which would connect with a computer. The howies team needs to pedal to
keep the computer on for a given amount of time. Maybe 9-5. Each team member can take turns to
pedal throughout the day. On that day have a big banner on the website letting people know that
for today, the howies website is actually 'powered by howies!' There could also be a a chart showing
how much money is raised and how far has been cycled.

Sponsor a student.
Set up a campaign looking for a 3rd year student who is studying a subject, for a job that will do some good.
When the student is chosen by a vote/panel, he/she will be kitted out in howies gear for the year. The student
will also have to set up a blog detailing all they do, from how they travel, to what food they buy. They could
be given assignments to do too, like promoting cycling around their uni, or educating other students
about green issues. They'll have to keep this up until their graduation, which the howies team could attend and
give out their own howies graduation certificate.

Young writers award.
howies set a competition to schools, asking pupils to write about subjects such as 'Greener ways to get to school',
'What makes them happy?', 'What would they do if they were Prime Minister?' etc. The idea is to make youngsters
think a bit more and spark ideas on how we could live better, when they'll hopefully be in positions to makes changes happen.

Take Doh Boy (the life-size version) around schools and give pupils a food tech lesson 
in making home made, fat-free bread (and why it’s great). Whoever makes the best loaf wins a little Doh Boy.

howies could make different versions of the packing tape used
to seal clothes parcels. The rolls of tape could have messages
on to be used for parcels that will be passed on as gifts, like
'These clothes are for life, not just for Christmas' or 'Have a
howies happy birthday (you look fab)'. Customers could
choose the tape they'd like on their parcel when they get to
the online checkout.

Send in a bike tyre to howies and have it made into a
tyre belt. This would be a lot more personal to the wearer,
as they’re reminded of all the places they’ve ridden.

A few weeks ago, we mentioned cycle powered computers. This guy does something
similar, but with a washing machine:
http://www.inhabitat.com/2007/08/22/cyclean-bike-powered-washing-machine/
We think this would look great as a piece of publicity on Carnaby Street, or at the LBR lectures,
or at a bike event etc.

If you don't stand for something, you'll fall for anything.
RIP Anita Roddick.

If howies ever start making footwear, you could use old skateboard
decks as shelves in the shop, to place the shoes on.

Use the howies shop after trading hours for community building 
classes, such as book reading groups, discussions on green issues, or learning Welsh.

Build a bike shed near/next to the shop, for customers riding in.

Send out a howies Thought For The Week by email, to customers.
This will help put you at the front of people's minds every week, rather
than waiting for them to visit the howies site.

We think it's interesting that two of the UK's most high profile ethical companies (which place simple,
honest words at the heart of their brand) don't outsource their writing.
Why not get together with innocent and give a talk to copywriters on how to write a successful brand story?

Exhibit the best Art Think summer pieces in the howies shop for a month.
Have a special preview night too that could double up as the shop opening night party,
as the two will coincide.

Have an A board outside the shop (like the kind you see outside a newsagent) and place
headlines in that will make people think. The extinction of the Yangtze river dolphin would
make a thought provoking headline, for example. The A board could also have longer pieces
from the Think section of the howies site, that people will stop and read.

Limited edition T-shirt collaborations with various charities.
Like (PRODUCT) RED.

Make a pair of gloves with a mirrored surface on the back of the palms. Riders could then then twist their hands down around the handlebars to see what's behind them, when on the road.

Sponsor benches around Cardigan Bay, with headphone jacks built in. People can then sit down, plug in a pair of headphones, and listen to inspiring and thought-provoking sound clips (like the LBV talks).

Make the next catalogue about the Howies family in Bristol.
Give them howies clothes and get them active (cycling, hiking, canoeing etc.). 
The catalogue would follow their progress.
Pages could include Howies family diary entries, and howies tasks for the family to do.

Sponsor school sports days, with howies gear being given as prizes.
You'll be reaching your potential future customers.

Print:
Strong _ (tick here)
Weak_ (tick here)
Milk_ (tick here)
Sugar(s)_ (number here)
for a range called Cup of T-Shirts

Do a quick-fire version of the LBV lectures on Hyde Park's Speaker's Corner,
and every so often shout the fact that the howies shop is open on Carnaby Street.

If the howies shop has a flat roof, paint a message on it. It could simply
say, 'Hello, this is the howies shop' or maybe 'Look after your earth'.
The idea is that this could be seen on Google Earth.

The air conditioning in the shop could have a scent which makes it
smell like fresh Cardigan Bay sea air.

You could put David's Applied Green talk online for people to download.
(We have a (fairly) good MP3 file of it, if you want.)

Install a recycling point at the shop for customer’s carrier bags.
If someone who has been shopping in London arrives at the howies
store loaded up with bags, they can place all their items in one howies
bag and recycle the rest.

Next time howies run a t-shirt competition, get five of the best, make them up and put them in
the shop, customers can then vote on which T-shirt they want to be sold for real, via a ballot box.

Take Away Tees.
Design a range of T-shirts that would be packaged in pizza boxes.
The boxes could be delivered to a London address by a howies delivery person,
which would be great for surprising someone with a gift (a bit like sending flowers).

Place cards in phone boxes around London saying 'For guilt-free pleasures visit howies, Carnaby Street, London.'

Have kites made with messages on to be flown in parks and on beaches.
The kites would be brightly coloured and ideally, the more the better.
The message we had in mind was 'howies are now wind powered',
for when you install your wind turbine.
This would be another idea to fit in with a low-impact advertising campaign.

Our next attempt at printing into sand will hopefully bit more
efficient...

Howies design clothing with the skating and biking communities in mind,
but could you market the clothing in other areas? One that seems quite close
to where you are is horse riding. High performance clothing is in big demand
in this area, especially fleeces and waterproof jackets. We see Howies being very
appealing to this audience of mainly young women who have lots of disposable
income. Running a stall at the UK's biggest equestrian trade show could be
a good idea. http://www.beta-int.com/

A few weeks ago we sent you this thought:
'Make a pair of gloves with a mirrored surface on the back of the palms.
Riders could then then twist their hands down around the handlebars to see what's behind them, when on the road.'
And today, we came across this picture, which made us laugh. Looks a bit silly really.

Next time you have a t-shirt competition, hire some life-size artists mannequins to model them in the shop.
Or for the next Art Think, have them wearing howies clothes to advertise the competition.
http://www.moodart.co.uk/UploadedFiles/Artwork/mannequin%20I.jpg

Partner Persil - They believe Dirt is Good, too.
Although it might sound strange for a leading laundry brand like Persil to say this, they believe, like you, dirt is good: it's an important part of a child's development. It's how kids learn, express their creativity and even bolster their immune systems.
At a time when growing numbers of children are leading sedentary lives, often cocooned in the home, glued to the TV and the web, they are not afraid to celebrate this time-honoured truth.
Partner up with Persil to get kids outdoors and more active.
Give away a small packet of Persil with every purchase.

Mitten Socks
Never end up with an odd pair of socks again.
Produce a pair of socks that are connected by a long piece of material - like mittens.

Spray howies logos onto Merino sheep - great PR stunt.

Give a catalogue over to some graduates to produce - that could be the theme of the catalogue: how it got made.

Partner up with YCN to find a group of design, photography and fashion graduates that are guided by the howies design team through the process of producing a catalogue to a deadline.

A few 'Think/Buy' ideas over the next 3 days:

Think/Buy Idea 1 - Missing person T's
Produce a range of T-shirts with pictures of missing people on them - give them away with a regular purchased T.

Think/Buy Idea 2 - ObesiT's
Produce a range of XXXL T-shirts for people who want to lose weight. Once they have lost the weight, they send in a picture of themselves and howies will send them them a L T-shirt for free.

Think/Buy Idea 3 - Cash for questions
We're guessing the average howies customer likes to buy organic, save energy, is active and recycles. And buy howies clothes because they like the company's ideals as much as the fashion.

But what if they are unwittingly putting their money into a bank which invests it unethically? All their good intentions are being undone - ask them to think about what their bank is doing with their money.

Does the howies catalogue need to be sent out in a envelope?
Could a self sealing cover and address/postage label work?

Deliver howies goods in your own fleet of vans, which run on bio-fuel.

Performance related bonus scheme
Each howies employee is set a task which benefits the employee.
e.g. Ade breaking the land speed record.
If the employee achieves their given goal within a set timeframe, they are rewarded with a bonus.

Lend your support to the National Ramblers Association.
Rambling has emerged as a new and innovative way to integrate refugees into their communities. Because walks are more informal and cost little, they provide an excellent way for newcomers to the country to meet people from their locality and to get to know them better.
The new branch of the National Ramblers Association dedicated to the scheme, is run on a small budget and mainly with the help of volunteers.  It targets families who come from war-torn countries including Iran, Somalia, and Kosovo.
Perhaps howies could supply previous seasons outdoor wear, or underwear, hats, gloves or scarves.

A while ago, we sent a 'thought for the day' that suggested hooking
a bike up to a generator, that would then power a computer.
Innovate Or Die (www.innovate-or-die.com) think it’s a cool idea too,
as they’ve set a competition to design a pedal powered machine.
You can see their great example here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLaaunce4JQ
Could howies enter an idea? Or ask customers to come up with ideas
and enter themselves?

howies virtual store. For people who are unable to visit the howies shop, open an online version. The customer could 'walk' through the store clicking items to see in detail. Customers could upload a picture of themselves to see how clothes would look on them before they buy too. They could click on members of staff to see videos of them in the store eg. testing the postcard machine, or setting up a window display.

Could you tell customers about these on the shop wall?
http://www.supergreenboards.com/

To get a glimpse into howies' way of working, next time you prepare to bring out a
new clothing product, create a blog for it. Visitors to the blog will be able to see how
the product is made from the very first brainstorming session round a table, through
to sketches, sourcing the materials, testing it, naming it, and finally selling it.

Partner with a fashion/design/culture/sporting icon to design a special range for howies.
Bloc Party designed T-shirts for Lee Jeans a few months ago that went down well, and
the Stella McCartney for Adidas and Kate Moss for Topshop ranges have also had
shoppers queuing.

Have a howies presence in Second Life. We like the idea of creating billboards
in Second Life that say things like: 'The real world can be just as good', 'Experience
life for yourself' etc. Characters for howies staff could be created to interact and
talk with others on there too.

Howies London T-shirt idea: 'Howies Hyde Park Ramblers Club'

Produce a small map guide to green areas in and around London.
We like the idea of a London tourist map with no attractions listed, apart from parks.

Have a live webcam to Cardigan Bay in the shop. It would look great projected onto a wall, life-sized.

Print a link on T-shirt washing labels on how to fold it in 2 seconds.
http://www.fold-your-shirt.com You could film your own on the howies site.

Set an inter-disciplinary brief to colleges and universities to make the next great howies product.
Fashion students would design a garment, which would be photographed by the photography department,
then it gets passed to designers to package and finally advertising students who would find ways
of promoting the product.

Customers could get money off howies clothes by bringing an old item in to the shop.
One old T-shirt gets £3 off one new howies T-shirt for example.
All the old clothes then get given to homeless charities, or sent to developing countries.

Online advent calendar. Every day up to Christmas has a different offer for a specific item of clothing eg. Dec 10th – 15% off a Tiggy hoodie.

We've just been to watch a brilliant talk by Dan Germain, which gave us
a quick thought: For next year’s 'The Big Knit', howies could design a range
of tiny wooly Innocent bottle hats to be sold exclusively in the shop.
They'd become instant collectables we think.

Give a gift. A customer buys an item from the shop and is asked to leave the name of a family member/friend/loved one.
That person is told to go into the shop by the customer where they can pick up a small gift or a money-off voucher.
Nice way to get new customers.

Stickers to place on the carrier bags people are already carrying, when buying from the shop,
saying something like: 'The lovely people at howies have saved me carrying another plastic bag!'

Wrapping paper T-shirt.
The T has a wrapping paper print on the inside.
You give it as a present inside-out to save on wrapping paper.
The front of the T-shirt can be a regular howies design.

Ask everyone who is given a tree at the opening party, to take a photo of
their tree when they plant it, and then take a picture every year after that.
It'll be nice to see all the trees grow together.

Good luck at the opening tonight!
Hope it all goes well. See you down there.

Quirky little invention that could be a future condender for the howies shop 'cool wall'.
http://produktdesign.hfg-karlsruhe.de/projekte.php?filter=Studenten&id=451&bild=2285

Growing together.
It struck us that howies is at the centre of an amazing group of like-minded people, the Carnaby shop party really brought that home for us.
We got to speak to some very interesting people, but not everyone.
Why not ask everyone who attended the party to take a shot of themselves holding their potted tree, and send it to you guys with a little bit of info on their company, skill or talent, as well 
as contact details. And, what it means for them to work with howies.
Post everyone's picture and details on-line so we can all get to know each other a bit better, and use each others skills and knowledge to grow together...

Have a Christmas card collection point in store. It would be nice to get them recycled into wrapping paper for next year.

Over Xmas, have a massage station in the shop for tired customers.

No one likes getting rubbish presents at Xmas. It’s a hassle for the giver to find something, and a disappointment for the receiver. 'howies hint cards' could solve the problem. People leave cards around the house, car windscreens etc. saying 'I like howies, my size is S M L and my favourites colour is Blue Red Black Yellow Green.' You cross out the options that don't apply and the giver of the gift has a good idea of what you‘ll like as a present, but it'll still remains a surprise. Could work as an email too.

Go round in the howies van giving factory seconds to homeless people for winter.

We saw these and thought the girls might like them for when summer finally comes around again. 
http://www.krislovett.com/reply.html

Have a customisable scarf area on the howies site, much like Nike ID. The user starts with a plain white
scarf and can add colours from a palette to make a bespoke item.

A potential festival to sponsor?
http://bicyclefilmfestival.com/2007_site/about.php

Idea for the new year.
Start a T-shirt club. Customers join up and pay £100, then receive 5 T's throughout
the year. These could be limited edition ones, or just surprises, so they don't know what
they'll get.

You may have noticed in the news recently, there has been calls for the Union Jack
to be redesigned to incorporate Wales' national flag. Why not run a competition just
for fun to design the new Union Jack. The winning design would look great on a T shirt.

Extra Miler Awards.
Competition run by howies to find people around the world who go the the extra mile.
'Extra Milers' would be nominated by friends, colleagues or family giving an explanation
on what they do that makes them worthy of the award. It would make a great photo
archive if you required that a photo be submitted of the nominee in action.
The prize could be a relaxing weekend away in a Spa as they’d have earned it!

Merino wool t-shirts.
Have a photo of the sheep of the the wool came from along with its 'name' and serial number.

For one day a year, give the shop over to a charity/NFPO that would
have no way of normally being in central London.

We saw this article on Treehugger yesterday, and was drawn to the placard with Blinky on (the three eyed fish):
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2007/12/organizations_demand_government_action_argentina.php
Blinky has been used here to highlight environmental concerns about a pulp mill near the Uruguay River.
We used Blinky to highlight the risks of nuclear waste on the howies chalkboard van back in August:
http://thoughtful.squarespace.com/journal/2007/8/18/howies-part-2.html
Could Blinky be redrawn (so as not to infringe on Matt Groening’s copyright), and be made into an international
symbol encouraging people to keep our oceans/seas/lakes/rivers/ponds clear from pollutants? If nothing else,
it’d make a cool T-shirt design.

Send out a pack of recycled blank paper for customers who would prefer to print out the catalogue from a pdf.

We saw this great idea for a jacket, and thought your earth tax could go towards producing
a garment that would benefit less fortunate individuals, be it homeless people, or people
affected by disasters in developing countries.
http://www.designboom.com/weblog/read.php?CATEGORY_PK=&TOPIC_PK=2171

These indoor skateboards look like loads of fun to us.
Could they be upholstered with the off cuts from howies jeans,
or howies t-shirts? We think a denim board would look
pretty cool.
http://www.modernconvenience.com/insideskate.html

Merry Christmas howies!
It might be a nice idea to take any unwanted presents you get today
into work along with all the other howies staff, and have a kind of swap shop.
Like the saying goes: One man’s muck is another man’s treasure. 

Have large product descriptions on clothing to be worn in the shop, or
as display pieces. They could be on the front of T-shirts, or down the legs
of jeans etc. For instance, on a Merino wool T-shirt it could say:
'This is a 100% superfine, superfly Merino wool T-shirt. This means it's
made from the finest and softest wool of any sheep. Good eh? It can resist
a build up of odours, it can regulate temperature and it's even itch-free!
But more importantly, it feels real nice next to your skin. Ahhh'

Sell seasonal clothes bundles. For example, when the summer catalogue
is out, customers have the option of getting completely kitted out, for a reduced price.
The new wardrobe would have to be at least 7 pairs of undies, socks, T-shirts,
a jacket, a hoodie and a jumper.

Attach a card to products with the pictures of everyone who helped get the
product to the customer. From the designers, to the manufacturers, to the
guys in the warehouse. It's nice to see the effort that goes into the process,
as it can be taken for granted. Especially when buying from bigger 'faceless'
companies.

For this year's January sales, you could advertise your own sale as 'Clothes to survive the sales with'. We're thinking of the two girls who got treated for hypothermia after queuing up outside Next at 5am on the day of their sale.
Happy new year howies, we'd like to say a big 'thank you' for giving us the time of day in '07, and we hope that in 2008 we'll really be able to blow your socks off with some great ideas. All the best, Thoughtful.
Celebrate St David's Day instore on March 1st.

New Year's resolution T-shirts. They would say 'I've given up...' on the front.
The T is then supplied with badges of things like chocolate bars,
cigarettes, beer, and TV's to attach to the T depending on what you have
given up. They can also be taken off as your will power crumbles!

Full high-visibility jackets look silly, so how about a jacket with a high-visibility
fabric on the inside, that can detach via velcro and be brought around the front
and back of the jacket and be reattached. Then it gets put back inside the jacket
when the wearer has finished cycling/trekking/working outdoors etc.
It just always means you have a safety item to hand, and can wear a cool jacket.
FAO Chris,

Hi Chris, we're not sure if Clare, David, Scania or Ade has told you about
'Thought for the day', or indeed us. We're a Manchester based 'ideas agency'
called Thoughtful, and for the last six months, we've been sending howies
a thought every day.
Why? Well, we love companies like howies and we think their working ethos is
similar to ours. With that in mind, we feel there are some good projects we can
work on together in the future. We'll just quickly explain 'ideas agency'. In the
past we have mainly worked in the graphic design field, but since setting up
Thoughtful, we've been keen to show our skills in other areas too. We feel that
if an idea is good, then the medium it's on could be anything, not just a piece of print.
So back to 'Thought for the day'. These come every working day for a year. We
started last year on June 4, so we've six months to go. Some thoughts are silly,
some are simple, and some are more in depth, but all of them are ideas on things
howies could do as a company. Some have turned into projects, ask David about
the Doh Boy stall, or Low Impact Advertsing.
So Happy 1st Thought for the Day Chris, we hope you'll like them, and if you
don't want to receive them, just let us know.
Thoughtfully
Chris/James/Stuart
Thought for the day:
For your next reincarnation of the Slate River jacket, have transparent discs built
into the cuffs so you can see you watch without having to pull your sleeves back,
and end up getting a soggy jumper.

If you're ever kitting out the howies office, here are
some pieces that might be right up your street:
http://www.highsnobiety.com/home/the_daily_news/archive/2008/january/03/skate_study_house/index.htm

Have an online aspect to the calender. With each clothing piece in the catalogue, have a link
to a movie clip alongside it. The clip would show the garment being worn by a member of
the howies team doing something active, eg. Scania wearing the Born Again jacket whilst tidying
Mwnt Beach. It'd be good to get up close to the clothes too, showing the detail. Alternatively, you
could have for instance, a group of people, like 10 skaters all wearing different clothes, doing their
tricks, so you didn't have to have a movie clip for every individual item. We think this would be
a good example of going the extra mile in the world of catalogues.

Run a competition in the catalogues eg. putting a Willy Wonker-style
Golden Ticket inside a number of catalogue envelopes that can be
redeemed for a prize.

A more concentrated version of our low impact advertising, see the 'red flip flops' on the page.
http://blog.branders.com/?p=362

We wished we'd have thought of this. It would look brilliant outside the howies shop:
http://swissmiss.typepad.com/weblog/2008/01/bikestand-airpu.html

Another link today, but we think it's relevant in these dark winter days, and goes back
to the issue of visability.
The product would also look great on ads, shot with a camera on a long exposure,
to get the full light movement of skaters. 
http://www.photonlightboards.com/

In response to Scania's thought about January Blues, we thought it'd make
a good T-shirt. See attachment.

We did a talk this morning to around 50 students at Stockport College,
all of whom, loved the Low Impact Advertising and howies in general.
So you may have a few new fans today.

Another link today guys, but this one's definitely worth a look. Very 'howies'.
http://www.designboom.com/weblog/read.php?CATEGORY_PK=&TOPIC_PK=2274

T-shirt idea:
The word 'Chain reaction' written by illustrating a bike chain
in the shape of the letters.

T-shirt idea, simple slogan:
'FREE RANGE' or 'I'M FREE RANGE' or 'GO FREE RANGE'
It get's across howies ethical side, and promotes being outdoors.

T-shirt idea. See attached. (Glass of water)

Cargo trousers with reflective material on the inside. When riding, they can
be rolled up to avoid bike chains, and the reflective material will be visable.

A nice thought to end the week.
Q. How can you add to the Doh Boy 'brand', and also tie it in to the
Low Impact Advertising idea?
A. See attached pic.
It would be a great product to sell alongside Doh Boy. 

Today, the newspaper's front page story was that McDonalds were now giving out 'McQualifications'
to their staff, which allows them to learn how to run a restaurant.
Could howies do something similar? You could send your staff out to do courses and learn skills, such
as first aid, mountain rescue, spending a few days with a lifeboat crew, working in a nature reserve, learning
to recycle things found on a beach etc.
The skills they learn could be then talked about to the rest of the howies staff, like a 'show and tell' or put on
individual blogs/ diary-cams. Maybe someone else will think 'Ooo, I'd like to try that too'.

T-shirt idea.
'4x4 = stupid.'
Along with an illustraton of a Hummer.

T-shirt idea.
How about a blueprint or 'IKEA instructions' style illustrations on a
T-shirt of how to make your own skateboard from reclaimed wood?
We think from a graphics point of view, this would look pretty cool.
We've looked on the web, and they seem simple to make providing
you have the trucks.

To illustrate an example of teamwork, why not create Britains longest tandem
bicycle and ride it around London (if you're brave enough!) as a publicity stunt,
with the howies team riding it. The giant tandem could use old used bikes that
are be donated to the project. All it'd take would be a bit of 'Scrap Heap Challenge'
skill and knowledge.

Make a howies scarf with integrated speakers on the inside.
The scarf would be worn by cyclists that want to listen to their MP3 players, but don't want
to compromise their safety by wearing headphones.

Sometimes the simple ideas are the best. Unfortunately, this one
isn't one of ours, but we really wish it was (see the link).
http://www.yankodesign.com/index.php/2008/01/31/the-dry-side/
Could you fund some of these on your favourite beaches around Cardigan?
Maybe they could be a lateral way of advertising one of your waterproof jackets,
with a something along the lines of 'Keeps you dry when it's wet everywhere else'.

Give each member of staff a duvet day in the time span of say, a month.
Staff would be asked dream about howies, themselves, and the future.
They'd write down all their ideas and dreams and present them to everyone
at the end of the month. Staff would be encouraged to dream about themselves
in the company, and what they'd do if they had a free rein. Some may like
to try designing clothes, some may want to run a new howies shop, some may
just want to make less tea. It'd be good to hear everyone's dreams.

We have just received a cool package in the post called a Matter box.
Basically, a Matter box full of direct mail items from various companies,
but the difference is, the items are specifically designed for the Matter box,
and are designed to be innovative and engaging, rather than standard
dull leaflets. Maybe there is an opportunity for howies to create something
for a future Matter box.
To see what we're talking about, see what we got in ours at the link below.
http://matterbox.co.uk/matterblog/?p=32

A good step forward for Citroen.
http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/news/autoexpressnews/210321/citroen_ccactus.html

Run a competition using the new Instorematic. Everyday, print out a postcard
that is a piece of a huge picture. Each postcard gets stuck on a wall in the howies
shop, and the first customer to guess what the picture is wins a prize. It would
be a bit like Catchphrase. The picture could be a close up of something, someone,
or a picture of a location.

Could you get hold of an oven to hold a bread baking lesson in the shop one
night? David and Clare could show off their new skills preparing the bread,
and then while the bread is being baked, a talk could take place about something
completely different, before everyone gets to eat the freshly baked bread.

China now tops the U.S in total green house gas emissions. Could howies have a month
where you donate money to environmental projects in China? Maybe design a t-shirt that
generates money to be donated, or donate money for every Chinese meal bought at a 
restaurant or take-away in Cardigan, in the space of a month.

Run a howies Flickr picture of the month. The person who took the best picture to come
out of the instorematic, voted by the customers that recieve them, wins a prize.

Happy Valentines Day howies! We recently found this guide to a greener Valentines Day, and thought you might like it.
A Greenpeace climate-friendly Valentines Guide (mostly)
My friend Hugo recently noted "it's Valentine's Day, and the very idea of the depressingly rampant commercialism around it all makes me want to gouge my eyes out with a rusty spoon...". And he used to work in advertising. So this got me thinking about all the red and/or fluffy tat currently littering the high street. Not that I have ever been showered with such absurd gifts - no man would dare. But someone out there must be buying this stuff, and it needn't be that way.
If you are staring down the next 24 hours without a clue what to do for your lover on Valentine's day, I'm offering up some guidance that is loving towards the planet, and will put a spark in your day - the rest of the year is up to you.
1. What your lover really wants does not come from a shop. And all that useless tat that will be thrown out by Easter means energy and resources wasted, and often flown all the way from China. Be creative, I know you can do it, offer a massage, create a card, use your imagination.
2. Forget the fossil fuel based lubricants like petroleum jelly! No need to screw the planet today or any day.
3. Make love with the lights out. Candles are more romantic after all.
4. The only thing you should spend money on is organic chocolate - and lots of it. (I know that isn't helping the climate but it must be said.)
5. Pass on the flowers flown in from Africa. There are beautiful potted bulbs of crocuses, daffodils, and snow drops this time of year and they will last longer.
6. If you're going to make a weekend of it, skip the short haul flights and opt for a romantic train ride and B&B in the country-side. With the weather we're having it will even feel like an exotic destination.
7. Make an organic dinner for two. Check where your produce comes from as well, is it all grown in the UK? Can you avoid fruit and veg flown in from the four corners?
8. Solar battery charger for those um… romantic "accessories".
9. If you want to splurge, get a tandem and spend all summer cycling together.
10. Sometimes humour is the best way to the heart, and sending a Mr Splashy Pants e-card ( http://www.greenpeace.org/international/fungames/e-cards/splashyholidaycard ) will definitely make an impression if you're still caught out for ideas.

Good little service in London.
Might be nice to promote it in the store.
http://www.velorution.biz/?page_id=3

The 'skateboard' car, of the future.
http://www.5min.com/Video/The-Future-Car---Skateboard-6475583

T-Shirt slogan:
SPORT GIVES BACK

Nice way to package 'Royaltee' T-shirts.
Fold them in the same way national flags are folded.
http://www.iloveyourtshirt.com/\?p=933

Set a competition to let some of your customers become models for a future howies
catalogue. Maybe you could install a video booth in the shop for potentials to do some
'big brother' style VT's telling you why they'd be perfect for the job. 

We've been talking about the vast amounts of counterfeit clothes available
to buy on Ebay. Most have no pictures of the actual item for sale, instead,
it's a picture dragged from an online catalogue, so there isn't really a way
of knowing if what you're getting is genuine. Could howies have a section
on your site that lets people know how to spot a genuine howies garment?
Or maybe a T-shirt that can be specifically sold on Ebay to get the message
out to ebay customers, with a big slogan on the front saying something like: 
KEEP IT REAL
or
THIS IS A GENUINE HOWIES T-SHIRT.

Do a flash mob on a packed beach in summer. Have a large group of howies
people blended into the crowd, dressed in the latest season's gear, and do
a flash mob of a catwalk fashion show on the beach, it'd look great.

If you liked Transformers, and you like bikes, you may like this:
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2007/04/the_suitcase_bi.php

Could you ask people who recieve the catalogue, to send it back if or when they're
finished with them? It'd be nice to make more howies catalogues out of old ones.

We were thinking about the catalogue yesterday, and started wondering
about disappearing inks. The clothes pages of the catalogue could be
printed using a disappearing ink that faded to nothing after 3 months,
leaving the customer with blank pages to scribble, write, draw etc.
We don't actually know if this would work but it would be cool.

Have a nice 'extra day' howies. Here's a picture to cheer you up.
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/02/bike-path-next-to-water-funny.php

We don't normally send a Thought For The Day at the weekend, but we had to say happy St. David's Day! We're not sure how you celebrate it, but if it's anything like St. Patrick's, we imagine you'll all be very drunk by now.
Let customers get more from the howies catalogue.
Donate X number of pages at the back of the catalogue
every season to a few different subjects, and very simply,
have these pages perforated to be pulled out, kept, and
eventually made into a howies 'How To' guide, or 'howies
guide to life'.
Subjects we were initially thinking about include cycle
maintenance, recipes (bread baking etc.), how to repair
clothes, recycling, learning japanese (or other), hiking
guide to Wales (a bit like Wainwright), and how to perform
basic skate tricks. There could be loads more.
It would make the catalogue more desirable, collectable,
and wouldn't interfer with the main clothing/ideas section,
but to connect it back into the latest season's clothes, you
could have people wearing them in the photos. For instance,
have Ade wearing all the latest gear, whilst showing how
to fix his bike.

These reminded us of some of the illustrations you commission. Could you
get some new screensavers done to be seen on an iPhone? 
http://reubenmiller.typepad.com/my_weblog/2008/03/poolga-iphone-w.html

We thought this board looked pretty cool...
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/03/eco-skate-innovative-materials-brazil.php

Postcard mailer to promote kids clothes.
Have a small set of postcards with the howies kids clothes and characters on,
that have tabs. They can be punched out of the postcards and 'dressed up'.
Much like the paper doll sets you used to see before computer games!

Continuing on from the Low Impact Advertising sand prints, we also think
it would be cool to find someone who specialises in sand sculptures. They could
make 3D typographic messages protruding from the sand, or sculpt sand 'people'
on the beach wearing howies gear. If they did someone wearing a howies T, they
could etch the design onto it.

Have a weekly/monthly video broadcast on the howies site. It be done by different
people in different locations, and would really just be a blog entry, but done as a
movie clip, on topics that have interested you all in the last week/month.

Moving on the idea you did a few years ago with the illustrated wardrobes,
could you buy/build/hire a beach hut and do the same thing? A different
illustration each month.

Have a monthly auction section to your site where you offer a
one-off item of clothing, with the proceeds going to a good cause.
The name of the auction would be Cbay, after Cardigan Bay.

Good for cyclists.
http://nickpapageorgia.blogspot.com/2008/03/turn-signal-bike-jacket.html

Yesterday we read that scientists in China are bizaarly trying to cross-breed cows
and minke whales. The theory is that they are using a loophole that lets their commercial
whaling continue, under the blanket of 'scientific research'.
You can read more about it here:
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,23339764-2,00.html
We think this would make a good T-shirt.
A simple illustration of a whale with a cow pattern on its body saying something 
like 'This was never going to be a good idea' or similar.

Julian Beaver does some incredible pavement artworks.
It's not cheap, but would look incredible on Carnaby Street
as a howies promotion. Like the Low Impact Advetising, the
rain comes and just washes it all away afterwards.
Check out the work here:
http://users.skynet.be/J.Beever/pave.htm

Bikes can be cleverly used in Third World countries.
http://www.rowan.edu/today/news/index/PR/2040

Ideas can be frustrating. Just when you think you have a good one, you
do a bit of research to see if has already been done...and it has.
Our thought was to do a range of braille T-shirts. They would have
raised dots on the chest and could translate some of your howies
T-shirt slogans. They could be worn by visually impaired people,
or by others who are friends with visually impaired people so they
can let them touch their T-shirt and read what they are wearing.

Here's a cool competition to let your friends know about.
http://nycityracks.wordpress.com/

We really liked the idea of your Photo Incentive T-shirt. 
Continuing the theme, another option would be to have a 
T-shirt absolutely covered in sponsor logos. Each one would 
say 'howies', but in lots of different graphic styles, typefaces, and 
colours.

Build some snowmen and dress them in baselayers, merino wool T's and 
fleeces for a future winter catalogue. These howies clothes are great at 
keeping you warm, when you're feeling the cold. 

Interesting development of organic LEDs here.
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/03/osram-warm-white-organic-led-oled.php

Run a howies badge competition and give the best ones away with your T-shirts.

Idea for a T-shirt: Badge of honour. See attached image.

Cyclists power a rock concert.
Now there's an idea.
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/03/earth-hour-israel.php

Putting howies shirts on the map.
Or is that the other way round?
Here's an idea we think you'll like. We've had a thought about your
short sleeved checked shirts, an item that probably doesn't get as
much attention, in terms of ideas given to it as a T-shirt.
We've taken a large-checked white shirt and used the checked
pattern as a map grid. Then we've overlaid a section of a map that
seems slightly abstact. The map could be a section of a country, a
beach, a forest, the whole of Wales or GB. We've used Cardigan Bay
on our visual. Ours is from an OS map, but could be more colourful.
We just thought it was a different way of looking at a checked pattern.

Have a 'Retro T-shirt collection' section on the site with some of the earliest
or past favourite howies T's reprinted. Maybe it's 'Retro T of the week' or month.

We're not quite sure whether this would make a great ad, a good idea for your catalogue or a good piece of email communication?
The idea is this: Write a short email about how Summer is almost here and all the loveliness that goes with it. The writing should highlight the fact we're all stuck in office, when we 
should be outside playing.
Send the email to everyone on the howies database. Head the email as "Out of Office Response".

T-shirt/catalogue spread strapline:
WE SHOULD BE OUTSIDE PLAYING
or
I'D RATHER BE OUTSIDE PLAYING

Nice idea for the kids:
http://haatar.com/Works/ViewWork.php?workID=317

QR (quick response) codes are the next advancement in barcode technology.
They allow someone with a camera phone to point at the code which then
gets reinterpreted through the camera into a graphic to appear on the phone's
screen, or directs them to a URL if the phone has web access.
So a howies T-shirt with a big QR code on the front could take someone to
the site, or it could be a normal T-shirt slogan when viewed through the
phone.
Creative Review have posted an article on the codes.
http://www.creativereview.co.uk/crblog/q-do-you-think-you-r/

T-shirt slogan:
Old's Cool.
It could refer to things that are meant to last, or old
ways of doing things that are better than the new way
eg. Baking bread.

The bike that you don't pedal.
Looks like fun.
http://www.designboom.com/weblog/read.php?CATEGORY_PK=&TOPIC_PK=2686

Like the skate team, and the surf team, could you get involved with
a band that becomes the 'howies band', when they go on tour they
would wear your products.

T-shirt slogan:
Everything I needed to say, was said
on my other T-shirt.

Ask Green TV to make a documentary about the howies Do lectures.
It'd be good to see all the planning and behind the scenes stuff before
the actual talks. Especially if you live in New Zealand and can't make it
in person.

Make a T-shirt from recycled plastic bottle fibres, and package it
in a hikers/cycling water bottle, which people won't throw away.

Have a howies vending machine on carnaby street with 'emergency supplies'
in, for when the shop isn't open. To contain undies, vests and plain T's.

Under Construction.
A T-shirt for summer.
See attached.

It's National Bread Week starting May 5.
Does Doh Boy know about it?

T-shirt slogan or catalogue idea:
THE ANSWER MY FRIEND, IS BLOWING IN THE WIND.

This would look great in your shop or HQ. We think it's very on-brand.
http://www.bravespacedesign.com/product_coat_range.php

A nice rotating table for a future shop?
http://www.sportsutilityfurniture.com/furniture.html

'Remember' T's.
Put a plain yellow square graphic on a T-shirt to look like a post-it note.
Supply with a black fabric marker. People can write their own message on the post-it.

Howies 'Famous Quotes' T-shirts.
These could be inspiring, or just funny. Each quote could be designed in a style to
compliment whoever said it.
Example of an inspiring quote.
'If you don't stand for something, you'll fall for anything.'
And some amusing ones from from Kevin Keegan.
'You can't do better than go away from home and get a draw...'
'The tide is very much in our court now.'
'I'd love to be a mole on the wall in the dressing room at half-time.'

We were thinking about birdcages, and how an illustration of one might look cool
on your packaging, with the line 'We are meant to be outdoors' or something
similar.

Produce a series of short film 'idents' for howies. These would look great on your site's homepage,
or playing on a screen in one of your shops.

We love the idea of a teenager catalogue, and had a few thoughts which we'll
share this week. 1st teenage idea.
Wrap the catalogue in a teenagers 'dirty poster'. The poster could feature the
howies model girls, but the 'dirty' bit is literal, so they would be wearing howies clothes
and be absolutely caked in mud and dirt from being outside biking. It'd make a great poster
that could be stuck up in a teenager's bedroom.

Teenage idea 2:
A catalogue spread image of a teenagers messy bedroom. On the floor and bed
would be the teenagers howies clothes that are arranged typographically to spell
the spread's title.

Teenager idea 3:
Write a catalogue piece about hoodies, and the bad rep they get in the press
nearly everyday. Is everyone that wears a hoody really a 'yob'? Can howies start
a Hoody Goody awareness campaign? 

We thought this little gadget was really cool. Great for hot days at the beach
or after a gruelling ride. Maybe something to sell in the shop?
http://www.madeindesign.co.uk/prod-Universal-shower-diffuser-Saver-Coro-refsdd-vert.html?__utma=1.1452059179.1209579265.1209579265.1209579265.1&__utmb=1.2.10.1209579265468&__utmc=1&__utmx=-&__utmz=1.1209579265.1.1.utmcsr=newsletter|utmccn=coro2008-news|utmcmd=e-mail&__utmv=-&__utmk=173947299

For the DO lectures, have some signage made to place around the event. Everywhere you
look these days, there are signs that tell us to 'DO NOT...'. You could get an illustrator to
do a take on these warning signs but they'd tell you to 'DO...'

Get some of your T-shirt ideas onto limited edition skateboards, by partnering
up with a skate company. 'Life's complicated, sport's simple' would look great.

T-shirt for the DO lectures: 'DO as I DO.'
or 'DO as I DO, not as I say.'

For future DO and Little Big Voice lectures, get people in other cities/countries
to host their own DO/LBV lectures that are beamed to each other by satallite.
A bit like Live Aid.

Have a kind of 'show and tell' at the DO lectures, where attendees turn
up and tell others what they have DOne.

Someone else's 'thought' today, but we thought it reflected howies' way of thinking perfectly.
'Those of us who don't work in advertising always wonder whether it wouldn't be easier and
more likely to attract customers to just spend the advertising budget on doing stuff better.'

Have a wildcard speaker at the DO lectures, by choosing someone from the
audience on the day. The talk only has to be a least 3 minutes long, but we bet
there are some interesting things people know, that would be good to share.

Some very cool interactive ads by Quicksilver here:
http://www.elmanco.com/2007/11/13/skate-guerrilla/

Idea for a women's T-shirt. It's a bit naughty.
See attached pic.

Anyone who used to mess around with calculators
at school will get it!  5138008.jpg

T-shirt idea: 
Chairman of the board. 
or 
Board meeting 
(with a pic of a skateboard)

Disaster fund T's.
With T-shirt of the week, you can have designs up there that reflect what
is going on in the world pretty quickly, like the Obama T, or the Subprime T
you did.
It might be a good opportunity to get funds for disaster areas like Burma or
Sichuan by donating money from some T's to the causes. Charity and fashion
seem to go well together too like the RED campaign, or the wristbands a few
years ago. It seems people often find it more appealing to buy something, with
a precentage going to charity, than just giving the equivalent percentage
in donations.

Shop window idea.
'Grow your own.'
Would it be possible to make two tiny vegetable patches under each window?
We're thinking something that looks like those long window boxes people grow
flowers in. You could plant tomatos, herbs, strawberries etc. You could cheat
slightly and plant vegetable plants that are already grown/half grown, to get
a more instant effect. Hopefully the glass would act like a greenhouse.
Place a large window vinyl 'Grow you're own' above the vegetable patch.

llustrator Sarah Coleman produced this temporary window display for a
design studio in London. See attached pics.
We've seen it done elsewhere too, but it looks ace.
Perhaps howies could commission Sarah to write a company value
on the shop window, then after a week wash it away and write another company
value or rant.
Here's a link to Sarah's site:
http://www.inkymole.com/index.html  (Could the windowlene by coloured?)
The white washed windows would be good to use on the Bristol shop
before it opens to create a kind of 'teaser', as you usually see it on shop
windows before they open.

Have a live video link up from the DO lectures to screens placed in the howies' shop windows.
Alternatively, replay the videos after the event on screens. Once one person starts watching,
many will follow!

For next year's national bread week, promote the event in your shop 
windows. All type would be made from bread which would be baked 
in the shape of individual letters and then treated so they don't go 
mouldy. These would then be hung in the window. 
Real Doh Boy could give out home made bread recipes too, like 
he did in at the Bristol food festival. 

A window display that takes inspiration from those often tacky looking
glass waterfalls (see attached pic), to promote your waterproof jacket range.
Have this waterfall technique in the shop windows to give the impression
of rain, with a vinyl saying something like 'Get ready for the Great British Summer!'

Do DO Lecture music for the website and the event.
Get the howies team to sing popular songs with only
the word 'Do' (so it'll sound like humming the tune).
The more energetic and motivational, the better we say.
Like this:
Do.
Do, Do, Do.
Do, Do, Do.
Do, Do, Doooooooooo.
(Opening bars of Eye of the Tiger, by Survivor)

A thought on a kind of mission statement/quote to go on the website,
clothes tags etc.
'We're an ethical company that works hard to stop our name getting
dragged through the mud...except when it's on our clothes'.
We like the idea of a clean, clear company, that produce clothes
designed to get dirty.

Window display (yes, another one!)
Have 'T-shirt of the week' hung on washing lines
in the shop windows. The vinyl graphic would say:
'T-SHIRT OF THE WEEK, NOW ONLINE. WWW.HOWIES.CO.UK'
Alternatively, it'd make a nice image for the catalogue, as
T-shirt of the week wouldn't feature in the catalogue. The
strapline would say:
'LOOK OUT FOR OUR T-SHIRT OF THE WEEK, NOW ONLINE. WWW.HOWIES.CO.UK'

We thought Scrabble T's would be a good idea - especially for the DO Lectures
or at mass gatherings. The idea is, something else is created when people come
together.
We think Scrabble T's have been done before, but the idea of giving away a number
of Scrabble T's (with one letter on each) to random people and asking them to
photograph random meetings of themselves making up words is a new idea.
That's why it works at mass gatherings. Perhaps you could have a prize for the
group which could create the highest score - that way people at an event would 
grab total strangers and have their picture taken with them...it's a neat way to make
new friends at an event and get people talking.

Great T-shirt idea from T-post based in Sweden.
'Every six weeks, more than 2000 subscribers receive a new American Apparel t-shirt in their mailbox. On the inside of the t-shirt is printed a lesser-heard story from the news; on the front, an invited artist illustrates their response. The chosen stories range widely, and are picked to be relevant both in T-post’s home country of Sweden, as well as in the 47 other countries where its subscribers live. T-post doesn’t sell previous issues—they print the number of shirts to match the number of subscribers, so that “you can’t go trying to buy one like ‘you was with it way back when.’” They also claim to limit the number of subscribers in each city, to keep the t-shirts exclusive.'
http://www.t-post.se
Perhaps this is something that could happen with Royaltee at some point. The same brief gets given to 100 designers/artists/illustrators/thinkers,
and they interpret it in their own way, rather than just 100 random T-shirt designs. To take it further, your customers could choose the subject of the design by voting on say five 'hot' topics, for instance 'Use less packaging' or 'Shop local'. The most voted subject gets done on the T's by the illustrators.