The Reusable Bag as Fashion Statement: Cheeky Green Rocks Your Eco Look

Eco-conscious shopper that you are, you may proudly use your re-usable bag at the grocery store. But how about at, say, Nordstrom? If  you're sporting a Cheeky Green bag--folded up snug in its convenient carrying case--your answer might just be 'yes.'

Cheeky Green was started in 2007 to "aid in the fight against disposable culture by producing innovative, cost-effective products with an acute sense of style that have an incredible chance of getting reused." Ease of use, practicality and portability are all focal points of these bags, which are made from recyclable, super-strong DuPont Tyvek.

Cheeky Green's product line consists of fashion bags (sold at finer green West Coast stores) and custom bags for commercial clients--all of which are machine-washable, lightweight, portable, tear- and water-resistant, and designed to easily accompany you to the market, the mall, the beach, or the plane.

Most bags that fold up small for transport come with an instructional hangtags, which tend to get torn off and thrown away. Cheeky Green had a better idea: why not make the hangtags reusable, too, by turning them into custom stickers? Instead of just ripping the hangtags off Cheeky Green bags and discarding them, the company hopes that its customers will take these tags and stick them somewhere, so Cheeky Green becomes permanently "stuck" in their heads.

Why Custom Sticker Makers? Stefanie DiBenedetto of Cheeky Green told us: "This is the second time I've placed an order and I was just as impressed with the printing and sticking quality as the first order. The price is right and the product is great! "

Check out Cheeky Green on Ecouterre! 

Acute Clothing Customers Look Sharp (and Spread the Word)

Jeremy Tan's vision is simple: to create a shirts with a positive message and meaning. Acute Clothing is an outgrowth of that--a brand new company featuring Jeremy's clever t-shirt designs.

Acute Clothing's first two t-shirt designs are the case in point. One features an airplane flying into the company's unique triangle logo--headed off, no doubt, into that alternate dimension that surrounds Bermuda. Another features the company mascot dog, Sharpy, keeping an eye out for suspicious behavior.

In keeping with a streetwear tradition established by major brands like Vans and Vision, Acute Clothing includes a logo sticker with every order. Jeremy also uses that sticker design for guerrilla marketing, too--just slapping it around town, he's seen, has gotten people to notice the brand.

Why Custom Sticker Makers? "You guys had some of the most affordable prices," Jeremy told us, "and I liked the immediate quote."

The Store: acuteclothing.com 

The Blog: acute339.tumblr.com is my blog

Twitter: twitter.com/acutesharp

Facebook: facebook.com/acuteclothing

Audio Geek Love: Double Helix Brings Music to Life

Peter B is an audiophile--to such a degree that, in January 2009, he started experimenting with creating different cable designs for his own audio setup. As he added more headphone gear, more cables and more designs to his repertoire, Double Helix Cables was born--a business specializing in custom-made, high-performance audio cables.

Double Helix's headphone cables are personal in both comfort and appearance--customers can choose from among a  number of unique visual styles using multiple layers of sleeving to achieve different color combinations. Headphone cables can be fit into individual left and right cables, protecting the signal for each channel from interference that can muddy sound quality.

Such high-performance audio gear, of course, deserves high quality packaging.  Double Helix audio cables come in black, string-tie reusable envelopes that show off that unique DNA-inspired logo (courtesy of Phil Tendler from Bellatone Audio). These envelopes also include an extra sticker for customers to do with as they please, showing off their love of high-quality tech, as in the ubiquitous Mac sticker.   

Why Custom Sticker Makers? "CSM was easy to order from and had a great price even compared to more low-end stickers," Peter told us. When the stickers arrived, he said he was pleasantly surprised to learn that these weren't cheap paper stickers, but rather, a tough, glossy vinyl that could be used outdoors. "They had a really nice feel and the printing was flawlessly true to the original vector art."

Peter goes on to note that quality is important when using stickers as freebies. "While I could get paper stickers and save a few cents, I am including these stickers for the customers to use and I want them to look good and last a long time," he said. "I've had a lot of so-so custom printed stuff (particularly printed heatshrink tubing) from around the web, so it was a shock to get something custom made that turned out exactly as I had hoped--and then some."