100 produced, 100 sold!

If there is one thing that puts a smile on all our faces it’s the mention of the phrase, “Sold Out!” To us the phrase is synonymous with a hit product. It marks a benchmark we set out to reach every time we introduce a new Bernos Tshirt concept.

Therefore, it is with great pleasure that we announce that Bernos Ethiopian Millennium T-shirts are sold out!!! This is particularly sweet since our goal was met in such a short time. Within 24 hours this concept was put up for retail, we sold approximately half of the stock.

Although we were positively enthused by the overwhelming response to the concept, we were prepared to handle the tremendous production of packaging shipping out such a large quantity of orders.

Our delight is not only by the purchase of the shirts, but also by the comments on the Bernos Blog, the Bernos Press & emails in which many of you expressed your satisfaction and gratitude when you received your [for some your first] Bernos Tshirt. Great feedback is the icing on the cake; we however would like to say thank you to each and every Bernos customer instead.

We always say theirs Bernos people and the rest; as Bernos customers are repeat customers.

We understand that it takes a lot for the rest to have faith to make an online transaction. We can’t make you trust us, what we can do is show you that Bernos delivers.

Reprinting & Restocking

Is the most popular question! We have received an understatement countless emails requesting sizes we’re out of or asking when we will reprint or restock a particular Bernos Tshirt. This has especially stressed with Desta Keremela and Addis Ababa Classic concepts and even with the Bernos Ethiopian Millennium Tshirt before we started selling.
Nolawi had once un-carefully phrased it,

We are not in the ‘business of the masses!’”

Well at least in the ‘language of the masses,’ we do not reprint & restock any of Bernos Tees. Cost of production being the reason; when Bernos was established we set a goal to provide customers not only with best and most innovative designs, but also with the highest quality Tshirts. Accomplishing this task requires a huge amount of investment on production; on the tshirts, which we purchase from American Apparel and on the highest quality screen-printing available. We just cannot mass produce cheap t-shirts.

Being a small startup company and seeing as though having a limited budget, we simply cannot afford to print more a lot more than we generally do.

The more shirts we have in stock, the more money we have invested waiting to be turned into revenue. This takes away from future Bernos Tshirts concepts on the way.

This limited supply somewhat creates a higher demand causing the shirts to become ‘collector’s items.’ Although this was not our aim, we are satisfied with few people owning Bernos one of kind pieces. If you want to be part of the Bernos craze, you just have to buy it when we come out

A millennium exception!

Now with all that said, we made an exception; in the few hours we put the Milli Tees on retail, we knew we should have produced more, a lot more.

This past two weeks has been a roller coaster ride; we sold out not only the milli Tshirt but also the “Abebe Bikila Tshirt” as well as the “I dream of Amarigna Tshirt.” We now only have a Ethiopian-Alien and Sold in Merkato in a few size selections. At weeks end we would like to mention that Bernos is represented in Amesterdam & China.

Due to the high, extremely high demand for the shirt and an emergency meeting two days after going on sale we decided to restock the Bernos Ethiopian Millennium T-shirt.

The Ethiopian Millennium is momentous coming around once in a lifetime. Hence the significance to celebrate and commemorate this note-worthy moment in Ethio history. Bernos feels we can contribute with this small gesture to the celebration of this occasion. We have already placed the orders, and the new tees should arrive in about a week’s time.

This is a second chance, for those that thought about it but weren’t proactive enough to make the jump from sluggish observer to an active member of the Bernos Tshirts collectors member.

First step is to sign up in the Bernos email subscription list, which can be found in the Shop page and now on the blog page. Second is to wait till you receive that email. You know the one, for those that don’t know it will say, “Ethio-Milli is here again.”

Till then, I am podcasting a song in celebration of our Millennium; podcasted is a surprise.

 

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