Why nüdel is the best Christmas gift

Buying a plant for someone as a gift is great because it's the gift that keeps on giving, and it's the same for nüdel! Underwear is something that we all wear everyday (don't believe those people who go commando - they all don some gruds at some point), that important article of clothing that largely goes unnoticed and often unappreciated. With men's underwear I have to admit, some of it really should go unnoticed, it doesn't do the guy any favours in comfort and stylistically it's an eyesore.

Enter nüdel. Get your man a pair of these sweet as gruds which will give him a boost each morning - that extra little squirt of confidence a lot of guys need but will never admit. He'll know he's easily the best dressed in the office, on the inside. And that's what counts right? What's on the inside? In the same token ladies, you're treating yourself because who else gets to see your man wearing only his underwear? Well hopefully just YOU! nüdel will make your man look good, the flattering form, none of this tighty whitey business or floppy, shapeless boxer carry on, he'll be snuggly packaged, but not too tightly, just enough for support with room to move. Flip him round and check out that ass you knew had potential, nudel caresses those manly curves and hugs his masculine lines to give you the ultimate Christmas present - your man, repackaged and just bursting to be unwrapped.

I used to hate assembly...

But now I love it! Finally the next run - It's Man Made - has made it to the assemblers (QA Design). The elastic will be picked up from Screen Concepts tomorrow morning then it's full steam ahead with sewing the gruds up with plenty of time to get them in stores for the lead up to Christmas. Woo hoo!!

I had the help of my lovely friend Kristen during the printing process this time which made a big difference, especially with the heat pressing to set the ink. But we got through them in record time and I have to say Cathryn Zhang's design came out looking brilliant, it really transfered well to the fabric. When your screen gets its flow, on you stick to that roll because once it's done washing every few transfers sucks ass.

Arty undies in Art Gallery!

...well, Art Gallery Gift shop. And it's the Christchurch Art Gallery to be precise, yes nüdel has infiltrated the very core of it's conception, the intellectual birthplace, ie. somewhere it should have been stocked a long time ago. Better late than never! And we at nüdel are stoked to have our fantastic undies amoungst the wonderful paintings, etchings, postcards and various canvases that the Art Gallery Store has on offer.

And the winner is...

... Cathryn Zhang with her piece: It's Man Made! Congragtulations Cathryn and well done everyone who entered, the talent was amazing, which of course made it very difficult to choose a winner. Here's what Cathryn said about her work...

My design is an idea that comes from the process involved in constructing an urban environment. When you see the new trees and flowers being planted to style up a newly constructed round-about, road kerb, or some concrete wall, there is the feeling of nature being put into our urban life deliberately, and not existing..naturally. To me, that type of nature is urban nature.

So Cathryn will receive 5 pairs of nüdel with her design on them when they've been produced and of course the rest of the run will be distributed to stores throughout New Zealand (and now Shanghai!!) in time for the Christmas rush, so we're hoping they'll sell out!

Thank you again to everybody who entered, we'll be running a similar comp again in the near future so be sure to stay tuned. Don't forget tomorrow's Father's Day so there's still just enough time to get out and buy him a pair of nüdel, he'll love you for it. Remember all those times he lent you money, or picked you up at 3am from that party or watched you play all those Saturday morning sports games in the rain? Well now's your chance to show him how much you care, with the coolest undies in the world, made right here in New Zealand.

Is this the last entry?

So today is the very last day for your artist type people to submit your nüdel art competition entry! To be precise, you've got until midnight tonight (that's Monday night - 31st August) so if there are any last minuters out there, pull finger and email your work to comp@nudel.co.nz I'll upload the last of them over the weekend then chose a winner on Monday.

The winner will have their design printed on the next run of nüdel which will be ready in time for Christmas and they will receive 5 pairs of their own to dish out or keep all to themselves. Hey that's one pair for every working day! Sweet. I think that's a pretty cool prize, your art will be on undies being sold nationwide!

This entry below has just come in from Mercia Tawhiri-Kerr called Urbanite Bull, so thought I'd post it along with this 'ere blog. Catch you soon for the results :)

nüdel reviewed by Blunty

A couple of weeks ago I was searching through guy's underwear commercials and fashion show videos on good 'ol youtube. I have to say after watching a good 50 videos or so, it became very obvious to me the male underwear world is gay dominated, or at least it appeared that way through the vids I watched. This isn't a bad thing, infact it inspired me to get thinking about ways to film TVCs or just promo videos for nüdel that appeal to woman. Taking it to the next level would be to appeal to guys and girls straight and gay! Or is that just trying to please everyone. Mass marketing sucks ass, perhaps I'm venturing dangerously close to it...

Anyway, one video I did find was one posted by an Australian youtube reviewer who goes by the name of Blunty3000. It was posted back in 2008 sometime and in it he reviewed boxer briefs compared to boxers and briefs. I actually embedded this vid on the nüdel blog so scroll down to see it. So I flicked Blunty an email to see if he was interested in trying out some nüdel to which he replied promptly with a big YES! Blunty comes across as a damn good bloke, and I like the way he reviews some pretty random stuff, some of the comments on his pages are priceless too. I'm not just saying this because the nüdel review was favourable either! But thanks heaps Blunty for giving them a go and posting the vid. May your dangly bits live long and comfortable.

I'll post a couple more artist's nüdel comp submission over the weekend. Have a good one!

nüdel comp entries #2

Got another entry today from Cass, with her piece entitled 'It's Man Made'. 

"My design is an idea that comes from the process involved in constructing an urban environment. When you see the new trees and flowers being planted to style up a newly constructed round-about, road kerb, or some concrete wall, there is the feeling of nature being put into our urban life deliberately, and not existing..naturally. To me, that type of nature is urban nature."

Also in the running for their own line of nudel with this design is AKDC by Bianca Gardiner who said 

"The design was inspired by the view out of my window. As I gazed out at the urban landscape I pondered the TV aerials and power lines that criss cross the landscape and inhabit our environment. Power lines grow like trees and aerials like creepers, prolific and ubiquitous as city dwellers we assimilate them into our vistas and they become for us a type of urban nature."

Artist competition

Well the nüdel artist comp is well underway with some fantastic entries being submitted from talented peeps right across the country. I'll throw up a couple each post over the coming weeks just to give you a taste but if you want to check out all of the pieces go to the nüdel comp page to see the lot. I know it's going to be really difficult to chose a winner already!

The above piece 'YES' was submitted by Lucy Han from Auckland who says 

my design interprets the theme of ‘Urban Nature’ as an image of the nature of the urban lifestyle - fast paced and excessive, and just like nature, it has the power to take you over.

This work is by Christchurch artist Leonard Wills and is entitled Mr. Roper's House.

So we're looking pretty sweet and that's only two of them! I can't wait to see some more come in, if you've got a creative bone in your person why not sketch something down and send it in? You can check out the details on the comp page - all the info you'll need. Get involved!

ecstatic for elastic

I could go on about how printing on elastic is time consuming and tricky but I won't. I've left that up to the good people at Screen Concepts, who have begun the mission and it's looking likely it'll all be done (about 200 metres of it anyway) before the end of the week. Mint! 

200M (100M of black and 100M of white) will be plenty enough to have this next Chaos run made up. I just can't wait to get them all back and start throwing them into some noodle boxes. Miranda up at CoCo PR has got all the little frames which will be going in the press packs, along with some new promo photos, competition details, Wagamama vouchers and general company information. I just hope they're well received... at least I'll know they look great!

nüdel blog blogged about

The lovely Anne Rash up there in Auckland posted a blog about nüdel on her site The Owlander, check it out! 

Things are trucking along, elastic for the waist band is at the screen printers having the logo printed on - this is a damn fiddly job which would take me waaay too long especially seeing as I don't have carousel. Screen Concepts do a really good job too, I'd be too inconsistent. Having the logo sewn into the elastic would be ideal but apparently that's near impossible to do with nylon elastic. Screen printing it is fine but also quite pricy and obviously not as durable as having the letters woven in. One day!

Ah behind the scenes, well now I've finished all the printing this table will gradually be immersed with all types of clutter until the next run. The thing about printing is it really makes me feel as if I have actually done something - the result is tangible, unlike spending hours trying to work out how to set up an online shop or entering stock info in a spreadsheet or chasing up retailers. But it's all work which needs to be done at the end of the day, and I should count myself lucky I live in a country where I am able to start my own business, let alone eat good food every day, wear ok clothes, go out with mates etc. Some times it's good to put things into perspective. I look forward to the day when I can give back to people who need, when I can support myself through nüdel alone and have profit left over to help someone else.

...on Good Morning

Well, I didn't see the nüdel feature on Good Morning this morning but I got texts and nüdel facebook messages from people who did, so thank you! Sounded like it went quite well and was featured with another brand of undies called Four Fontaine. TVNZ's website is a seething beast and I didn't realise I could stream GM until I found the miniscule link hidden in the bowels of the site until too damn late. Anyhoo, here's a little link on the TVNZ website to a shred of nüdel exposure

I had some great news from Miranda, my PR lady on the weekend (who I met face to face at ChCh airport for the first time) Rex Turnbull is keen on submitting a piece of art for a limited run! This is big news people, Rex is a living legend. So along with him and Tiki Taane the list is slowly but surely growing, I can't wait to see who else jumps onboard the nüdel band wagon.

As soon as I get any footage from Good Morning I'll post it quick smart!

Preparing to launch

Things are well under way in preparation for the big nüdel launch this month. It's going to all start happening after they feature on Good Morning on the 16th March then we'll kick off the artist competition. All comp details will be on the nudel site of course, but it's basically a chance for artists around the country to submit an original piece of work online with the chance to have their design feature on a limited run of nüdel! The winner will also receive some pairs for themselves, or to give away to some lucky mates.

The big question I'm asking myself right now is; how many pairs should constitute as a 'limited run'? This has been something I've never quite been able to pin down, it needs to be enough to be financially viable to produce - making up screens, printing, cutting and assembly as well as distribution but made in numbers low enough to be something unique and desirable. Hmmm... anyone? Producing limited runs to the world market could be in the 100's of thousands while here at home it would be obviously much less, but what's the magic number...