A Better Tommorow is an promising german hybrid store shocase, design contest and virtual commuinity. I chatted to one of its founders Andre about its origins, business model and community.
So for anyone who doesnt know can you summarise the purpose and vision of a better tomorrow?
ABT is for everyone out there! We don’t wanna be an elitist site just for designers but for all people interested in nice stuff, nice products, nice people combining all those aspects to a love sharing community which is always welcome on our site. Secondary we are, of course, a cool contact point for people who want to buy unique streetwear, design related stuff and who love being an interactive part of our growing cool ABT-community.
How many work to support ABT?
A better tomorrow is a full time job. We do not eat nor do we sleep..we are roboters and constantly develop new output in order to make ABT a better place for your tomorrow ..but there is a time to relax.. sometimes …!
The site is labelled as “design contest” + “streetwear” + “community”, can you talk us through the features of each
area of the site and how they support and work together?
Design Contests are the strongest and most interactive part. Self-styled / designers from any background CAN DO a layout for an outstanding shirt, upload it and – maybe - get the next winner for whom we will produce the winning layout as an ABT-Shirt. You can win money, your own labelled shirt, fame, rock, roll and neverending glory because the winning design from any contest is from then on available in the ABT store… So you´d better give it your best shot!
The streetwear part is where our brandstore partners rule. We give young wicked labels the opportunity to show and sell their products on a better tomorrow in their own little online shop, administrable concerning everything within it by an own interface – enabled to what they would do with within their own shop…but now an insane amout of people will see .. and if they do their work good buy, their products! Each partner is doing a lot of marketing to promote their own product on ABT - and thereby spread the word about the ABT-platform itself….we love the give & take idea and see it as a basis for a more humanized community ..
So .. if you think you may have a blockbuster in your drawer you´d better get in touch with us and tell the world!
The community is anywhere…we want the whole community to communicate with each other, discuss the highlight of the actual design contest and of course any other products on ABT. Anybody will get feedback on his/her work and is so able to get in touch about it.. Especially buyers are intended to comment their booties in order to let the brandstore-partner (or ABT-Winner) know what they love about it and what could eventually be made even better.
Naturally people talk about everything else they want…which we grant..they should get most comfortable spending their time with ABT…
And we work on a good deal more so called (but yet kept secret) fancy community features - to recently become a 24/7 pleasuredome
The aim of this three parts is to make shopping more interactive, less anonymous as in most online shops on the internet. We want it to be a humanizing experience..
How has the reaction to the site been since its launched?
The reaction was continously positive.. People love to show their work and the community as well as visitors are amazed how cool streetwear products can be besides Titus and Frontline.
Surely there are inquiries as well from radio stations and print magazines who want to talk to us, we already informed you about the glory you reach as an ABT-Member..
You have alot of different elements to the model, is there a danger that visitors to the site will be confused by the number of different options available to them?
Surely not our people! But if anybody thinks there is something confusing - send us a mail or call us by phone. If there is a better solution we will fix it!
Do you plan an english language version of the site?
Yes, Sir. Within the next few months we will add an international version next to the german version which we continue of course because that´s our origin.
How have you helped the community develop at a better tommorow, are you hands on and involved or letting the community drive the development of the site?
In the beginning of A better tomorrow we have asked a lot of people what they would expect from a shopping site - and it was much, beginning from security and ending up on ergonomic aspects .. we worked it all out and are nevertheless still working on it. Actually we work on features making it easier for our users to interact with the ABT Team for to get to the next level.
How much of ABT was inspired by the success of Titus?
Titus is a pionier in streetwear and did a really good job.
But we are not really inspired by them. As already mentioned, we love individuality
What do you consider the main differences between ABT and Titus?
Soul
What is your favourite online t-site?
Oh that varies…presently I like Yackfou, one of our new Brandstores - but it may get your first ABT-design or the latest brandstore-partner next…
What do you think ABT adds that is missing from its peers?
We think about the Contest as a new wicked way of shopping combining various need of nowadays cool-stuff consumers and makers. People want to get involved in the development (and thereby improvement) of new products - and this is
one way to do so. Surely there are many other ways - and we are working on that as well
The main difference is out of the question our Brandstore-System. If people ask..“where can i get stuff that is COOL
AND TRULY UNIQUE ?“ you can now answer -> a better tomorrow.
We do not want to sell everything and keep being choosy with our labels..we are not Ebay selling tons of boring standard products. This is the real life and hard work. But we believe in it and we want ABT to be the best POS for unique streetwear and other interior design related equipment.
What is your favourite store on A Better Tommorow and why?
I really love all our brandstores. We picked each one out of the haystack because we believe those special ones are able to gain .. a better tomorrow….
What do you have planned for the concept in the future?
We of course plan to get your t-pusher in the first step we will do this by answering the hype on ABT with a few face liftings, more pictures for the layouts, easy the voting even more, create new parallel contests with new products next to clothing and of course still become quicker …more complexity will end up in a need for a corky overview not just within the shopping categories. Furthermore we think about a massive bunch of community features and working together with other services, communities and sites. There are a few ideas of how we and others can get a benefit from each other.
Concerning me the work for and with ABT is a neverending concept of a naturally addicted designer´s life
Thank you for the really nice Interview Adam!
Cheers from ABT!