MOSTLY THAT SEPTEMBER 15TH SHOULD BE ASKING US FOR FORGIVENESS

Happy National Online Learning Day! Here's what I learned online today: there are LOTS of random holidays that fall on September 15th, and none* of them are particularly interesting. Linguine? Cheese Toast? School Backpack Awareness? Creme de Menthe? Felt hats? GET IT TOGETHER, SEPTEMBER 15th!

*No offense if you're observing Yom Kippur today. In fact, g’mar chatima tova if you are! But you should also probably not be on the internet today, since it's full of pictures of food and sexy people and leather shoes and ads for lotions and scented oils. The internet is basically a minefield of Leviticus-flouting temptations.

Fun fact: when you search "yom kippur" on Giphy, all the results are about being hungry and asking for forgiveness. Way to go, algorithm! #NailedIt

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Before we get to this week's amusing links let's celebrate a few September 15th birthdays!

Scribes: James Fenimore Cooper (1789) and Agatha Christie (1890)

Sportsballers: Dan Marino (1961)

Scandalous Royals: Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex (1984)

Screenwriters: Oliver Stone (1946)

Stout POTUSes: William Howard Taft (1857)

Sapersteins: Parks And Rec actor Ben "Jean-Ralphio Saperstein" Schwartz (1981)

Alright, you've waited long enough — let's get to some fun links!

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1. Sand sculptures that are stunningly lifelike!

Artist Andoni Bastarrika makes amazing sculptures out of sand, and the level of detail (and amount of time he spends working with such an ephemeral medium) is truly remarkable.

2. Food that's fit for a hobbit, or a time lord, or a flesh-eating monster.

Austin, Texas-based freelance writer Chris-Rachael Oseland moonlights as a culinary dynamo, whipping up all sorts of fandom-themed baked goods. Enjoy!

3. Weird internet videos are kinda what the internet is all about.

This deep dive into the artistry behind the lo-fi gems the internet has given us over the last few decades is a treasure trove of weirdness that really hits the spot, creatively speaking.

4. A Freddie Mercury/Pee-wee Herman mashup? Yes, please!

If you've ever wondered what it might sound like if Freddie fronted The Champs doing their hit song 'Tequila', wonder no more!

5. "Human salsa." That is all.

Watch out for those dive-bombing donkeys!

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OK! Hopefully these little diversions helped to brighten your day! We'll be back here in your inbox on Friday with more random holidays, celebrity birthdays, and some other fun treats! Until then...

Peace, love, and learning things online,

Mat

Did you miss me? (Don't answer that...unless the answer is "yes.")

You may have noticed that there was no Wednesday email this week. I'm sorry! In my defense, this was a holiday-shortened week that made things especially frantic here at Boredwalk HQ. 

We get a lot of messages from people asking us about discount codes and coupon codes. To start, I just want to make sure people know that we usually have some kind of discount going for orders above a certain dollar amount. We update our promo code page every time we run a new discount or coupon. We also announce flash sales and limited time promotions via email, SMS, and social media. The best way to find out about those discounts, coupon codes, and sales is to follow us on social media or sign up for email or SMS notifications.

We know our products aren't the cheapest, but we do aim to offer fantastic value for our price point. Here are a few factors that go into our pricing and limit our ability to offer deeper Boredwalk discounts:

1. Product Quality

We are very particular about product quality. Before your product ships it's been inspected by multiple team members for defects. While it is rare that a hard-to-find defect slips through (such as a sewing defect in a hard-to-spot location like the underarm of a shirt), we catch product defects in most instances and never knowingly ship subpar products out the door.

If we catch even the smallest defect in a product, it goes into our recycling bin and we've partnered with a local recycling company that recycles textiles into other functional goods. While it's not practical to walk around naked, clothing does have an environmental impact so we do what we can to minimize that impact. That means recycling where we can so unusable textiles can go into other functional goods like pillows, using water-based inks and production methods that produce minimal waste, and creating products that you can enjoy for years.

By wearing one item of clothing for 9 months longer a person can actually reduce their carbon footprint by 30 percent. It is a major priority for us to create apparel you can wear for several years. (Yes, buying used clothing is also a great way to reduce your impact, but if you do buy new from a brand like ours, selecting brands that make products that can last a long time is also another way you can reduce environmental impact.)

We only produce products we would want to have, which is why we print primarily on soft ringspun cotton shirts (along with some cotton/poly blends for our fleece and womens scoop neck tees). We hand print each item in-house to ensure that our prints not only look great but hold up for a long period of time. If you buy a shirt from us and follow the care instructions, you should have a great looking print that lasts for years.

We don't outsource our production because we know about every trick the other print shops use to cut corners and save time and money to reduce their costs. We know how those cost saving tricks impact product quality and print longevity, which is why we don't use them in our facility.

2. Customer Service

A lot of companies offering low prices save money with subpar customer service. This might mean not offering returns or exchanges, not offering support if a package is lost or stolen, or not offering thoughtful and timely responses to customer service inquiries.

At Boredwalk we answer the phone Monday-Friday from 10AM Pacific to 4PM Pacific. When you call our office you'll be speaking to a real person who works in our Los Angeles area facility and who can track down an order, check stock levels in real time, and provide thoughtful, helpful responses to your inquiry. If you call on a national holiday, evening, or weekend our customer service team responds the next business day. If you email us, our customer service team responds within one business day. If you have an issue with a lost package our customer service team will track it down or replace it. If you ordered a shirt that doesn't fit as expected you can return or exchange it. We even offer free exchanges on US orders and the option to request an off menu shirt style if the products we keep in stock don't have the right fit for you.

When you shop with Boredwalk you are shopping with a company staffed with people who genuinely care about you having an exceptional shopping experience. Our pricing affords us the budget to offer a level of service that deep discount brands don't have the margin to offer.

3. Being the Change

Boredwalk is an artist owned, founded, and operated brand. We design every product we sell and are as passionate about great design as we are about great products and service.

When we started this company we didn't just want to sell our original art on functional goods, we wanted to run a company the way we wish other companies would run. Both of Boredwalk's co-founders worked in corporate America for over a decade before starting this brand and took note of all the ways other companies run that we don't want to repeat.

At our company every employee gets health insurance benefits, paid time off, paid holidays, and retirement benefits. We prioritize fair wages and opportunities for career advancement for everyone who works here. Whether a team member works in an entry level role in the shipping department or senior management, everyone has full benefits and a clearly defined path to advancement within our organization. We also routinely donate funds to social justice organizations we believe in.

Being able to donate to organizations that make the world better and treat our staff the way we believe every worker should be treated has costs. The only way to fund these priorities is with a pricing model that affords it. When you shop with Boredwalk you're shopping with a brand that cares about its customers, team, and the world we live in. Living our values and offering rock bottom pricing aren't compatible goals, so we've chosen building a company we are proud of instead of being a company with the lowest prices.

Lastly, we know there are a lot of coupon sites out there advertising Boredwalk coupon codes or discounts that don't exist. We do our best to monitor for these fake offers and get them taken down. Those sites often make up discount codes or promote codes that are expired. The best source of current discount code information is our Boredwalk coupon code page.

You might also find instances of items that look like Boredwalk products but are being offered on other websites at substantially lower prices. These are almost always counterfeit products. Buying from those sites means the artists who created the work you love aren't being paid for their work; instead you're supporting people who steal from us. It's money our company doesn't earn that we use to support our staff and the values we've described above. It also means receiving a subpar product and no customer support. While their prices may appear to be cheaper, we are confident our products are a better value over time and that your cost per wear when you buy from us will far exceed what you'll get if you buy a counterfeit product.

Happy National Chocolate Pecan Pie Day!

You know what's sweeter than a slice of chocolate pecan pie? One flash sale in August.

You know what's sweeter than one flash sale in August? TWO flash sales in August!