Faithreads is a new and growing Christian clothing brand. As such, the vision of the brand can and will change over time. This change comes in many forms, like tastes, design philosophy, pricing, business models, what we sell, and how we fulfill our apparel. Thankfully, we have had the blessing to have that flexibility since the brand is, as mentioned before, completely new and being grown from the ground up.
So, in order to be transparent with the people making this shop possible, I want to step up and be transparent and tell you how Faithreads is making these products possible. It all starts from the design phase.
Part 1 - Design
I, Derrick Saenz (the owner of Faithreads), am a designer by trade. On a day to day basis, I am constantly thinking about my craft, whether I am working in my design on Faithreads or other art forms in other projects. I do not use AI tools to generate ideas or designs, although I might use some AI tools to touch up some photography on a case by case basis. That being said, Faithreads will not ever use AI-generated ideas or artwork within its products unless very clearly indicated.
I believe that AI is a great tool to help artists generate quick drafts and use as references, but AI exists because it uses other artists' work to train the massive artwork model. To me, as a designer, feels too much like I am depending on the work of other designers and artists instead of honing my own style. Beyond my own artistic pride, AI has typically used artwork from unwilling volunteers and does not publically credit the inspirations for each of the artworks it generates. In addition, companies that are trying to be more "ethical" about AI art are still amending their terms of service to require art to be readable by AI, or else you can't use the company's services).
Personally, I believe the only ethical method of AI training and use is when the art is available in public domain due to the passage of time, like when an artist's work enters the public domain 70 years after the artists' passing. Regardless, Faithreads will not use AI generated artwork unless very clearly indicated on the product's page. If Faithreads ever uses AI, the artwork will be made available for free and a link to download will be made for anyone to use, since AI artwork cannot be protected by copyright.
AI art, when published and/or sold, is theft, and Faithreads will not take part in the theft of artwork in any way. Faithreads might have artwork inspired by other artworks or artists, but inspiration is all a part of the human experience and process of creating art. The only being that created a masterpiece without inspiration from anything was God himself.
That all being said, Faithreads will use original artwork in all of its products. The artwork is created by me, or might be created by another artist, who will be credited by default. In fact, if Faithreads negotiates to work with an artist, credit won't even be a part of argument, as I believe that crediting an artist is deserved and required. All artists will be credited clearly on the product page, whether it is myself, if I used someone else's art in my artwork, or it is someone else's artwork entirely.
Part 2 - Apparel Fulfillment
The second part of the process before the product hits the shop is how I choose to put artwork on a blank product and ship it out to my customers. The reality is that I am not equipped to store product, make embroidery, print film to stamp on shirts, ship out products, and so on. At least not yet.
Like I said before, I am a designer by trade, so I am relying on drop-shipping my products through a company called Printful (affiliate link). I've worked reliably with them for years and I leverage their expertise to make products for my customers. I am happy with their dedication to working with eco-friendly blanks providers, which in turn helps Faithreads work toward being as eco-friendly as possible (read about our commitment here). They also help deal with returns, customer issues, and shipping, which makes them the perfect candidate to help a new business owner like myself try to grow into something more robust.
Despite the great service they provide, I do think that their dropshipping services are a first step for Faithreads, as the goal is ultimately to be able to more sales and provide better shipping time and costs, which are some of the trade offs of drop-shipping when compared to holding product in inventory and buying in bulk.
There is still a lot I don't know, and I would love to learn more about what makes a shirt sustainable and how to better provide my customers a great service with a great message while still having a positive impact on the planet, and the goal of Faithreads will change over time.
Part 3 - Selling and Marketing
Faithreads is a solely online shop at the time of publishing this article. That just means I don't have a warehouse or a storefront to sell or store my products. Printful, as mentioned before, helps me with that part where I don't need to have a warehouse store my products for me at the cost of higher product prices. So to do everything online, I have figure out how to best get my products out there.
The place where I chose to start is Shopify (affiliate link), which has been a great and flexible way to serve customers my products. I have a lot of control over the website and since I have computer experience I can even code a little to make everything fit a little easier and match the aesthetic I want to go for in a shop like Faithreads. Shopify also has a great connection with Printful, which is something I am incredibly pleased by! They synchronize delightfully with minimal issues!
Shopify does a good job at connecting me with places to run my ads and ways to send email for free, so I am happy to see that I can scale with Shopify.