The REAL. BIG. Blog

If the shoes make the man, do the pants make the athlete?  What is going on this year with Olympic team fashion?

Here at Fathead, we think the Norweigian Curling Team must have seen pro-golfer John Daly’s Fathead Wall Graphic and been inspired by his alternative attire.  They’re causing quite a stir at the Winter Olympics by wearing these “clown” pants, instead of the traditional black pants favored by curling athletes.  Apparently they shopped at the same store as Daly for their brightly colored diamond-patterned pants.

Perhaps the Czech Republic Team took a fashion tip from Daly’s other Fathead in selecting the loud pants they donned this year.

Then there were the Bermudans, who chose fashion before comfort in the opening ceremony, braving the chilly Vancouver air to sport their trademark Bermuda shorts. 

So I ask, is this just a bold style choice, or is there some athletic benefit to wearing these non-traditional uniforms?  Do they help to intimidate opponents with the confidence they convey?  Do they cause a game-changing distraction?  Do the loud patterns blind them? 

 I don’t have the answer, but I do have my own fashion tip for athletes.  Please don’t take any style cues from Lady Gaga for the summer Olympics! 

Is it a cart, a bag or a basket? Do you continue shopping, see more like this, or check out what others bought? Do you read a review, compare prices, or hunt for online coupons? How do YOU shop the internet?  How does the INTERNET shop you?

More people will shop online this holiday season than ever before. That statement has been true every year for as long as there’s been online shopping. And just like you look for an online store that’s going to give you the best deal and best service, the online store is looking for a consumer like you who will buy its product, subscribe to its email list, tweet about a great deal you just got, and post comments and pictures on a blog about the transformative properties of the perfect holiday gift.

It may sound simple, but it’s a netherworld of competing signs and indecipherable behaviors. Change the color of a button and the next thing you know everyone’s clicking on it – or not. Pick two radically different offers and test them side by side – mixed results. If there is a science of the online store, it is a soft science, an e-science if you will, as is so often the case when people are involved. 

Brick and mortar stores have a front door – generally speaking it’s the only way a customer can get in. At that point, the store’s pretty much in control. Online stores have a front door too (we call it the home page) but not everyone uses it – there are all kinds of side doors and back doors that other customers (and the online store itself) have created: that means finding a way to get you around the store (call it navigation) no matter what door you came in. It’s part of what makes the world of ecommerce “dynamic” and something that personally keeps me up at night.

You may not care how you got to the online store – you typed something in, you clicked on a link, something like that. But to the online store it can make a big difference.  Did you use a search engine like Google? Did you click on a link at the top, in the middle or on the side of the page? Did you hear about the store on a friend’s Facebook page? Did you see an ad on TV and just type in the name of the site? Imagine if a brick and mortar store had to think about what kind of vehicle got you to the store and what road you took and turns you made to get there.

So, if you ever get to an online store and you wonder “Why did they do that?”, here’s the answer: six people in a small room with a lot of information and a lot of ideas decided that you would be more likely to purchase if the wording in the link said “now” instead of “today”. It’s not as crazy as it sounds, but remember, it’s an e-science. Tomorrow, the link will say “today”.

The Partnership: Barrett-Jackson is to the world of collector cars what Fathead is to wall graphics – simply the best. To kick off the Barrett-Jackson Fathead partnership the folks at Barrett-Jackson picked out 12 spectacular automobiles for us to transform into giant 6 foot by 4  foot Fathead Murals. You can check them out here. The photography is exquisite. The effect in a room is, quite honestly, stunning.

Fathead Worthy Stuff: Fathead built the business on sports and particularly the greatest professional athletes captured in moments of extraordinary performance. It’s what we call “Fathead worthy”. When you see these cars you’ll understand why they compare to those athletes – and maybe it’s the other way around. It’s about the muscle, the quality, the beauty, the rarity.

About Barrett Jackson: Barrett-Jackson produces “The World’s Greatest Collector Car Auctions”. They are held in Scottsdale, Arizona; Palm Beach, Florida;  Las Vegas, Nevada; and Orange County, California. Established in 1971 and headquartered in Scottsdale, Arizona, Barrett-Jackson specializes in providing products and services to classic and collector car owners, astute collectors and automotive enthusiasts around the world.

Dream Cars: Fathead operates out of metro Detroit so you know cars are in our blood here. Since we started our partnership with Barrett-Jackson and we first saw these photos we’ve all been talking about the cars we have, had or wish we had. We’ve got a couple of guys who write code by day and do some amazing car stuff at night and on the weekends. When I first met my wife she was driving a ‘67 Mustang – what a classic. She and her brother share great stories about all the work they did on his ’68 Camaro. Tell us your favorite classic car story or which car you would want to own if you could have any car in the world.

Fathead is delighted to share the latest editions  to the NFL and Fathead bloggers: Mr. James Laurinaitis, Mr. Jeremy Maclin, and Mr. Darrius Heyward-Bey! Fathead will be having weekly posts from the recently Fathead-ed NFL Rookies and giving fans their first hand experiences in the Pros.  Sports Fanatics, Friends and Family can all put themselves in a day in the life of each of these talented athletes. Stop by their blog pages and make your comments, let them know what you think of their new Fathead, encouragement for the next big  game, ask them the questions you are most interested in hearing and welcome them to the team.

Check their blogs and images out at:

http://blog.fathead.com/fathead-insider-darrius-heyward-bey/

http://www.fathead.com/nfl/oakland-raiders/darrius-heyward-bey/

http://blog.fathead.com/fathead-insider-james-laurinaitis/

http://www.fathead.com/nfl/st.-louis-rams/james-laurinaitis/

http://blog.fathead.com/fathead-insider-jeremy-maclin/

http://www.fathead.com/nfl/philadelphia-eagles/jeremy-maclin/

I don’t know if any of you were watching the” Shaq Vs.,” show that aired on ABC.  For those of you who didn’t, it is Shaq Vs. top athletes at their own sport. This video is the final episode which included, 14-time Olympic gold medalist and world champion swimmer Michael Phelps. This looked like a great show, I’m sorry I missed it!

Enjoy the clip!

You may think of yourself as something of an art novice – most of us are. We may know what we like and what we don’t and what we like this year may be quite different than what we like next year. That’s probably why many of us don’t have much “art” on our walls. For one thing, art can be expensive, and for another, putting that nail and hanger in the wall feels too much like a commitment. If you live in a rental place or a dorm room you’re not going to risk your deposit, and so you live in an art vacuum.

Fathead solved the whole wall damage issue way back when we created moveable, reusable Real.Big. wall graphics. We reinvented the traditional sports poster by making it so much bigger and so much better – and people have loved it ever since. We took that same concept and created Fathead Tradeables, the 5” x 7” collectable vinyl graphics that you can stick (and unstick) pretty much anywhere. Fathead Jr. bridged the gap by making Fathead big enough to wow you and small enough to go places our Real.Big. product never could. With Fathead custom we put you in control and let you print darn near anything you wanted.

For the home decorator, however, for the person looking for fine art to transform a room, for someone whose idea of decorating is somewhat more traditional than putting up a life-size pro athlete, we had come up short. Mind you, we plan on being the number one brand in sports and entertainment graphics for a good long time, but this is our nod to the gift giver who’s buying that much-requested superstar for Johnny or Jennifer, and just happens to find a little something for herself.

That’s what SM/ART Squares are all about. At eighteen by eighteen inches they’re big enough to show off the art and still be easy to put up. Since they’re all the same size it’s really easy to mix and match them and create truly exquisite and unique compositions. SM/ART Squares include magnificent works from Old Masters like Monet, Van Gogh and Caravaggio, Contemporary Artists like Liu Ye and Mel Ramos, Modern Masters such as Edward Hopper and Wassily Kandinsky, as well as works of Decorative Art from such sensational photographers as Christopher Beane and William Wegman.  You can select a wide variety of works to express your personality.

If you get tired of the arrangement, move the SM/ART Squares around. If you’re ready to move just take them down, stick them to the backing (don’t forget to keep it) and take them with you – you won’t have any holes to fill or repaint. When you’re ready to expand your collection or decorate another room, just order some more; at $19.99 each they’re a truly great value in art. We’ll be adding many more works of art in the future, so there will be plenty more to choose from.

We’re really excited about SM/ART Squares. Personally, I think of them as nothing less than a revolution in the human relationship to art. That’s just one person’s opinion though, so we want to hear your thoughts and answer your questions. Let us know what you think.

Here at Fathead we’ve had lots of requests for Nickelodeon^® products like Dora the Explorer^® (coming soon!), iCarly^® and especially SpongeBob. Well SpongeBob SquarePants^®  , his friend Patrick, and more from the crew of the much-loved show are now ready to take their place on your child’s bedroom wall (or any room where a large, square, under-water, yellow cartoon character seems appropriate – I can think of dozens of places). These SpongeBob Fatheads are so true to the show you can practically smell the Krabby Patties. We got to talking about the SpongeBob artwork and the show the other day here at Fathead Central and I was astonished at the breadth of knowledge among my colleagues, especially in comparison to my utter lack of exposure. I’ve since watched a couple of SpongeBob YouTube videos pertaining to SpongeBob SquarePants and the Krusty Krab, specifically the training videos. I have to say, these SpongeBob episodes are monstrously funny and remind me of the Rocky and Bullwinkle episodes of my youth to which I was utterly addicted (and yes, I actually saw the original airings).

Now that I’ve been turned on to SpongeBob, and can actually recognize and name Mr. Krabbs, Squidward, Plankton, Gary, Sandy, Patrick and the big sponge himself, I feel like I’ve missed out on something huge and need the kind of guidance only the true fan can provide. Since Fathead is all about bringing fans together with their passions, I’d like to hear what you love about SpongeBob and some of your favorite episodes. Post away.

In our quest to cover every wall we continue to look around corners for something that will help you make your kids happy. We don’t want to leave someone out of the Fathead Revolution just because they’re not into sports. In the past few weeks we’ve introduced everything from cartoon animals like jungle animals, farm animals, sea creatures and baby dinosaurs to awesome photographs of horses and lions. There are even these realistic looking dinosaurs like an 8ft Apatosaurus and a T-Rex that will have you running for cover. OK, not exactly the perfect thing for little kids but your Jr. Paleontologist is going to love it.

If Pirates, Princess Castles or Outer Space are more in line with your child’s playful imagination then we’ve done our part to provide the type of experience you’re looking for. Remember, Fatheads are moveable and reusable, and while we don’t recommend moving them every day, you can use them to create a special adventure with your child as you decide what fantasy scenes you want to create.

We have thousands of reviews on our site and it’s amazing how many of them talk about how Fathead is what brings the room together and “gives a room personality”.

Here are a couple of examples:

“We put the Lightning McQueen graphic in my 2 year old grandson’s room to match his new car bed! He loved it! It jumps off the wall at him and it really pulled the whole room together. We even put one of the graphics on the bed!! It was easy to put up and will be even easier to take down when we move!!!” – By Nana from Tucson, AZ

“My son loves Spiderman – and we are re-doing his bedroom. This is a perfect addition to his room.
We also have a Steeler room with a giant helmet, and a Ben Roethlesberger Fathead. They MAKE the room. Everyone comments on it. They are easy to apply and does not mess up the wall. – And they stay up – we’ve never had a problem with it at all! We also bought a Hannah Montana for our daughter. These bring a room to life – so much better than a poster – these are life-sized and give a room personality!” – By Sheila from Southeastern Ohio

We want to hear from you about how you decorate with Fathead so we can share your ideas with Fathead Nation. We’re waiting to hear from you!

To pretty much everyone on the planet outside the US and maybe Canada, football is a 90 minute game (called a match) that involves a lot of running, kicking, heading and no hands (unless you’re the goal keeper and you’re inside the box). Football is played on a pitch, which looks a lot like a field. When Fathead introduced players from Manchester United and FCBarcelona to its ever-expanding roster last week, there was some debate about what to call the new category. Well, actually, the debate took place mostly in my mind because when it comes to the world’s game there aren’t exactly a lot of aficionados around here. I settled on International Soccer because to most Americans that’s pretty clear and leaves little room for confusion over the phrase “pass the football” which in this case does not involve a tight spiral.

In case you don’t follow International Soccer, Manchester United and FCBarcelona faced off in this year’s UEFA Champions League final match which FCBarcelona won. These seemed like two really good clubs to start with since we had our pick of some well-known players like Lionel Messi, Samuel Eto’o and Thierry Henry of Barca and Wayne Rooney, Dimitar Berbatov and Cristiano Ronaldo of Man U. And yes, we know that Ronaldo is most likely off to Real Madrid but he’s had such a great career at Manchester United that we felt like everyone should have a chance to get him in his Red Devils jersey. We have a couple more clubs waiting on the sidelines that we’re finalizing now. We’re also planning on having the club crests which you might call the team logos.

Since Fathead is just getting into the world of International Soccer it seems like a good time to hear from all you fans out there about which clubs and footballers you’d love to see as a giant wall graphic. Give us a shout and let us know what you think. And, if you have any opinions about what to call the sport, you can share that too.

We added a new category to the vast collection of Fathead products the other day and we call it USA. We needed a way to group under a common banner products as diverse as US Military Insignia and Vehicles, the American Flag, President Obama and our two latest bits of Americana – Harley-Davidson and Made in Detroit. Then it occurred to me – Fathead doesn’t just have a category called USA – we are USA! What I mean is, Fathead is located in, designed in and manufactured right here in the good ‘ol US of A – in Michigan as a matter of fact. I bet most people don’t know that about us, but now you do. If you think that’s as cool as we do, give us a shout back.