06.04.07
T-Shirts Meet SMS: Reactee
Reactee has announced the launch of a line of interactive t-shirts that combine fashion, SMS and activism through “shirts that text back”.
Reactee allows users to create t-shirts that include a personalized message such “Stop Global Whaling” or “Andrew Keen is a Luddite” that is then complimented by a unique keyword such as SUSHI or MORON on the shirt. People who see the shirt can then respond to it by sending the keyword via SMS to 41411. In return senders receive a custom text message response created by the T-Shirt creator.
Example Reactee customers given include individuals such as DJs who want to share their playlists, political activists promoting a candidate, people who just want to get something off their chest, or entire organizations, which can make many shirts with the same keyword and use them to promote their unique cause.
Users can create text alert lists to communicate with those interested in their causes. Additionally, users can make their designs public and include them in the Reactee gallery of shirts that have received the most text messages.
It’s an interesting idea for T-shirts, but I think how succesful this is will depend on the users and what they use it for.
There are plenty of ideas – advertising, getting a political message across, trying to collect friends in a myspace sort of way. As it only takes a quick text message, it’s going to be a lot more popular than if a viewer had to send an email.
I can see problems comming if it becomes highly popular though such as how long will people be able to get the keywords they want – it could become like the current state of website addresses. Also whilst it is still becomming popular, how many of the general public are going to realise that they can actually text in with some purpose.
technorati tags:t-shirts, reactee, sms
