Wearing your profile on your sleeve

Here’s something that captures the zeitgeist in a novel yet simple way: Canadian t-lists are t-shirts that list the owner’s top 5 for *anything*, from five worst movies or five most admired musicians, to five best products ever, or five things he or she will never eat. T-lists t-shirts are sweatshop-free and can be shipped globally. The company has set itself the goal of becoming part of the vernacular. So what about that zeitgeist? List- and profile-mania is proliferating rapidly, thanks to social websites like MySpace, Facebook, lastfm and Bebo, which are connecting likeminded individuals from around the world. (Not to mention the thousands of dating sites for those who want to be more than friends.) Refreshingly enough, this new listmania is not about keeping track of mass market hits, but about individuals: their likes, dislikes, preferences, interests and so on. Taking this trend and translating it to the ‘real world’, as t-lists has done, is pretty clever, and may well be the start of many new offline products and services that help individuals literally wear their profiles on their sleeves. All to facilitate conversations, express oneself, or quickly identify other ‘tribe members’. Now, t-lists being a young company, Springwise is sure they wouldn’t mind sealing some international distribution deals. Especially if those deals would help them get a better grip on local lists, in languages other than English. Oh, and if you’re feeling really entrepreneurial: there’s no end to business opportunities when it comes to connecting outspoken individuals who actually like being part of a group as long as its members are just like him or her. For this week, t-lists have definitely made Springwise’s top 5!