This cursed credit crunch is a source of some serious woe for me (“The weather’s terrible! Must be the credit crunch”; “I can’t be bothered to go for a run! Blame it on the credit crunch”; “I’m late for work! Thanks, credit crunch” etc). In these credit crunchy times, I struggle to find interesting things to eat for less than 50p on my terrifyingly small last-day-before-payday budget, and, rather than heading out to forage for wild mushrooms in Hyde Park, I find myself looking for a source of easy money. So imagine my delight when I stumbled across this little gem of a website.
Part social networking, part venture capitalism, Cameesa is an online T-shirt store with a difference. Freelancers submit their T-shirt designs to the website (nothing offensive, obscene or crap, please) and then try to find 50 supporters who are each willing to invest $20. Once these 50 fans have come forward, the artist gets $500 and the T-shirt gets printed up – not too shabby at all. And everyone who ponied up $20 gets a limited edition version of the T-shirt. Better yet, they also get a stake in the future earnings of the sale of that T-shirt. That’s not very much speculation for quite a lot of potential accumulation! You might spot the next ‘I?NY‘ t-shirt and make a mint.
So I’m rooting around down the back of the sofa, emptying out all my pockets, maybe I’ll pawn some tat lying around the house, all in order to scrape together the £10 or so I need to back one of the ace artists on the site. It’s still small and, like a Strictly Come Dancing group dance, only as strong as its members, so get involved, people!