PRODUCT/COMPANY NAME: Shout Out! Clothing
PRODUCT TYPE(S): Interactive and interchangeable Velcro-embellished T-shirts for kids (current sizes 4-10, colors blue and pink), with dudes and ladies sizes and other color schemes coming soon. Click here for more product details.
AGES: Kids 4+ (small pieces come with this product, which means that it is NOT recommended for children 3-and-under).
MANUFACTURER: Shout Out! Clothing, a company owned and operated by actor Colin Egglesfield.
RETAIL PRICE: Kids’ shirts are $29.95, which includes: T-shirt; pack of 108 Velcro letters, numbers, and symbols (three each of most letters and numbers and one of each symbol); and a “Spazz Bag” to hold extra pieces when not in use. While some website and product listings claim that a “belt loop” comes with the Spazz Bag, my sample did not contain one.
GIVEAWAY: Want to skip the review and get right to the goods? Then go here for my *Exclusive* Shout Out! Clothing Giveaway!

I had the opportunity to sit down and chat with actor Colin Egglesfield at a Long Beach coffee-house a couple of weeks ago for about an hour-and-a-half.

Wow. I cannot believe I just typed that sentence.

You might recognize Egglesfield’s name and face from such TV shows as Rizzoli and Isles, The Client List, and All My Children and the recent Rom-Com flick favorite “Something Borrowed.” But on this day, we didn’t talk about any of that. We casually chatted about, Shout Out! Clothing, Egglesfield’s start-up T-shirt company that appeals to kids of all ages.

Shout Out! had humble beginnings from a passing idea about seven years ago, or rather a passer-by. While Egglesfield was on location for a movie in Thailand, he noticed someone wearing a shirt with some Velcro roughly stitched across the front with a customized phrase made up from interchangeable letters. When he asked the person where they got it, he said the shirts were pretty common to his area and worn as a means of personal expression.

“I then wondered why I’d not seen anything like this back home,” Egglesfield continued. “I’d always wanted to start a company as a side project to have something to do during down-time on-set, and until that point I didn’t know what I wanted to do exactly. But now I knew… this was it.”

After returning home, Egglesfield worked on finding some softer Velcro material and then took it to his dry cleaner to get it stitched onto the front of a T-shirt so he could start playing with the lettering concept. A little while later, that prototype grew into Egglesfield working with a manufacturer to source just the right quality materials, from the T-shirt down to how well the stitching  kept the Velcro patches on the shirts. Once he had a few kits made up, he started taking them to trade shows during downtime from “All My Children”; that’s when Shout Out! Clothing launched.

During our 90-minute chat, I asked Egglesfield what his goals are for Shout Out! Clothing. “I see the educational opportunities the product has, letting kids practice their spelling and things like that,” he said, “but we also want to encourage kids to be creative… say what they want to say and be what they want to be.”

To encourage positive messages in real life and on social media, and to uphold a connection between Shout Out! and its customers, Shout Out! hosts weekly #ShoutOutFriday events on Twitter. This is an open forum where anyone is free to tweet their favorite Shout Out! messages whether they own a shirt or not. The company then selects one entry to receive a new Shout Out! shirt of their own.

Egglesfield further utilizes the Shout Out! product line as a charitable vehicle to support and promote educational and other youth-based initiatives, such as Project Grad, Stay in School campaigns, and locally the “Literally Healing” program at Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles (CHLA).

I simply cannot rave more about the Shout Out! product and concept. The avenues are endless as to its uses: Birthday parties, family reunions, company picnics, trade shows and conferences (wear a shirt rather than hold a sign), school events and fundraisers, groups looking for a fun twist on Velcro-based therapies, running and race events… Egglesfield and I had a fantastic time “shouting out” about the product’s seemingly endless potential. And a funny coincidence about the race shirt idea… Egglesfield is an avid runner and has completed a few marathons himself (Chicago 2012 with a time of 3:35!), and now he’s dabbling with a prototype Shout Out! race kit product that would eliminate the need for safety pinned bibs. Sounds like a winner to me!

And what do others think of the Shout Out! T-shirts? Let’s start with four-year-old H, who sat down with us during a part of our meeting and played with the shirt. She just happened to arrive at the coffeehouse around the same time we were getting started, so we invited her to hang out with us for a few minutes and check out the shirt. After she saw the kit, H got right down to work… play, really.

Admittedly we needed to help her with finding and separating the letters – which can be a bit tricky as they tend to cling together due to their Velcro make-up (seriously my only complaint so far is that the letters can stick to one another once separated from the original backing, which can be frustrating) – and spelling out her message. By the way, great vocabulary, H; it turns out “Esmeralda” isn’t an easy name to spell! We let H leave with a Shout Out! kit as thanks for playing with us.

“The day she came home (with her Shout Out! T-shirt) she would not take it off,” her mom told us later that evening. “She even wore it to bed she loved it so much!”

H’s mom went on. “I personally love the high quality of the T-shirt and its bright colors. I also appreciate the small detail of the “Spazz” logo sewn into the black background on front of the shirt. It’s a cute shirt on all levels. Fun and functional. And instead of puffy-painting up different shirts permanently you can change this one product for any event, or w a four-year-old you change every minute if you need (want) to!”

After telling me that, she said she got two more shirts to give as birthday gifts later that week. I think H’s mom might be another raving fan just like me!

As for T, well, we are post-birthday around here along with getting over a cold (me, too, ugh), so he’s not been super-engaged into changing up the shirt too much yet but rather has been engaging in his new Star Wars LEGO sets instead. But he did take time to sit down and make up this message to share with the world. I’d say that pretty much sums up what’s been on his mind these days, which is the point to the Shout Out! Clothing line after all!

I also haven’t had a chance to wash the shirt yet either. Per the instructions enclosed, it’s recommended that the T-Shirt be machine washed and lay flat to dry. Though the shirt can be washed with the letters on, the Velcro could snag onto other items in the machine easily, so that’s not really recommended. To wash the characters, I’d suggest separating all of them the best you can and washing the used ones separately inside a small mesh lingerie bag and laying them out to air-dry as well. It’s too bad that the “Spazz Bag” can’t double as a launder bag of some sort also (future possibility perhaps?).

And it looks like T’s friends like Shout Out! also. What great looking shirts, kids!

If you are looking for a place to buy your kids their own Shout Out! T-shirts and just can’t wait for an online order to process, then go check out the Miller Children’s Hospital Long Beach (MCHLB) Auxiliary Holiday Faire 2013 THIS MONDAY AND TUESDAY November 4 and 5 in Houssels Forum. Hours are 7:30 a.m.-through-5:30 p.m both days, and parking is just $5 on-site (no validation available). There will be around 65 vendors alongside Shout Out! selling all kinds of fun Christmas and holiday stuff, jewelry, clothing, and items for the home. The event will also host a silent auction, and attendees can enter an opportunity drawing worth $600.00! In addition, Auxiliary members will have an area filled with delicious sweets they have baked. Of course, funds raised at the event will go to benefit Miller Children’s Hospital, so bring your credit cards, cash, and holiday spirit and get started on that seasonal shopping!

So, tell me… what would you “Shout Out!” on your own shirt, RMT’ers?

RMT’s EXCLUSIVE Shout Out! Giveaway via Rafflecopter!!!

^^^CLICK ABOVE TEXT TO ENTER!^^^

Thanks again to Colin Egglesfield for coming down to Long Beach to chat with me about all things Shout Out! related (and thanks again for T’s new shirt!). Egglesfield honestly couldn’t have been kinder or more down-to-Earth, and his passion and enthusiasm for the Shout Out! product is unstoppable, and for good reason. Now it’s your turn to become a part of the Shout Out! scene, RMT’ers!

Because Shout Out! wants you to get out there and express yourselves, too, I’m running an EXCLUSIVE Shout Out! GIVEAWAY of TWO SHIRTS for TWO UNIQUE WINNERS (one “boys’ (blue)” and one girls’ (pink)) (CLICK THROUGH TO RAFFLECOPTER TO ENTER) from NOW (Friday November 1, 2013) through Midnight Monday November 4, 2013 (that’s the end of the day, RMT’ers).

PLEASE NOTE: Again, I will draw two different winners, one for a boys’ (blue) shirt and one for a girls’ (pink) shirt. One person cannot win both prizes. Please feel free to state your preference of prize(s), but I cannot guarantee who will win which item(s). Thanks for understanding.

TO ENTER, all you have to do is:

1. Click the Rafflecopter link above in LARGE CAPS TEXT, then,

2. Please do one or more of the following:

– leave a comment here on this blog post as to what you like most about the Shout Out! website (the content, the video, etc.)

– like RMT’s Twitter Page

– like Shout Out! Clothing’s Twitter Page

– like RMT’s Facebook Page

– like Shout Out! Clothing’s Facebook Page

AND/OR

– tweet about the contest (please tag @RealMomTime AND @ShoutOut_Spazz in your posts)

To officially enter, you must click-through to one of the Rafflecopter links above, and PLEASE remember to check off all of the step(s) you complete! In turn, please note that if you check off that you did something, then please remember to go and do it (I will be able to tell who did what, RMT’ers!). Rafflecopter is where I am gathering up all the entries and where I will “pull the names from the hat” as the saying goes, and the more steps you do above, the more entries you get!

Please enter as often as you wish per the Rafflecopter link instructions, BUT in relation to the blog comments, please do not leave back-to-back, “bot”-style, and/or “spammy” comments (those and anything else deemed profane or otherwise unfit for the RMT community will be deleted).

Once two different winners are randomly selected, I will contact those persons to coordinate prize fulfilment directly from Shout Out! so make sure you are a real person who can provide me a real email and shipping address, if needed. I will post the winners’ names to this and an additional blog post along with the Rafflecopter giveaway site once selected; I can get the winners’ contact details later, so please never post your contact information in a public forum! No purchase necessary. You can link to the giveaway directly for all the rules and regulations.

UPDATE: Big Congrats to Lise Spence-Roberts and Kimberly Corrigan, the two winners in my Shout Out! Clothing Giveaway! Enjoy your T-shirt packs, RMT’ers!

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received one or more of the products or services mentioned above for free in the hope that I would mention it on my blog. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”