Hey guys/gals,

TGIF right? Ah, I was out running around all day (Correction: I live in LA so I was actually on my booty, in my car, in traffic).  Anyway, you may know by now that I’m the female voice of Manolith, the guys’ lifestyle site where being sarcastic and relevant is a necessity.

Anyway, I’m psyched to let you know of our first Manolith Giveaway which is the chance to win TWO Free Customized shirts from Shirtsmyway.com, a site where you can design, customize and create your own fitted shirt using quality fabrics and numerous possible shirt designs.

All you have to do is go to THIS POST and answer this question:

What is the worst mens style trend you’ve ever seen?  Have you been that guy who sported those awful Hypercolor t-shirts from the 1990’s or do you cringe when you see someone wearing see-through Pink dress shirts? BONUS POINTS FOR PERSONAL STORIES.

Winners will be posted next week.  And… I got a chance to chat with Peter Crawfurd, Co-founder of Shirtsmyway.com.  Check out the interview…

First, Peter, great to have you on girlatastartup.  So let’s begin… How did you and your co-founder, Michael Yang, come up with the idea for ShirtsMyWay?

Well we were set on starting a business and had lots of ideas. I had been getting a lot of custom dress shirts throughout Asia years earlier and we wanted to bring this wonderful concept to the web, but we wanted to execute it really well. In other words we wanted it primarily to be a sort of design studio for shirts although they are also made to measure. It had to be fun and easy.

Your team is very active in social media.  Very smart.  Yet, not many companies are doing this, so how did you know that this was the way for you to promote your brand? Love the idea of reaching out to the Obama Administration. It seems as though you give your marketing team free reign on ideas to promote ShirtsMyWay.  Can you elaborate?

There is a lot of buzz around social media and for great reasons. We had quite a lot of experience with this in the past and know that it can really bring in a lot of traffic… it is no secret ingredient though, it’s still all about working really hard and having a great product. Working hard is basically what Michael and I are doing all day every day to ensure that this will be a long term success, although we have already received a lot of exposure. And yes, we tried getting the Obama team in on giving out free dress shirts out to the unemployed but when they weren’t interested we decided to do it ourselves every week until the end of May. This story did end up in the Financial Times actually…Our marketing team gets quite free reigns to contact media and create buzz around our product..

Very cool.  So, What’s the ultimate goal for your company?

We have very high ambitions for our company and diversification into other products is certainly part of it, but we haven’t chosen exactly which ones yet. We will constantly be improving our product and experience. In just three months we have already had hundreds of customers (closer to 1000 than 0)..

That’s amazing progress for just being a live site for only a few months.  So, What advice do you have for guys who are t-shirt/jeans types and have no idea about style or how to be stylish?

I”d say try to keep it simple. Our fabrics allow for casual shirts as well as formal. In fact, to help customers out we are working on a book that will only be about dress shirts and style.

Simple and classic is best definitely.  What is your own personal style and what type of statement does have a freshly pressed customized shirt make about you?

I do love wearing shirts and my wardrobe is loaded with them. The type of shirt I wear typically depends on the occasion, but usually I like simplicity, clean lines, or subtle solid colors. I usually stay away from anything with more than 2 colors in it. The idea we wanted to create with our business is that what ever the persons style is, they can make it with us when it comes to shirts. Wearing a shirt that fits well and you love the look of is generally a confidence boost for most men.

Very true.  Thanks for your time Peter, and now I want to get these shirts for my Dad, brother, and boyfriend.