How and when did Chad's Boutique come about?

We started work on Chad's Boutique in 1999, but it's actually based on an idea we had back in 97/98. We've all worked together on design projects in the past, so it was a pretty natural process starting another

There's, David Bell, who's our designer, Jamie Hinchliffe, our programmer, Paul Arnfield who does our Marketing and PR, and me.

What do you do?

I work in the mail room. Hah! No, I'm involved in the design and marketing of the business.

Clothes are notoriously hard to sell on the net. Why do you think this hasn't affected Chad's Boutique?

I think it's because t-shirts are the most basic form of clothing. You don't really need to try one on, cos you pretty much know your size. The net's also good for displaying the images that are on the tees, which is what everyone's buying them for.

Is that why you only sell t-shirts?

"Partly. I just think the most successful ideas on the net are the simple ones. All we sell are rare t-shirt brands and designs. And if that's all you're after, then you visit Chad's Boutique."

Where do you find all these obscure brands?

We send Chad out, across the globe, on tee explorations.

Who is Chad?

He works in the mail room with me, when he's not off finding t-shirts.

Do you get many new labels approaching you with their designs?

Yeah, we're actually in talks with a few at the moment. We're pretty tough and stringent with our quality checks, but if anyone thinks they've got designs good enough to be sold at Chad's, we encourage them to contact us.

What, in your opinion makes a good t-shirt?

That's pretty impossible to answer really. You can put anything on a t-shirt, but as long as it's graphically clever or maybe communicates something, we'd consider it for the Boutique. The four of us are consumers as well, so we wouldn't sell anything that we wouldn't wear ourselves.

What are your plans for the future?

To increase the amount of designs available, mostly. There's loads of great artwork out there, and we'll just see what we can get our hands on. We want to be recognised for selling the best quality, best designs. That's why we set up Chad's Boutique.