Land's End Ubuntu Goods

[elizabeth]

Hey folks,

John Crawford started a thread on the US Team forums ages ago suggesting that someone from the US work with the Land's End corporate/affiliate program to get the Ubuntu Logo on Land's End goods, the thread is here:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=529667

http://ocs.landsend.com/corpsales

There is tons of interest across the country and it's been brought up several times at our own events. There were some politics involved that stalled the project, but I think we're ready to pick up where we left off and move forward with contacting Canonical to get the green light (it's their trademark/copyright/etc) and then moving into actually dishing out the cash to get this going and setting up the account.

The question is - who wants to head this up? John gave me the go-ahead to find someone else to lead the project (he's too busy), but I'm too busy to lead this (I will help though!). I could just go to the US mailing list, but we have a lot of dedicated folks here who don't have tasks, so I thought I'd ask here first :)

Cheers,

[OneIdle]

I would be interested in Heading or Co-Heading this project but I have to admit that I am not certain what this would entail. if you could describe some of the duties perhaps it would make it clearer for me to make a final decision about it.

Of course I would probably be relying heavily on your direction but I am willing to take on this challenge.

[elizabeth]

Figuring out the specifics is part of what I don't have time for, but it would look something like:


Get permission from Canonical to use the trademark: This will involve asking around and finding who to ask/what email address to send the request to.

See http://ocs.landsend.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/corpsales/CSM_LOGO_MAIN.d2w/report?store_name=corpsales&store_type=1#overview for instructions on how to go about submitting/processing logo.

Deal with costs involved: Ask for donations via paypal, etc - probably just a couple of us in PA tossing in some $20s will do it, this won't be a problem we just need someone collecting money and funneling it to the appropriate place.

Once Lands End has stuff for sale with the Ubuntu logo, tell us about it so we can promote!

[OneIdle]

I have emailed Canonical asking for permission to use the official logo's.
including: Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Edubuntu and Xubuntu. I am not sure if we want to use all 4 logo's or not but figured if we do we will have permission once approved.

From what I understand every Logo will require a a number of steps (http://ocs.landsend.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/corpsales/CSM_LOGO_MAIN.d2w/report?store_name=corpsales&store_type=1#overview) and each logo embroidery will require a payment. We can start with just the Ubuntu logo and then add the other's as the need arises or go all out and do all four.


What do you think?

[elizabeth]

Well done! Thanks for getting this rolling :)

[OneIdle]

I have just received an email from Michelle Surtees-Myers. She would like to know what the goal of this project is.

"Following the thread I understand that you would like to sell Ubuntu goods with our logo but I'd just like to find out a little more about your project please. What is the aim of the sale of the goods? Is it to support a local event or to raise money for your LoCo team?"

So what is our goal? I have been wondering the same thing. Does Ubuntu get any proceeds? does the LoCo?

[elizabeth]

So what is our goal? I have been wondering the same thing. Does Ubuntu get any proceeds? does the LoCo?

Proceeds? There aren't any. We take donations and we pay Land's End to offer goods with the Ubuntu logo. Just like the US-MA team and the case badges we'd sell things at cost (or give them away at events) and I expect we'd share the corporate account so other LoCos could order goods with the logo (need to do more research about about how this would work).

The goal of the project is for people in the US to get Ubuntu branded clothing without having to pay the insane shipping costs from the Canonical store in the UK (when our team and the NJ team went in for a big purchase from that store, they even messed up customs charges as I explained here (http://princessleia.com/journal/?p=1214), my $16.42 women's t-shirt ended up costing me $23.15 when all was said and done, eek). The Land's End store also offers a greater variety of goods.

[OneIdle]

Thanks for the response will forward to Michelle.

P.S. I am going to search some and see if I can find another solution where perhaps the LoCo can get some proceeds to help fund events by selling products with the Ubuntu logo.

[BLTicklemonster]

Beat me about the head and neck with a wet noodle for saying this, but I honestly believe that Ubuntu needs a new logo if we want it to be widely accepted. It's just circles and circles, and round things... Even a color scheme change wouldn't help. I know there's symbolism in it, but that's a hard sell. We need something bolder, with eye catching appeal.

For some reason, Rafiki's face keeps coming to mind, I don't know why, other than he was hip, yet wise and very personable.


Oops, sorry, I was just looking at new posts, I didn't realize I was up here in Pennsylvania posting in your part of the forum. heh heh. How 'bout those Patriots!!! Woo hoo!!!

*runs and hides*

[sloggerkhan]

Yeah, just tell them that LoCo teams here in the states want a source of high quality ubuntu clothing and merchandise that also doesn't have international shipping and euro/pound conversions tossed on top of it.

[elizabeth]

P.S. I am going to search some and see if I can find another solution where perhaps the LoCo can get some proceeds to help fund events by selling products with the Ubuntu logo.

The problem isn't that it's not possible to buy a bunch of Land's End stuff and then mark it up to sell. We could, in theory.

But our intention isn't to make money, LoCos don't have an infrastructure to legally handle more than a few $$s here and there, and don't want one! This is where the whole plan got tied up last time, people started talking about money, we got side-tracked, and it's taken a YEAR to get back to this. Plus I don't believe Canonical would approve such a money-making scheme.

[OneIdle]

I agree. It would be to difficult to keep track of how much and who is handling and who has access to the "money".

All I want is maybe a nice Jacket and a few T-shirts.

Let's stay on track!

[Can0beans]

I second that.

Let's not turn this into a pyramid scheme.

I'd love to order stuff direct from Canonical, but between the delivery time and the exchange rate (with the US dollar being in the toilet bowl), it just isn't worth it. Basically, all we need is a US distributor similar to what they already have overseas.

[OneIdle]

UPDATE

Just wanted to keep you folks up to speed with what is going on.

Until now we have no news. I am going to wait till the end of this week ( Sunday ) and if no response from Michelle ( Canonical ) I will try contacting them on Monday the 28th.

[OneIdle]

EXTRA EXTRA. READ ALL ABOUT IT!

We have received a FINAL decision from Canonical about using the Ubuntu logo, and we have some good news and some bad.

Canonical has decided not to allow us to use the Ubuntu trademark, unless the LOCO specifically needs to use it to raise funds.

They have notified me that Canonical will be launching a Online Store for the US/Canadian markets very shortly.


QUOTED EMAIL

"Hi John,

Thanks for your email and apologies for the late response.

We fully appreciate the shipping expenses that our US/Canadian customers have experienced when purchasing the official Ubuntu merchandise. We are in the process of launching an official US online store which should deal with these issues and this will be going live very shortly.

In light of this in terms of our trademark policy we cannot permit merchandise with our trademark to be sold via another vendor. In terms of the policy Ubuntu LoCo teams are permitted to sell merchandise using the trademarks in order to raise money for the LoCo team, so if this is specifically what you are doing then this is a different request. However, if you are just creating an account with Lands End to sell Ubuntu merchandise en masse, this is an issue with regard to our trademark policy.

I trust that you appreciate our position in this regard.

Thanks again for your support of Ubuntu.


Kind regards,
Michelle "