Much the way Webkinz pets are more than just stuffed animals, so t-shirts can be more than just t-shirts when they forge links to the online world. The conversation-starters offered by Reactee, Shyno and Augme are one type of example; now bringing a new purpose to such connections comes The Music Tee, a shirt that gives wearers the right to free music downloads.

The new offering from Invisible DJ and fashion house LnA features album art on the front of the t-shirt and a list of tracks on the back. Included on a separate hang tag, meanwhile, are a URL and a unique code that can be used to download one copy of each of the tracks printed on the shirt. The first such unisex tee features an eclectic compilation of artists from around the world, curated by Invisible DJ; with 14 tracks, it's priced at USD 60. The second Music Tee—due to become available on July 7—features The Ecstatic by Mos Def. With 16 tracks, it costs USD 39. Both are available exclusively at Ron Herman and LNAclothing.com.

Band t-shirts have long given fans a way to visibly proclaim their musical taste, but bundling with downloads adds an extra incentive for consumers to buy, and at a considerably higher price. Indeed, the OFF=ON connection is giving companies in industries far and wide new ways to connect with customers—not to mention new revenue streams. How about your brand...? (Related: Premium concert tickets come with free love — Indie download cards — Music by Groove Armada, distribution by Bacardi.)

Website: www.lnaclothing.com/musictee
Contact: info@invisibledj.com

Spotted by: Judy McRae

Durable and malleable, leather is an ideal material for reusing and upcycling. Seizing that potential, reMade USA just launched a line of stylish handbags made from used and scrap leather. reMade's bags were initially made from leather jackets found in charity stores, with details based on the original garments. The company now also gets cast-offs from the furniture and automotive industries.

reMade has around 10–15 different bags available for order on its website at any time, currently ranging in price from USD 125–365. If they'd like to breathe new life into a garment they no longer wear, customers can also supply their own leather jacket and request a design based on one of reMade's models. Hand-crafted in San Francisco, stamped with its own unique serial number, and lined with a recycled silk scarf, each bag is inherently unique.

reMade isn't the first to make leather jackets into bags. But as planet-friendly products jostle for attention, it's not enough just to be green. How to stand out and create a sustainable business on top of a sustainable product? reMade's founder, Shannon South, demonstrates the importance of building a brand: using good design and photography; showing the process and telling a story; and adding charming and recognizable details like a silk scarf lining. (Related: Luxe upcycling: from cashmere sweaters to (very) soft toys — From 1950s pommel horses to 2008 gym bags.)

Website: www.remadeusa.com
Contact: shop@remadeusa.com

Spotted by: Edward Cotton

Clothes shopping may be a source of joy for many women, but the same is rarely true for men; in fact, many men would rather do just about anything else. With that in mind, the Trunk Club now offers men the services of a personal shopper from the convenience of their own office or home.

Based in Oregon, the Trunk Club assigns each of its clients a personal clothing expert to recommend, find and deliver clothing and accessories that complement their own personal style. Men begin by filling out an application for a free membership on the site. They then have a 15-minute or so introductory, webcam-enabled session from home or office with their personal shopper, who then sends out an initial shipment of name-brand clothes. Customers pay just retail price for the clothes they decide to keep—no minimum purchase is required—and the Trunk Club covers shipping both ways. After that clients can connect with their shopper as often as they want in person or via the company's Skype-based webcam platform—no visits to retail stores are ever required. The Trunk Club's personal shoppers work on commission, according to TechCrunch; the company's revenue derives from retail markups on clothes bought from partner manufacturers at wholesale prices, with no minimum inventory required.

The Trunk Club officially launched just two weeks ago, and it's currently looking for entrepreneurs who can work virtually on its behalf with members around the world. One to get in on early...?

Website: www.trunkclub.com
Contact: info@trunkclub.com

Spotted by: Chris Rollason

Vendors of T-shirts, jewellery and wool clothing—not to mention bananas, coffee and spinach—have been using product life stories for some time now to demonstrate their efforts at sustainability. Whereas most such efforts have been individual ones, however, Made-By offers a more central approach to transparency by tracking and documenting the efforts of all participating fashion brands.

Dutch nonprofit Made-By aims to expand the market for environmentally and socially conscious fashion by facilitating sustainable production processes and then giving brands a way to share their product stories with consumers. Made-By begins by advising participating brands on how to clean up their manufacturing process where necessary and—together with fair-trade NGO Solidaridad, which launched Made-By back in 2004—it helps develop production chains in which a garment can be manufactured in a sustainable manner from start to finish. It can advise companies on getting an organic cotton supplier certified, for example, or refer them to its network of trusted sustainable suppliers in Latin America, Africa, Europe, China and India. Member brands use organic cotton and work with sewing factories that have a social code of conduct; to proclaim their participation, they identify their clothing with a small blue button placed near the care-instructions label.

Perhaps even more interesting, however, is Made-By's Track & Trace database system, which allows consumers to see the product story of their clothing online. Developed in collaboration with Organic Exchange and UK IT company Historic Futures, the database gets populated when each link in the production chain enters information about its production processes—how many bales of cotton were received, for example, and whether an organic certificate was included. Made-By verifies that every party enters the relevant information and also keeps all supplier pages up-to-date with photos and comments. Participating manufacturers then include a unique code on the label of each item of clothing they produce. Consumers can enter that code into the Track & Trace system to see who was involved at each step in the production of their garment; a link to Google Maps shows the location of each factory and plant involved in just a single click. Made-By also publishes scorecards online and in its annual report each year to show the proportion of each brand’s collections that are produced sustainably.

“I can tell people that Komodo is a fair label, but will the consumer believe me? Made-By is like a certification for us, and proves to consumers that we are a fair label," explains Mark Bloom, director of participating brand Komodo UK. It's all about turning transparency tyranny into transparency triumph, in other words, which is what happens when you make the most of being under the spotlight. Shrink from scrutiny and you're sure to wither; boldly proclaim your credentials (after making sure you have some, of course), and you'll certainly shine! ;-)

Website: www.made-by.nl
Contact: info@made-by.nl

Spotted by: Chris Rollason

Women who love their high heels may already be aware of ‘emergency’ flats that roll up and fit inside a purse in order to be slipped onto tired feet the end of a long night of dancing. Two new companies in England have taken the concept a step further by selling their version of portable flats in vending machines at nightclubs.

Rollasoles sell for about GBP 5 and come in four colors: Hi Ho Silver, Gold Digger, and Back to Black and Pink. When tested in Oceana and Liquid nightclubs, the classic looking ballet quickly shoes sold out. Rollasoles is planning to introduce more vending machines and eventually branch out beyond the UK.

Afterheels are similar rollable ballet flats that also sell for about GBP 5 but have—according to the company—the added feature of being sustainable; the bodies of the shoes are made from natural materials and the polypropylene insoles are fully recyclable. Both Rollasoles and Afterheels are sold with a matching bag to carry their wearer's stilettos home. It’s hard to imagine a place where this kind of convenience wouldn’t appeal to female clubgoers.

Websites: www.rollasole.com — www.afterheels.com

Contact: info@rollasole.com — info@afterheels.com

Spotted by: Raymond Kollau

Crowdsourced creations already form the foundation of sneaker brand Ryz, which sells high-tops featuring graphic designs created and voted into production by consumers. Now, a similar concept is being used to create Exuve, a new line of clothing "where the designer and the consumer are one and the same."

California-based Exuve is a new fashion label for women and men that sells dresses, tops, skirts, jackets and bottoms designed and voted on by the crowds. Users can submit their designs for any of the site's monthly competitions using any combination of pictures, illustrations, words and specs. Submitted designs then get posted for critique and review by other members of the Exuve community; the designers, meanwhile, are encouraged to promote their work on their own blogs, social networks and personal pages. The designs in each category that get rated the highest are put into production for purchase in the company's online boutique, and winners are rewarded with USD 500 in cash, a USD 200 Exuve gift certificate (redeemable for USD 100 cash) and 5 percent of net revenue royalties from sales of the item through Exuve.com and its affiliate retailers. There are currently some 70 users registered on the site.

With companies like Exuve, Ryz, Infectious and Threadless—among many others—it's not hard to imagine a future where product designers no longer exist per se, replaced instead by the prolific and eager hordes of creative consumers. Marketing, of course, is also taken care of by those same socially connected masses. Fortunately, there will always be a place for you, the inspired entrepreneurs who make it all happen! ;-) (Related: Open-source label for green fashion.)

Website: www.exuve.com
Contact: help@exuve.com

Spotted by: James Burn

People like knowing what they're getting before they open their wallets. For those looking to get a new haircut, MopShots offers an online lookbook of real cuts on real people, with details on the salons that created them.

Snapshots can be submitted by anyone (including hairstylists showing off their latest work), but not every photo is accepted. Before being featured on MopShots, photos are approved by the website's 'Dictators'—a group of 25 fashion bloggers, stylists and tastemakers. Engaging users as they contribute, and commenting on each cut, the Dictators look for models with character rather than ones cut from a glamour magazine. MopShots stresses that its curators aren’t sponsored by hairdressers or hair product companies.

Each hairstyle has its own page with up to four photos, and lists the name and location of the salon. Styles are searchable by hair colour, type, style, length or salon. The site works both as inspiration for people looking for a new style, as well as those seeking a salon based on its real-world results. Which makes sense, given that the site was created by web veteran Citysearch, which is battling Yelp for domination of the local business search arena. One to copy to other service industries? (Related: Hotel search: video completes the picture — Mapping restaurants by photos of their dishes.)

Website: www.mopshots.com
Contact: www.mopshots.com/contact

Spotted by: Judy McRae

Update: following Mopshots, Citysearch has launched lookbooks for four other categories: Sugar Bomber (make sweets, not war), 3 Buck Bites (cheap eats for food lovers), Lucky Toes (where'd you get those shoes?) and Veggie Thing (vegan eats for food lovers).

It's no longer uncommon for companies to turn other companies' used goods into something new—Worn Again's recrafting of old airplane seat covers comes to mind—or to donate used products for a charitable cause. One we hadn't seen, however, was a jewelry company that takes back its customers' worn items and transforms them into new designs.

Sure enough, though, last month Canada's Foxy Originals announced a new jewelry recycling program that it says is the first of its kind in North America. How it works: customers send in their old, well-worn pieces of the company's design, and Foxy will melt down the metals from those items and turn them into brand-new designs. In exchange, consumers receive a 10 percent discount on their next Foxy purchase. As the company's website explains, "Foxy’s recycle program is a great way to refresh your personal collection of Foxy Originals while reducing waste and helping the environment." Toronto-based Foxy's other socially minded efforts include producing all its designs locally in Canada and using lead-free materials and water-based sprays instead of toxic solvents in all production.

Already endowed with (still) made here appeal, Foxy will only add to its eco-credentials with the new recycling effort, encouraging green-minded customers to come back for more. (Related: Retailers recycle customers' used clothes — From Wal-Mart, jewelry with a traceable story.)

Website: www.foxyoriginals.com
Contact: customerservice@foxyoriginals.com

Spotted by: Sarah Tindle

YouTube regularly spawns flash-in-the-pan celebrities, but few have managed to build a profitable business out of their exposure. Lauren Luke is a rare exception—the British self-taught make-up guru built such a loyal following with her chatty tips on how to imitate celebrity looks, that she just launched her own line of cosmetics: By Lauren Luke.

In contrast to high-profile make-up artists like Bobbi Brown, Luke has true girl-next-door appeal. The former taxi dispatcher started experimenting with brightly coloured make-up in high school. While selling cosmetics on eBay as a 26-year-old single mom, Luke started making simple, unedited YouTube tutorials for her customers, which have been viewed over 40 million times since she started posting them 18 months ago.

The By Lauren Luke line, sold exclusively through Luke’s website to customers in the US, Canada and Europe, features kits of hand-picked shades. Naturally, each kit comes with a video tutorial on how best to apply ‘Fierce Violets’, ‘Vintage Glams’, ‘Sultry Blues’ and ‘Luscious Greens’. Luke hopes her customers will do what she does whenever she receives new cosmetics in the mail: “chew the postman's hand off with excitement”. From her deft use of social media, to how she generously shares her skills to attract a loyal following, most seasoned entrepreneurs could learn a thing or two from Lauren Luke.

Website: www.bylaurenluke.com
Contact: www.bylaurenluke.com/contact.html

We've written about 'curated consumption' on several occasions before, including such contenders as Ranking, Ranqueen and Stack. A new entrant in the area recently caught our eye, however, not least because its hand-picked offerings are sold through an upscale vending machine.

U*tique bills itself as the world’s first interactive, automated luxury store for “life’s little emergencies and indulgences." Currently debuting at Los Angeles retailer Fred Segal, U*tique lets consumers learn about select luxury and personal-care products and have them conveniently dispensed to them with a swipe of the credit card. Only 50 products are available at any given time, and all have been handpicked by product specialists with backgrounds in global beauty, trend-hunting and innovation. Customers wanting to learn more about any of them can use U*tique to access ingredient lists, try samples or watch short videos for product explanations and demonstrations. The technology features an original touch-screen interface, interactive LED lighting design, and a behind-the-scenes robot that delivers products from secure storage into consumers' hands. Design help for U*tique came from Russell Greenberg, director of NYC-based studio RUX. Current brand partners, meanwhile, include industry icons Lancome, Bliss, C.O. Bigelow, Lancaster and Vosges Haut Chocolat, as well as rising stars such as Hourglass Cosmetics, David Kirsch Wellness, Lipstick Queen and Ketty Sean.

U*tique CEO Mara Segal explains: "I wanted to help simplify the shopping experience for customers. Our store is like an interactive gallery, each item is hand selected and celebrated. Consumers can experience that wonderful kid-in-candy-store feeling—their eye is delighted, their desires are met, the only difficult part is choosing which treat to buy.”

Segal hopes to install more U*tique automated stores in upscale nightclubs, hotel lobbies, locker rooms, shopping malls and airports over the next two years, according to a report in Trendhunter. One to get in on early....? (Related: Vending machine dispenses free samples.)

Website: www.utiqueshop.com
Contact: info@utiqueshop.com

Spotted by: Trendhunter via Raymond Kollau