After launching the first version of Busted Tees in 2004, Josh Abramson would always say, “Why don’t we make the shirt graphics bigger? Why are they so small?”
Zach and I would make the graphics a little bigger, but we always wanted to fit other text & crap on the page. Finally we re-designed, ditching the typical superfluous web page crap (“Top Sellers This Week”, etc). We made the shirt graphics BIG (they look normal now, but were huge for the time) and clearly, bigger was better. Busted Tees has not fundamentally changed in the several years since.
The number of me-too sites is staggering. I see a new one every week, and they all look the same. I don’t blame them: there may be no better way to sell T-shirts on the web. We figured it out, locked it in, and were able to focus our efforts on improving other aspects of the business. This paved the way for other entrepreneurs, who didn’t have to do as much work as us.
It does not bother me that they are copycats. It is flattering.
It may not bother you, but sure as heck bothers me.