Okay, shirt-wearing isn’t exactly a highly trained skill. Most of us wear a shirt every day and we certainly don’t get paid for doing so (though, if you work in a traditional cubicle job, you’d probably get fired for not wearing a shirt). There is a bit more to this telecommuting job opening than sporting a different t-shirt every day. You’ll also need to be comfortable in front of the video camera, talking all about the t-shirt you’re wearing that day. That’s definitely a skill. Seriously, if you like the idea of wearing a different logo t-shirt every day, all day, and hosting a live web show all about the company who sponsored the shirt of the day, this pretty unique telecommuting job offer is right up your alley.
What began as a 1-man show back in 2008 has expanded to a 5-man show and they’re looking for 4 “new” shirt wearers for 2012. Jason Sadler, a.k.a. that t-shirt guy, launched IWYS (IWearYourShirt.com), an idea that put his creativity, advertising experience, and web design skills to work for him. He started small, charging $1 for the first day and increasing the advertising fee a dollar a day for the remainder of the year.
The premise is fairly simple, but the work involved is much more complex than it seems at first glance. Shirt wearers don’t just put on a t-shirt with the sponsor’s logo and then go grocery shopping or running errands around their respective towns (though they might do those things on any given day) – they also host a live web show where the audience can interact by chatting via the IWYS site or Ustream, post a video on YouTube, and otherwise promote the logo of the day through various social networks like Facebook and Twitter. It’s like product placement where the product (or company, or brand, or person, or cause) also becomes the main subject of the show . . . they’re bodily billboards that move and groove in real life and in online social circles.
While I think it’s a pretty cool idea, and must be tons of fun to actually grow a business built on such a simple yet creative idea, there are folks who don’t quite get it, too. Check out the mixed review of comments on this 2009 NY Times article. But with a lot of devotion and hard work on Jason’s part, his idea is working and the company continues to grow.
Interested in joining Jason and becoming one of the new shirt wearers in 2012?
If you’re awesome and creative, and 17 or older, they want you to apply.
We don’t care if you live in Alaska, if you’re 4 feet tall, if you have purple hair or if you have webbed feet. We look for people that can make creative YouTube videos every day, that can be engaging on live video every day, are hard working and understand what it takes to market/advertise a different company every day.
Is this job for everyone?
No way. You’ve got to be an extrovert, comfortable with the idea of committing to a live webcast every day where you’ll be sporting whatever t-shirt you’ve been given to chat about. They’ve got a pretty grueling schedule, though they’re getting Saturday’s off in 2012. Here’s how IWYS describes what shirt wearing will be like, and compensation you can expect:
We will be working a 6-day per week schedule in 2012 with every Saturday off (this is a big deal as there haven’t been weekly days off ever). Each day you’ll be expected to have a YouTube video made, host a 30-minute live video show, take a photo and share that content and sponsor information on Twitter and Facebook. We expect you to wear the t-shirts all day long, especially in public, and be connected to a group chat with the IWYS team. Along with the daily sponsor, you’ll also have a monthly sponsor to share information about. We do NOT work a 9-5 schedule, however you will be expected to have your YouTube video and photo ready by 9am (your timezone) every day. You determine how long you spend filming/editing YouTube videos, but we typically spend 2-4 hours each day.
The rest of the day is fairly relaxed and the majority of your time will be spent interacting with your current friends/followers on Twitter and Facebook and trying to engage new community members. The daily 30 minute live video show will most likely occur during the hours of 2-5pm EST and if you’ve never hosted a live video show before, it wouldn’t hurt to start practicing now. As mentioned above, this is a full time job. If you think you can do this on the side of a standard 9-5 gig, this is not the job for you. The annual income for 2012 shirt wearers is not being disclosed, but in 2011 the shirt wearers annual income ranged from $30,000-35,000 with potential bonuses. If hired by IWYS you are an independent contractor of Really Awesome Company, Inc, not a salaried employee (no paid benefits). This is a one-year contract and you are not immediately renewed for 2013 if you’re hired for 2012. We highly recommend watching the current shirt wearers to understand the daily schedule.
Want to apply?
Watch this video and follow the instructions to submit your application. The deadline for submission is December 6th, but you’ll want to submit yours as soon as possible since they’ll be picking the 4 people live on December 7th.
If you’re interested in applying you should definitely:
- Watch the video above for instructions.
- Check out their hiring page: http://www.iwearyourshirt.com/hiring/.
- Watch Jason’s Ustream video talking about the job.
- Watch at least a few of their live streams either on the IWYS site or the Ustream channel. Shows air daily between 2pm and 5pm (EST).
- Watch several of their YouTube videos to see how they casually promote their sponsors.
- Read the IWYS calendar blog posts. Click on any previous day and you’ll see the post. Click on any future day and you’ll be taken directly to that day’s sponsor’s website.
- Connect with them in social media! The links are everywhere and easy to find. Follow them on Twitter, Like them on Facebook, subscribe to the IWYS YouTube Channel, etc.
If you’re at all interested, you should definitely take a stab at this super-cool telecommuting job opp!
The 2012 Application process is NOT solely a popularity contest. It doesn’t matter if you have the most followers, most friends, most comments, most ratings, most anything… Just because you have those things doesn’t make you the best person for the job. We appreciate every single person that takes the time to apply and want you to know we will be closely watching and following this application process. The 4 shirt wearers that get chosen will all be called during Jason’s live video show on December 7 between 3-4pm EST. If you’re chosen to be a shirt wearer for 2012, you will be flown to Jacksonville, Florida for the weekend of Dec 16-19 to meet the rest of the team, the IWYS family and get a crash course in shirt wearing.
If you aren’t interested in applying you can have some fun looking at all the applications.