A little bit of a mistake

Fifteen years, millions of views, one small typo

Since 2010, A Little Bit of Stone has grown into Stone’s most-read news organisation. With tens of thousands of followers and millions of views, we’ve become the go-to source for news and what’s on in Stone.

To celebrate our 15th birthday in 2025, we decided to do something we’ve never done before. As a one-off, we wanted to launch a limited run of branded merchandise that our fantastic followers could purchase to support us. We commissioned 200 items of each – hoodies, T-shirts, mugs and tote bags – to say thank you to our community and give people a way to show their love for Stone.

What could possibly go wrong?

When ALBOS becomes A SLOB

Many people know us as ALBOS – short for A Little Bit of Stone. It’s been our informal name for years. So naturally, that’s what we printed on our designs. Or so we thought.

We’d never had anything printed before, so when an offer dropped into our inbox from Apparel Fool Ltd, a company specialising in personalised merchandise, it seemed like the stars had aligned.

Yesterday, 4 weeks and £1000 later, I was like a kid in a sweet shop when 3 hefty boxes arrived. I rushed to show Mrs ALBOS the products, and was completely taken aback by her hysterical laughing.

What I’d hoped would be a massive success was quickly turning into a spectacular failure. In an attempt to be clever with the design, I’d tried placing our logo inside the letter “O”. Somewhere along the way, I managed to rearrange the letters entirely – turning ALBOS into ASLOB. Or, as Mrs ALBOS helpfully pointed out between fits of laughter… A SLOB.

After we reached out to Apparel Fool Ltd, Commercial manager Mick Stake told us:

“We always recommend our clients pay a little extra for a physical sample before committing to a full print run.

In this case, the client opted to proceed without one. That is, of course, their choice. That said, we do think ‘A SLOB’ has a certain charm to it.”

What do we do?

We now have 200 of each item, all misprinted but still very wearable and useable. The hoodies are warm. The mugs are solid. The tote bags are actually quite handy.

So do we embrace it, and sell them ‘as is’?
Let us know in the comments – and if you’d actually wear one, we might just put them on sale.