A little while back, I was asked if I was interested in doing a review of a new company RocketLife.com. They offered me a couple of free products to give their site/service a try. Who am I to pass up some free stuff?

So basically RocketLife.com is a site where you can turn your photos into stuff like mousepads, t-shirts, photo books, mugs, calendars, posters, puzzles, etc. While there are a lot of companies out there that do this sort of thing, some people think it’s pretty cheesy, while others love this sort of stuff. I’ve used several of them in the past, and it’s always cool, but usually such a pain to do. Either you have to do everything on a limited, browser-based application, or you have to download a program, make your creations, the upload the files back to the company’s site. Rocketlife has found a happy medium between the two extremes.

Initially, the site isn’t overly impressive, and I must say, I was hesitant to download their software (less than 1MB). But hey, I can always delete it later if I want, right? Once it was downloaded, it loaded up in the browser and it looked pretty good (note: minor pet peeve - the application doesn’t work in FireFox, so I had to load it up in IE). I was easily able to add photos and “create” various items with ease. There are numerous templates and backgrounds you can use as well. Overall, the application is pretty slick. One of the best things is you can create multiple products with the same or different photos all at the same time. With a lot of other similar set ups, you have to start over again every time you want to make something else.

I spent about 45 minutes playing around with the various options (it’s secretly kinda fun) and then decided what I was going to order. I figured I’d be a little different (I’m not so vein to assume I’m the only one reviewing their products), so instead of choosing the obvious products like a calendar and a photo book, I went with a mousepad and a t-shirt.

I should mention here that I was doing this late at night – aka 1am (those of you that know me know I love to work late then sleep in late if I can), and I ran into a problem trying to use the system. For some reason or another, it didn’t like my coupon code and wouldn’t accept my order (didn’t want to pay for it if I could get it for free, right?). I figured I would have to wait a day or two for regular business hours, so I sent off an email to support, and was getting ready to call it quits for the night. But then, about 20 minutes later, I get an email from support saying the problem was now fixed – at 1:30 in the morning on a Friday night/Saturday morning! Nice! Sure enough, I loaded up my project and check-out, and voilà! Order sent!

As I’m sure you know, I reside up in the Great White North, otherwise known as Canada. It’s unfortunately all-too-common that American companies overlook Canada as a viable customer base (though it’s worth it American companies – there are 35 MILLION of us living up here!!), but those that bother to include us Canadians usually “make up for the hassle” by charging outrageous shipping prices to Canada; and if they do ship up here, we’re accustomed to waiting 3+ weeks for a package to arrive. On the occasion that it arrives quickly, usually via a courier, we’re met with expensive duty charges and brokerage fees. RocketLife, on the other hand, not only had reasonable shipping charges to Canada, but the package arrived 9 days after placing my order – 6 business days! No duty charges, no brokerage fees – just my package, cheap and quick!

Now the products themselves were about what one would expect – I wasn’t disappointed, however I wasn’t overly impressed, either. The mousepad looks great, and the photo and background that I choose looks really good, though the color is slightly off. The quality of the materials looks to be about average. Over time, I suspect the edges of the mousepad will begin to fray a bit. That being said, for $11, it’s a pretty neat way to display your photographs - I’m using on my desktop now, so that has to say something, right? The quality of the t-shirt is quite good. It’s a soft, stretchy material, with the inside made from 100% cotton, and the outside from 100% micropolyester. The print on the shirt looks about the same as any other similar service I’ve tried. As long as your photo/design is good, you could actually wear it without feeling a little silly for wearing a photograph on your shirt. I’m wearing mine today, but I’m not going anywhere, so no one, other than my wife, will see me wearing a white t-shirt with a photo of my dog on it.

Overall, I give the website/application a B+, the prices, shipping and customer service an A, and the product quality a B-. For more information on RocketLife, and to give them a try, visit them at www.rocketlife.com (Mother’s Day is coming up… Mom’s love this sort of stuff, you know… hint, hint!).