ABOUT US
Updated at: Oct 26, 2022
Have you ever wondered how Turned Ninja started?
Here I am going to tell you a little bit about my story.
I'm not a good writer, so please ignore my mistakes. Ha ha!
Back then, in September (2019), I was at a company party. I took a lot of photos at the company. And I found this:
This guy is my best friend. He is a small guy, loves Naruto and rock music. I thought it would be fun if I trolled him by drawing him in Naruto form.
Here is how it turned out.
We laughed a lot. I pushed the troll to the next level by making him a video in Communist Party music background. Here is it: https://youtu.be/M007LDD7LQs
We had a lot of funs.
After that, many people came and ask me to do the same thing for them.
I thought it is really cool when doing this. I used to dream about becoming a super saiyan when reading Dragon Ball. I screamed a lots with a hope my hair to change color and my power would go up. (And now I have to power to do it in a different way. Ha ha!)
I laughed a lot when seeing myself in Goku and I asked myself: “why don’t I make it a business?”.
So I gave it a try.
I started this by drawing my friend to Naruto, so I decided the name would be “Turned Ninja”. Now you know why Turned Ninja. Ha ha.
I made a website and began the journey by the end of that November with a product Turn Me Ninja.
For the first 3 months, things were really tough. I found it really hard to find customers and IG deleted all my photos with a message violated their policy. And I had no idea what policy I violated. I was sooo frustrated.
On Feb, I stopped all advertisements, stopped working a while.
One month later, I got an order without any advertisement from a customer.
(This order got me back - Thank you Kyle)
I finished it. Then I thought: “OK! Give it a second chance”. I started everything again.
Things gradually became better and better. And now I am here to tell you about this story.
During the journey, I met a lot of great customers: Roland, Gersham, Seth, Chris, … (and a lots more, I can’t spot all the names here, sorry about that). They are not only customers, they are also friends. They gave me a lot of great feedback to improve my business. It was so much fun when working with them!
I created more products like Turn Me Hero, Turn Me Saiyan, Turn Me Pirate, … to adapt the need of everyone.
I always keep one thing in my mind when working: I have to make something that I can proud of when posting it on my IG. (If I am not happy with my work, how can customers feel happy with it).
As time goes by, the team is growing up. I hire more assistants to help me deliver art works. I think you know these names: Vivian, Mochi, Phon, Isabella, …
There are so many messages/day now. Sometimes, I miss messages from you, I’m sorry about that. Don’t hesitate to text few more times. I will read and reply all.
Some customers asked me: “What is Steenify? Why not Turned Ninja?”. (You will see it after checkout).
Steenify is my first company. It is a software company. I founded it with the Naruto guy (above). My background is not an artist. I’m a software developer. Ha ha! Drawing is just a hobby. I used the Paypal account of that company, I’m going to create Paypal account of Turned Ninja soon!
Thanks to Steenify team, I have a good website and a good operation system behind to improve the workflow of Turned Ninja.
(Me and Steenify team)
Turned Ninja now has more than 20 artists on over the world. The journey has just begun. There are a lot of things to do. The team is now working to spread the joy of being hero to everyone. Hope you will feel happy when being the hero you used to dream about!
-----------
Last year, I decided to do a fun experiment. Drawing a lot of characters into a big character (a kind of fanart). It turned out a lot of people love it.
I started with Vegeta, then Itachi and Zoro, ... I also made shirts/posters/canvases from these arts. And I faced a lot of new problems.
First, shipping problem. Shipping items from Viet Nam takes a lot of time (about 14 - 21 days), and many people don't want to wait too long. So I work with other vendors in US/EU/CA/AU to print and ship it there.
And yes, the shipping time improved a lot, but a new problem emerged, quality problem (for shirts/hoodies). I don't have a full quality control like I have in Viet Nam and some customers got bad items.
My solution for this problem is: making new ones and send to the customer. If the customer can wait, I am happy to ship new items from Viet Nam to ensure the maximum quality. You don't have to pay anything.
So if you have problem with your items, don't hesitate to contact me (via email: contact@turnedninja.com), to get a new replace. I'm still working to fix this problem as soon as possible.
Your satisfaction is my top priority. I will do everything to ensure that.
Thank you for all your love and support!
-----------
About tiktok @mekiper, it is my other channel. My main channel was flopped. I decided to test a new channel and named it Mekiper - Memories Keeper. I didn't know that it would go viral. Now many people will just remember my name as Mekiper than Turned Ninja. I'm sorry about this confusion.
-----------
If you have any feedback, don’t hesitate to contact me via the email contact@turnedninja.com or my IG: @turnedninja (most of the time I’m on IG). I’m here to listen you all!
Tom.