If you’ve never been the one to organize a T-shirt order for your high school debate team, senior class, fraternity, office kickball team, or family reunion, you might be surprised at the number of decisions there are to make.

Though there will still be several questions to answer, working with a promotional products consultant can make the process immensely easier. To help you better prepare for your next order and simplify the process, review the checklist of items below.

1. Pick a T-shirt Model

Style: Are you looking for a generic T-shirt, or are you hoping for something with extra details? V-neck, scoop neck, cap sleeve, ringer, distressed, raglan, ribbed… the choices are endless.

Brand: Just like with most things in life, you pay more for a brand name. In some cases, the difference in quality is enough to justify the higher price tag- American Apparel tees are fabulous, and they should cost more than a Hanes tee. But if you’re looking for something more standard, the difference between a Hanes 100% cotton 6.1oz tee and a Gildan 100% cotton 6.1oz tee is nearly imperceptible.

Color: Short and sweet- whites are less expensive than heathers, and heathers are less expensive than colors.

Material: 100% cotton and 50/50 cotton/poly blend are two very common material choices, the former being the less expensive selection. Your options certainly don’t end there, however. Where and how will the shirt be worn? If you intend to wear them during exercise or at an outdoors event, you might consider a material with moisture-wicking or odor-resistant qualities. Are you organizing a green event? Think about organic cotton or a bamboo blend.

Weight: When comparing apples to apples (for example, a Gildan 100% cotton T-shirt compared to a Gildan 100% cotton T-shirt), the option with the lighter weight will be the least expensive, by rule of thumb. The least expensive option may not always be the best choice, however. It’s best to think about where and how the shirt will be worn. Your black, lightweight and lived-in ‘vintage’ concert tee might be your favorite weekend uniform, but you’d be wise to avoid this weight when your boss puts you in charge of ordering white T-shirts for the company picnic. On a sunny day, white, lightweight tees will leave little to the imagination when it comes to your coworkers’ undergarments.

Size: Who will be wearing the shirt? Are generic adult sizes sufficient, or will you need youth sizing or a fitted ladies cut? Keep in mind too that plus sizes (2XL and up) are generally at least $2.00 more expensive than sizes S-XL.

2. Decide on the Order Quantity

The price of a T-shirt will always be lower per piece at high quantities than at low quantities. Inquire about price breaks- if the nearest price break is just a few shirts away from the number you expect you’ll need, bump up the quantity. You can find other smart ways to increase your quantity in our blog post: How to Get to the Next Column.

3. Create the Artwork/Imprint

Design: Do you have a design prepared or will you require the assistance of a graphic artist? If you have art to submit, is it camera-ready? Screen-printing requires vectored artwork for optimal print quality. Are you unfamiliar with “vectored” art? Our art spec sheet will help explain.

Number of colors: How many colors will be used in your design? Is the design composed of solid color blocks, or is it more photographic in nature, with shadows and gradations? Decide which elements of your design are essential, and which elements could be modified if necessary. Between digital process, spot color printing and digital transfer, you can really print just about anything these days if you’re willing to pay for it. Generally speaking, the more colorful the artwork, the higher the price tag will be.

For more printing advice, be sure to check out our Print This, Not That series.

Print method: As I wrote above, there are several different printing techniques offered today that can give you the look you’re hoping for. Consult your promotional products consultant to learn more about your options and the associated costs.

I must admit that after typing this list up even I feel a bit overwhelmed, and I make these decisions for clients every single day. The most important thing you can do is to have a clear budget in mind when you approach the task. Your rep will advise you on everything else and guide you to the best possible product for your dollar.

Have you ever taken a photography class? A common piece of advice given to novice photographers is to experiment with angles.

Repeatedly snapping photos from the same eye-level, frontal position can make for some dull shots. Getting low to the ground and shooting upwards or capturing a head shot from a side angle can greatly increase the visual interest of your work.

The same lesson holds true with promotional products. Unless you’re creating a fully custom piece, your artwork/logo is often confined to the item’s imprint area. When the art itself can’t be modified either (for instance, when adhering to very specific branding guidelines), a good trick is to experiment with angles.

In the example above, the water bottle affords a long, skinny imprint area. That’s not exactly conducive to printing a logo (Coca-Cola) that is wider than it is tall, huh? Rather than size down the logo to fit horizontally, rotate it to fit the space vertically. You make much better use of the imprint area, and the user will actually be able to read the imprint when drinking from the bottle.

source: earthday2011.com

On Friday, the office celebrated Earth Day by carpooling to Silver Diner for lunch. We had originally planned to go for a walk or have a picnic, but the unexpected drizzle and 40 degree weather rained on that parade. Saving gas money and dining on locally-sourced chili was an earthy enough alternative for us.

Plus, we all wanted to see the Splenda imposters that Julianne wrote about in last week's blog post. While flipping through the sugar bowl rolodesk, we uncovered another surprise...



No... a PINK Equal! When will it end?!



All of this deception prompted me to visit Equal's website, and as it turns out, it's really not as bad as we thought it was. We initially assumed that Equal was repackaging their Aspartame sweetener in different colored packets, but the truth is they've transitioned into producing several varieties of artifical sweeteners. Their pink packets contain Saccharin, just like Sweet'N Low, and their yellow packets boast Sucralose, as you would find in a packet of Splenda.

We still think it's really sneaky, but at least the consumer isn't duped into ingesting something they otherwise wouldn't.

Connect Four, anyone?

As a life-long dieter and coffee drinker, I have made the slow, steady transition from pink cancer-causing packets to blue headache-inspiring packets to the lovely yellow packets of Splenda (whatever warnings are out I don't want to know... I like my coffee tasting like melted ice cream and still need to fit into my pants). Of course, once the light-green stevia derivatives make their way to the table, all bets are off, but that is a topic for another day...

At any rate, last Saturday my five-year old daughter and I were enjoying a lovely brunch at the Silver Diner in Lakeforest Mall. When my hot cup of caffeine arrived, I reached for my go-to no calorie sweetener, clearly the outsider in the well-stocked little sugar tray.



I began to tear open my sweetener when I realized that the yellow rectangle in my hand was not the Splenda I expected. Instead, I was holding a very sneakily re-branded serving of Equal.



I was taken by the way Equal had used both yellow paper and blue print to mirror Splenda's branding. Had I not been paying attention, I might have missed the change. If I had an acute allergy (yes, Nutrasweet sweeteners do cause me occasional headaches) the result could have been disastrous.

This attempt to utilize the natural results of powerful and effective branding (Splenda's) by a competitor (Equal) seems like a sad, desperate move. Equal looks bad, the "yellow packet" credibility is hurt- a complete lose/lose situation.

But, the episode reminds me that, as a consumer, I am responsible for making my own informed choices. Branding provides an opportunity for a company or product to establish specific expectations but doesn't always make specific promises. In this instance, I have to believe in the product (Splenda) as a separate entity from the brand image (yellow packet) and keep my guard up against those who would twist my preconceived notions to further their own goals. 

The other day I came across an interesting article about Bert and John Jacobs, the brothers behind the Life is good company. I love reading entrepreneurial success stories, especially when they stem from humble beginnings.

Did you know that Bert and John first started selling T-shirts at colleges and street fairs along the East Coast, sleeping in their van? Right when they had decided to call it quits and transition to substitute teaching, they printed one last design- a smiling face and the slogan "Life is good"- on just 48 shirts. The tees sold out almost immediately, and the slogan has since grown into a multi-million dollar business and a movement of optimism that resonates globally. Promotional products are a very powerful channel for communicating and spreading abstract ideas and ways of thinking. We like to decorate ourselves and brand our apparel, our bumpers and our bodies with the organizations and movements that speak to us on a personal level. What kind of decorations are you sporting?