Last week, we discussed the difficulties of deciding on a single shirt/style/color/design for a promotional apparel campaign. There are a lot of people to please- how can you be certain everyone will like and wear your garment? We recommended sticking with comfortable styles and time-tested brand names, but there's an alternative solution to guessing...

You could always ask!

A few weeks ago I received an email from Set Up Events, one of the nation's largest triathlon production and timing companies, regarding the upcoming Pinehurst International Triathlon in North Carolina.

The email included three images of long sleeve race tees and requested registrants of the event to vote on their favorite design.



What a great idea! Sure, you might get a handful of responses that pooh-pooh all three choices, but at least you'll gain valuable feedback from those whose opinions matter most... the people who will be wearing your shirt.

I also recommend limiting the ballot to 3 or 4 options, as Set Up Events did, or the poll's results might be more frustrating than helpful. 

So, if time allows and you have a way to contact your audience, play it safe and take a vote!

As product consultants, our job at Sonic Promos is to advise and guide our clients' choices in branded materials. Much of the time, this entails recommending apparel styles, brands, colors and decoration techniques.

Our choice in product must be synonymous with the campaign's message and budget, but it's equally important that the product appeals to its target audience. If the item's recipient doesn't like the look, feel, or quality of the product, the branding impression loses value.

Pleasing everyone is especially tricky when it comes to apparel. People tend to like clothing for various reasons: the cut fits them well, the color flatters their complexion, the material feels nice against their skin, or the imprinted design appeals to them visually. Unfortunately, these preferences aren't always homogeneous across a target marketing group. Your intended audience probably contains a mix of ages, a mix of body types, and a mix of blondes/brunettes/redheads.

Despite these surface differences, there are generally features in clothing that most people can agree on.

Just for fun, I asked a few Sonic employees to send me pictures of their favorite T-shirts. Though we are a varied bunch in terms of appearance and style, you'll notice several similarities in our choice of tees.

Jamie



These are my favorite shirts for two reasons: 1) the soft fabric and 2) the vintage-style decoration. The blue Red Sox shirt uses a washed, soft-hand ink for its screen print, and the grey Red Sox shirt is decorated with a distressed appliqué. The Celtics shirt is also really soft, but I like the color more than anything. Green looks good on redheads. It brings out the "Irish" in me.

Seth


The Quactus shirt is for my brother Gabe's band. I think the logo is fun, and the colors look nice together. It also makes me think of my kids when I wear it. There's an adorable photo of them wearing the same shirt, taken about four years ago.

The Judge shirt is another favorite of mine because it's red, and I can wear it at Caps games. I get a lot of comments when I wear it... mostly people yelling "JUDGE!". I like to respond with, "I'll be the judge of that" or "This is my Judge Reinhold fan shirt" or "You can't judge a shirt by its color, or can you?"

Lindsay

I bought this shirt a few weeks ago, and if it's not on my body, it's in the wash. Of course I love the cute imprint, but it's the comfortable material that really won me over. This is the American Apparel Track T-shirt, and I've used this model several times for work projects. For some reason, I've never owned one of my own... until now. I also adore the faded blue grey color. In the same vain vein (heh) of Jamie's reasoning above, blue looks good with blonde hair. 

Eve


This shirt is one of my favorites because it's the first T-shirt I bought when I visited Austin before moving there. Being a New York girl, I thought it represented the city's vibe well. Now I know that the "Keep Austin Weird" shirts are much more appropriate!

Jen


I got this shirt at one of the last concerts I attended in El Paso before moving to the DC area, so I associate it with good memories. I also really like the material; it's very comfortable to wear.

Michael


This sweatshirt is one of my favorite pieces to wear. It was a gift from my lovely girlfriend, and it was made by a small apparel company in Cleveland, Ohio. It's very soft, and the neutral grey color goes well with brown, orange, blue and red (Browns and Indians).

I realize this little office poll isn't exactly statistically significant, but it does show you that people look for similar features in a T-shirt. Comfort seems to be a consistent theme in our responses, for example. Though standard heavyweight cotton tees are an economical choice, it might be worth it to invest in a better quality, brushed cotton or fine jersey tee for your next apparel campaign.

It is also important to note that we all personally identify with the branding/imprint. The boys are all proud to support their favorite sports teams, and Jen, Eve, Michael, and I all have fond memories of travels and time spent in our hometowns.

So, while selecting the style(s) and color(s) for your apparel campaign are important decisions, remember that your branding is often the trump card. Ultimately, the whole point is to promote your organization/band/team/company and to connect with your supporters. Work the power of brand equity. Your fans already like you... just give them something fun and comfortable to wear, and they will.

I know I'm not the only one with spring fever.

Mild weather, blossoming trees, outdoor festivals, Cadbury Creme Eggs and softball/Frisbee/kickball leagues are just a few of the things I look forward to this time of year.

Spring sport leagues are extremely popular in the DC metropolitan area. Weekday evenings and weekend afternoons, you'll find the National Mall absolutely mobbed with coworkers and friends slinging bats and hucking Frisbees.

The competition is fierce, but there are two things that matter even more than your skills on the field. 

1. Your skills at happy hour.

2. Your T-shirt design.

Washington DC is known for its bright, young professionals. We're witty, we're punny, and we take our trivia nights VERY seriously. For this reason, sport leagues put a lot of time and thought into their team name and logo.

The pressure to be creative is on.

If your personal team doesn't have a graphic designer on its roster, our design team at Sonic Promos would love to help you create a great shirt.

Many thanks to our clients for allowing us to share their fun designs.

Pink tee by Melissa Amano at melissa.amano@gmail.com.

Have you ever had an idea that looks great on paper, but suffers in execution? That can happen a lot in the world of promotional products. 

You see, a lot of common decoration techniques (screen print, pad print, silk screen) are not especially friendly to sketches or hand drawn artwork. 99% of the time, manufacturers require vectored artwork for custom branded items.

Not sure what 'vectored' means? Check out our art guidelines for an explanation.
If creative inspiration only struck while working in Adobe Illustrator, the vectored art requirement would be no trouble at all. But, as we all know, that's never the case.

A great design idea can come to mind at any time. More often than not, the only material at hand is a receipt or a napkin, hence the expression, "a napkin sketch". How do you go about getting that sketch onto a T-shirt, bandanna, car magnet, banner or mug?

That's where we come in. 
Our graphic design team is here to turn your ideas into reality. We know exactly how artwork needs to be prepared for a flawless product, and we'll make sure it's done correctly. Even when supplied with just a rough sketch, we are able to adapt the design to print-friendly vectored artwork.

We're here to make sure your designs look great on paper and everything else.