Free T-Shirts

The other day I was wearing a t-shirt with a company’s name on it. Normally I don’t like it when companies use my torso for their marketing, but this was a relatively unknown company, and I liked their shirt better than the rest of the crap in my closet. In fact, I would have paid, oh, $5 for that shirt.

I’m not alone. If you walk to the park on a warm day, a lot of men are wearing free t-shirts with company names on them. And it’s not because these men can’t afford other shirts. It’s because the company branded shirts are different, and they are comfortable. And the high tech, sometimes unknown names make you feel like you’re on the inside track of something.

This got me thinking about creating a business that sells nothing but company branded t-shirts over the Internet. The shirts would be dirt cheap because the companies would be sponsoring them. The customer’s cost would be something nominal above the shipping costs, and you would buy a minimum of a dozen at a time, with different company names, for maybe $5 per shirt. That’s twelve shirts for maybe $70. You could give away half of them and still be happy with your price.

Corporations wouldn’t need to provide the physical shirts, just the design in digital form. Companies such as Café Press already let you match a design with your choice of shirt.

Would you pay $5 for a shirt with a cool company logo on it?

Comments

[Mightyyouth]

You know... the best thing that work out in selling something is Label the thing as $20 and put a 75% reduction sale....

Wanna try this... It will workout...

[pay attention]

I tend not to wear company logo tee shirts. As a Marine vet, I wear a lot of USMC tee shirts, many designed to offend certain segments of the population. Looking through my t-shirt drawer, the only commercial logo tees I have are for the Lewis R. French, a very cool 1971 Maine windjammer we've sailed on four times, and Garcia's Kitchen, a great store-front Mexican restaurant in Albuquerque I found when escaping a meeting in a sterile hotel. I’m happy to advertise them, because both were great experiences, in very different ways. So, of course, was the Marines.

But logos for large companies? Probably not if you gave them away.

Dilbert tees? Certainly yes at $5.

[What Would Deep Throat Do?]

George, no one gives a shit about 'Mr. Splashy Pants". Now if you want to catch their interest, do a post on "Mr. Chuckle Trousers".

[Johan Hjelm]

If you can get people to wear a (fake) company T-shirt, why not try to make them wear other (fake) clothing? Nurses dresses and (fake) police uniforms already sell well on the Internet (with or without the handcuffs). In secondhand stores old army uniform jackets are hot items. Janitors overalls may not be as sexy, but why not _create_ company uniforms and then sell them on the Internet? This would be a wonderful distinguishing item for the companies, and lots of free advertising. And just imagine how much customers you would get if people thought that hot babe in the lycra suit was actually working at your company.

Maybe the business is to hire models and make them walk around town in sexy (fake) company uniforms. I can easily imagine the Staceys Café dresses - leather miniskirt is just for starters. Not on Scott, though. Or maybe, if you wanted that kind of customers.

//Johan

[Taxi guy]

A T-SHIRT FOR $5?
SURE!

(On purchases of $500 or more. Must be 18 or over. Product not exactly as shown. Offer ends 12/06/07. Add $34.95 shipping & handling plus 5% sales tax. Logo extra. Other fees may apply. Side effects may include vomiting, nausea and diahrrea. Offer only valid in California.)

[cm]

I was one of those people who thought they would never wear stuff with their employer's logo on it - but I have to admit slowly and surely, branded items have crept into all aspects of my desk, wardrobe, home, and even my car!! It's insidious because you really can't turn dow a free, useful item, right?

[Iain]

Sorry, what? People pay £20+ (that's what, $45?) for t shirts with cool company logos on... Why aim so low?

[tech guy]

I think I paid $18 for a Dilbert branded shirt.

[Bruce Harrison]

Only if it was my own company's logo, because now I have to pay about $25 for each one. And I have to buy them for our users' group meetings each May. So I'd be glad to pay $5 for one you could provide. The remaining $20 I'd be willing to deduct from the cost of all the Stacey's lunches and dinners you owe me for my advice over the years which you have yet to pay.

[Nat]

First of all, THANK YOU for creating the unique Dilbert brand of humour! Provides hours of not-so-mindless entertainment and some of the best laughs ever!

Scott, would you please put me in touch with all the people like John here (no last name) who refuse to wear company-logo T-shirts unless they are getting paid to wear them?

Believe it or not, there IS a company (not sure how many of them are out there besides this one, if any) that does pay you for wearing their T-shirts and shirts.

Feel free to share my email address with them. You are welcome to contact me as well, should you want to find out more.

Thank you.

BTW, your business acumen and general sensibilities are admirable. I'm positive you will achieve unprecedented success in some venture you haven't yet even thought of today.

Nat

[George]

Or you could support the hijacking of internet polls:
http://adweek.blogs.com/adfreak/2007/12/greenpeace-tick.html

And buy a Mr. Splashy Pants shirt instead:
http://www.cafepress.com/greenpeace/4092640?

Oh, and you could vote for Mr. Splashy Pants while you're at it:
http://www.greenpeace.org/international/campaigns/oceans/whaling/great-whale-trail/gwt-vote

[Borjan]

No.

[Urglepuzz]

If you can get a Tommy Hilfiger logo, I'd wear one, just so I can tell people that wear $60 Tommy Hilfiger shirts that mine cost me $5. Actually, I still wouldn't wear it. So never mind.

[The Chief]

Would I pay $5 for a shirt with a cool company logo on it ?

No.

However I would pay you $5 to start writing humor, comic boy.

[Quantum_Flux]

Sexual reproduction has been one of the greatest survival mechanisms in the 4.5 billion years of biological evolution on this planet, or on any planet for that matter. Within the last 3 billion years, intelligent life has evolved to the point where it can see the fallacy in such a driving mechanism (i.e. brains are more important for survival than sexual brawn). This is why, I assume, that porn addiction is so hard to shake. I also suspect that christianity, in terms of the intellect, may have its place in modern society as a massive social project in changing our natural tendencies or addictions.

(I converted to christianity to cure my pavlovian behavioral problems [associate god-> good, satan->bad], and then to atheism for freeing my rational mind to think strait)

I had expected to see a secular solution to my problem on American Atheists when I wrote down "Porn Addiction" and the search only came up with religious solutions. No me, being an optimist, I hope that there is a cure for these problems (they seem to be prevalent in society) in either the form of subconscious musical tones and/or in chemical treatment.... after all, this is how I suspect that churches brainwash people during communion time to think like they do.... [they say to 1)think about your "sins" 2) ask god for repentance 3) all while listening to brainwashing music and drinking symbolic wine/eating symbolic bread.]

Anyhow, I think we can learn a lot about curing social ailments by observing the various religious institutions, as irrational as those folks may be, and incorporating this into secular brain science.

What do you think?

[Kevin Hill]

I'm unsubscribing now because you switched to partial posts. Note the backlash here: http://scobleizer.com/2006/02/22/blog-herald-doesnt-understand-why-full-text-feeds-work/

[Why would I care about losing a reader who thinks my writing isn't worth one click? -- Scott]

[Canadian Cousin]

Kind of defeats the meaning of Free T-shirt doesn't it?

[Johannes Maepa]

stupid idea

[Tyler]

I'm too much of a typical consumer for that.

I'd rather pay $20-$25 and wear a nice Volcom shirt.

[John]

All my logo tshirts are internal-only ones from Google (for example, when they'd open a new office, they'd create a special one of a kind design) that my wife gave me when she worked there. They are all high quality and have cool designs that you've probably never seen. I have never seen another person with these, so they are a bit rare.

Now, company internal-only ones might be more interesting to buy. Just about every company I have worked for created internal-only shirts, some were quite cool since they really didn't play up the corp logo so much.

[Gary Beeton]

I only wear company-branded clothing when a) the company pays me to be a walking billboard for them, or b) I'm painting the fence. So far a) hasn't presented itself to me.

[GLK]

I think your idea has potential. For my business the T-shirt fabric would have to be a good weight, offer colors besides white and gray, and have interesting/obscure/clever logos. The problem with making money on the front-end via corporate sponsorship is that unless you assume risk and buy tons of shirts up-front, the companies are going to want to base their pricing/sponsorship on projected sales. That might be tricky, but if you're savvy you can woo them via the old, "This is a brand new idea and you will be maximizing your exposure (read, getting the best value) by getting in on the ground floor" routine.

[Grant]

WalMart sells T-Shirts that have fake logos for "local" businesses; a local guitar shop, motorcycle shop, etc. And the logos are pre-faded, to look like it's an old shirt you just happen to have lying around...

[Dave1-20-2009]

Man I hope you didn't design any life-critical equipment in your engineering days...
"$5 per shirt. That’s twelve shirts for maybe $70"