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

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[Randolf]

$5 for a shit - now in real money - the euro, that’s about 0.10 euro cents - ya that’s a good deal.

But unless you are:
A. Professional sports person, sponsored by said company.
B. Actually working for the company.

Then a complete cheapskate.

Now having said all that I would wear a Dilbert shirt if it were really, really funny – but I guess I’m never going to get the opportunity am I?

[jerry w.]

Inverse logic time,

Sell companies on the idea of paying you not to produce t-shirts with some

embarrassing logos or names, i.e. a t-shirt with two big breast covering circles

with the copyrighted logo for "Lifesavers" on it. No investment in material

labor or shipping, nothing to do but count the money.

http://boskolives.wordpress.com/

[Jared]

I would proudly wear a Dilberito shirt!

[Navin Harish]

Check this :http://www.picturejockey.com/pblog/2007/7/harley_belt_01.html and this :http://www.picturejockey.com/pblog/2007/7/24x7.html.

[tubaguy]

Here's my take as band director who moves a fair bit of band shirts.

What everyone seems to have missed is that the free t-shirts are more comfortable than ones you buy. There's a good reason for this - all t-shirts are not created equal. There is a variety of blends from about 50-50 (cotton-poly) to all cotton. There are also varying thicknesses of fabric. Generally speaking, the more cotton in the blend the more expensive. Heavier fabric is also more expensive.

People selling shirts for a profit are going to use the least expensive shirt that the market will bear. People giving shirts away will use the best shirt they can afford so more people will wear it.

You can buy blank comfortable shirts from screen printers, but it's a big hassle. It's much less hassle to buy them from local thrift stores. They usually cost about $3. We use them for pajamas.

[Matthew Kovich]

Pinky and The Brain once used Free T-Shirts to convince the entire population of the Earth to move to the new planet they built out of papier machier directly adjacent to the real Earth. They named it Chia Earth.

It worked, because the drive to acquire free t-shirts is apparently the primary human drive. Or something.

I'm so tired, Scott. Save me.

[jeremiah johnson]

I work with people who buy T-shirts each and every week for $25 each, 5-6 at a time. EACH WEEK.

There *is* a market for this.

[WCE]

I'm figuring it's only a matter of time before companies pay people to get their logos tattooed on them.

Sooner or later, some people will be covered like NASCAR cars, collecting maybe $5/month from each company. I know people who'd figure that would be a sweet deal.

[D. Mented]

Come to think of it, I did wear a free company tee shirt once, but I modified it.
It was handed out by the factory I worked for, so I made a slit in the back, and put glossy red fabric paint all around the edges of the slit and dripping down, with a small hole and dot of paint in the front just above my heart so it would look like I'd been stabbed in the back - all the way through.
They made me put my jacket back on.
D. Mented

[D. Mented]

A friend and I were walking in New York city one day in the early 80's. As we passed the Metropolitan Musem of Art (where there's a big expanse of sidewalk/plaza between the building and the street) we noticed a man with a cart, selling, as his sign proclaimed:
"signatures of an authentic American artist; $10.00
signed: $15.00"
We laughed.
He actually left his cart and came over to shake our hands; it seems he'd been there for weeks, selling his signatures as fast as he could paint them, but we were the first to get the joke.
He said the idea came to him looking at all the people with logo and signature tee-shirts - he is an artist, and he was selling paintings at the time, and he thought "If all those guys can make money off their signatures, why can't I?"
He took a small blank canvas, and a big brush, and painted his signature (to give the buyers credit, it's actually a bold, energetic signature- nothing like a doctor's scribble) and people bought them until he ran out of canvases, and some of them asked him to sign them - so he did, for $5.00 extra.
I still get a smile thinking of him, and I hope he's still out there supporting his art hobby with his signature business.
For me to pay to wear somebody's logo, it would have to be an extremely cool looking logo, and I'm picky. Normally, I wouldn't wear a company logo if you paid me.
D. Mented
P.S. I'm okay with a reduction of the "dance monkey dance" posts, but could we maybe go up from "G" rated to "PG"? (even a few man-humps-dead-goat stories for variety)

[football]

i would suggest that you set your rss configuration as the "full text can be retrieved". now we RSSer can only see very little part of the text.

[olie]

(Forgive me if it's been done -- too busy to read through the comments, right now...)

Better idea: MAKE UP "cool company logos" -- just have a random generator that goes between regular polyhedra, atomic electron-rings, double helixes and spheres with horizontal stripes -- all in either primary colors or some bizarre mis-matched colors (purple & teal, etc.) Then generate names from dot-com sounding sylables: DynaMatrix, HyperWanscape, etc.

[Kevin Kunreuther]

I'd offer your idea to Google

[Kevin Kunreuther]

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

Does that $5 include S/H?
If Yes it does, then Yes I Will.

Actually in the off-season on Padre Island, TX the tee business is 5 shirts for $10, any logo, and design - they're all crap, but the shirts are very comfortable and one size - XXL - who cares?

[p-a]

Personally.. company branded shirt?
nah.. and I can't see any of my friends have one either.

But good luck with that Scott.

P-A
http://devrouze.blogspot.com/
(blog not in english)

[Johnny Ouais]

5$ shirt with cool logos are all made by Elbonian children. For that reason only, I wouldn't never buy one or happily accept a free one.

I would pay 100$ for a plain white shirt made by a fucking corporate president without logo except spills of his own blood.

[John Doe]

If you pay me $70, I'll wear a couple of your ratty marketing undershirts.

Besides, your odea has already been done: http://www.imsolame.com/suckers/rags/order.jsp

[Erik]

Why not? I'd pay $5 for a shirt with no name on it, so if the name is cool, or even unknown, then that's just a bonus for me!

[Rahul]

This idea is already implemented. In the software city of Bangalore in India, you can find roadside hawkers selling fake souveniers like coffee mugs, bags, key-chains etc with logos of software majors on it. These are exact replica of what these companies dole out to their employees for free.

[Matt]

Your target sucker market are bicycle riders. I went to buy a new jersey the other day and found I could buy a plain jersey for about $50 or a jersey covered in company names for about $100. I chose not to pay double for the privelage of advertising a heap of companies, but I would estimate that 90% of the riders that wear the full lycra getup have branded versions, not plain.

[jai]

I refuse to pay for clothing that sports advertising of any kind. I figure that, if a company wants to advertize on me, it can give me the product for free. Or, better yet, pay me.

[Ron Hardin]

The shirt would have to be white on white. Otherwise you can't throw all the laundry in the same load at once.

[Bismo]

Actually just yesterday at work I was wearing my free Dogbert POLO shirt, given away some years ago through the DNRC newsletter! It usually gets great comments, so was clearly a good marketing move. Ironic, but thank you again for it!

[rrk]

yeah, I would. In fact, I know a web organization called Sustainable Lafayette that my dad designed the logo for. You can order t-shirts online, I believe. The design's pretty cool.