Playoff baseball is upon us, but even though we don’t know who will emerge as the Kings of October, we know who the Duke of March through September is. That title belongs to Sporting News writer Jason Foster, who, during each day of the regular season, wore a different T-shirt related to baseball.
My #BaseballShirtEveryDay quest has ended, but I still have T-shirt content!
I present to you lessons learned from a season of wearing a different baseball shirt every day. https://t.co/PfhDPUFvUE
— Jason Foster (@ByJasonFoster) September 30, 2019
We have all seen sites that suggest taking on certain activities for an entire year, but wardrobe-related ventures do not tend to come to mind as easily as some of these undertakings. After all, it’s pretty easy to wear clothing each day, right? Foster, though, found the apparel challenge to be a great fit for his love of baseball, and his mission gave us some insights on T-shirts straight from a consumer who now figures to be intimately familiar with them. In recounting his labor of love, Foster offered great assessments on what the process taught him, so we are singling out three of them here to keep in mind.
1. Consumers really do want soft tees
We like to stray from saying that anyone has the be-all, end-all opinion on any topic, but Foster earned our unwavering kudos when he touched on end-users’ affinity for soft tees. To us—and we know we are mixing sports here—that is a slam dunk of an assessment, and it proves that consumers are becoming increasingly vocal about not only the look but also the feel of their attire. With respect to a promotional T-shirt, especially one that Foster used to pull off his tribute to baseball teams, who wants to settle for a confining article of clothing when soft selections are out there? As Foster notes, most T-shirt makers know and appreciate this sentiment already. But it can’t hurt to remind your promo buyers that softer shirts, even if they cost a bit more, are often a big hit.
2. You can design great shirts even without a license
Does that conclusion sound sacrilegious? Brands are always protecting their identities, so any promotional T-shirt that dares to trespass against codes and laws runs the risk of ending up busted. As Foster sees everything, it is, with a little work, possible to design items—and make partnerships—without ever being guilty of “crossing that line into unlicensed gear.” For distributors, doing so might bring about a case of hesitancy, but Foster notes that his chief source for above-board shirts produced without a license has succeeded in its niche to come up with some great designs that piggyback off of popular licenses without crossing any legal lines.
3. Sizing is tough (but important)
Most promo professionals already know this one. Trial and error seemed to suit Foster well when size became a consideration for his T-shirt project. But he might be among the few end-users who have the patience of a saint. Not giving ample consideration to how a promotional T-shirt or other apparel item fits can be a massive miscue for any business, so distributors must guard against making that misstep. Falling prey to it could become the apparel equivalent of striking out with the bases loaded to end the World Series, because taking care of consumers’ diverse size and comfort considerations is pretty much failing to come through in the clutch.
