Cheap Marketing T-shirts Are Costing You Thousands
Founder + Partner + CEO
Published Thursday, August 20, 2020
Many companies try and save money by purchasing the cheapest t-shirt, and this is what most of our competitors try to sell because it’s easier to position themselves as the low price company and the bottom line is easy to calculate. At face value, this makes sense, but when you do the math you end up costing yourself much more in the long run.
No one wants to wear a cheap uncomfortable T-shirt – everyone will take one, however, very few will actually wear the shirt. I’ve caught my fair share of free t-shirts at Indiana Pacer games (I’m on a roll averaging 8 per season) – I’ve worn none of them. They don’t fit, they are uncomfortable, and they are ugly. Let’s say the Pacers spent $4 on each shirt I caught this season. Since I’ve worn none of them their cost per ad impression is $32 and has only advertised to me. If the Pacers would spend $6 and for a quality, good looking shirt, that I would wear 5 times, and let’s say I would have passed and/or interacted with 1,000 people each time I wore it – their ad spend would have only jumped to $48, BUT their cost per impression would drastically drop from $32 to $.006.
As a business owner and marketer, it’s a common reaction to spend as little as possible on shirts and swag. However, the marketing budget should be optimized like all other expenses. When done well, a comfortable, well-designed shirt can deliver tens of thousands of impressions worth thousands of dollars. Also, beyond the impressions, the marketing items provide customers a snapshot into your company culture, your identity, and set expectations for your products and services. A $3 t-shirt is mostly worthless, a $7 shirt can be priceless.
Start with great materials: I love a good tri-blend t-shirt. They are soft, have that gently worn feel, and fit well. If you want to go for “my new favorite T-shirt,” I recommend trying brands like Bella Canvas, Next Level, American Apparel, and District. At ScreenBroidery we believe quality matters, and that the material used is the beginning of what determines good quality.
Create a design that people will wear: It’s one thing to blast your logo big in the center of a t-shirt, but unless people work for you or you are a massive trending brand then few will wear it in public. You want a design that incorporates your logo, culture, or mindset while mixing it with a design that grabs people’s attention. Think about why someone who doesn’t know your company would want to wear your shirt. At ScreenBroidery we have in house graphic designers that are trained and experienced in helping accomplish these marketing goals.
Use soft handprints: Screen printing is an art. It’s easy to cake on the plastic-based screen printing ink. I’m sure you have had one of those shirts where the ink is thick and feels like a bulletproof vest. Good printers will use techniques to ensure colors are vibrant and ink use is efficiently to soften the prints. Great printers will use water-based inks, gradients, or specialty inks to make the prints like no other.
Get crew necks for men and v-necks for women: You want to maximize your exposure and impression rate, and people want to look and feel good about what they are wearing. I recommend using crew neck shirts for men and v-necks for women. Both fit well and look good for each and will likely be worn more often.
Read More About Our In-House Design Team: Learn More
At ScreenBroidery we print and design thousands of shirts weekly if not daily. Lean on our team for advice and ideas. We want to ensure you are getting the most impressions for your advertising spend and we want to ensure a cheap shirt doesn’t end up costing you thousands in ad impressions.