We don’t sell T-shirts here

Most days, we don’t take ourselves too seriously in the T-shirt industry. We’re not brain surgeons, and we’re not out here risking and saving lives with plastisol. If we mess something up, it’s as easy as ordering a replacement, and the customer goes home happy.

But the truth is, we don’t actually sell T-shirts here. Sure, it may look like a T-shirt when it goes out the door, but what we’re actually selling is the brand for that business you’ve been dreaming about for years. We’re selling the pride of your kid who holds your whole heart, getting into the sport you’ve been a fanatic of for years. We’re selling the solidarity and support of your friend who just got a diagnosis they didn’t want, and you making sure they know they’re not alone. We’re selling the thing that tells the whole world who you are and what you stand for. And that’s a whole lot more than a T-shirt.

The special thing about this industry is the opportunity to connect directly with the dreamers and hopers of the world and use your skills to make your piece of it a little better. Some of the easiest ways to do this are through fundraisers. E-commerce makes it easy: build a webstore, run a campaign for it, produce and distribute the goods, and cut a profit check to the customer. It’s a fast way to get all the communication out to the intended audience and collect funds without having to use paper order forms and all the hassle that comes with them.

We also use our e-commerce platform to report what sales are looking like, give customers tips for improving sales, and let them know who has ordered in case they need to track down who hasn’t. It takes all the work off the client’s hands so they can smoothly get the financial support they need for their cause.

Our favorite way to not sell shirts, however, is going deeper. The difference between your local printer and a big box store should be the relationship. I don’t just want to hear if they need a performance tee or cotton, I want to hear how your mom’s doing, tell me about your new puppy, and if your kid made the honor roll this semester.

I want to hear about how your parents started this tiny business with hopes to turn it into something to support their family, and you’ve taken this legacy and created something beyond their wildest dreams. Because hey, me too. Our goal as a print shop should be listening to the client’s story and applying our expertise of the products and decorations to communicate the message they want to tell the world.

More than just a T-shirt

Once the mental shift of considering the story more than the shirt happens, doors start to open for opportunities. We once had a client who was looking to raise money to buy a bike for a child with a terminal diagnosis. They just wanted him to have as many normal childhood experiences as he could get in between hospital visits. But his diagnosis required a special kind of bike to support him, and the single-mom income for his family couldn’t make it work.

So, we got to work making and promoting the fundraiser, but in the meantime, we bought the bike out of our own pocket. At the fundraiser party, we presented them with a check for the funds they raised, but also with a brand-new bike for this little boy who had been through so much. After that, we started looking for opportunities within these fundraisers to surprise them at the end with not only the check, but the very thing for which they needed the funds raised. Over the years, we’ve covered team jerseys, memorial benches, giant sponsorships, the works; all for an opportunity to jump into the trench with them and be part of the success story.

We also discovered print shops have a great ability to organize local races, as they already have so much access to the merch, the promo products, tents, banners, race bibs, registration platforms, etc. — virtually everything but the runner. We started hosting a local fun run for our community in October called Monster Dash. It was a costume-friendly 5k, with money raised going directly to families affected by cancer. We gathered other local businesses to help sponsor and could give back even more than the typical fun run because we were the source for everything, and we could donate our time and profits to the beneficiaries. We ran it for years until we couldn’t find any other beneficiaries in town.

A surprising side-benefit of jumping into the community and their stories headfirst is how it affects the culture in our shop. I’ve seen my staff cry over shirts because of the cause it represented. I’ve seen them volunteer for different organizations that came to us for merch, just because they resonated so much with the ethos. They’ve stayed long after their shift is over to make sure the product is perfect. Why invest so much emotional, mental, and physical energy into an order just because of what is printed on it? Because to this staff, it’s much more than a T-shirt.