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24
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APRIL 2017
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INNOVATE
creativity is being adaptive.
Creativity is not the origination
of ideas. Ingenuity—
adapting
ideas—sparks inspired thinking.
We came up with the idea to take
a stock shirt fromSanMar and
adapt it to our design preferences
by partnering with our friends at
T-Shirt Tycoon.
We knew that pocket tees are
on trend these days and they also
appeal to both men and women,
so we came up with an idea for a
pocket tee with an all-over print
on the pocket.
We loved the idea of this
product because there’s
an element of custom
manufacturing that separates
this from the regular stock shirt.
We knew that our audience—all
t-shirt geeks themselves—would
ask how they were made. And
with questions, come the
opportunity for storytelling; it’s
exactly the moment we crave
as people who sell promotional
products for a living.
We also chose to privately
label the shirts to showcase the
commonsku brand (as well as
the brand of our partners in the
production process, SanMar and
T-shirt Tycoon).
Since we were going to be
working with T-shirt Tycoon to
private label the shirts, we had to
pick a style that would work well
with their process
and
a style that
would work for our audience. We
wanted a fashion-forward style
that could also act as a classic
go-to piece in the recipient’s
drawer. We decided on a
slimmer cut for the men’s shirt
and a looser fit for the women.
We had done slimmer cuts for
women in the past but received
feedback that preferences
had shifted towards looser,
more comfortable, flattering
silhouettes for women. We opted
for the Men’s DT6000 in Heather
Charcoal (50/50 blend) and the
DM106L in Heathered Nickel.
Both shirts gave us more control
over shrinkage (due to the
poly blend) after the shirts had
been decorated.
Next came the difficult part:
cutting a pocket and applying it
to a stock shirt. To achieve the
allover print, we needed to print
onto a bolt of fabric and then cut
out the pocket and apply it to the
shirt. Since we were working with
a stock shirt, we needed to order
white XXL shirts that could be cut
up into little pockets; this resulted
in an exact fabric match when
sewn onto the shirt. Ordering
them in white also made the
discharge printing easy.
Adam and Brittany
Walterscheid and their team at
T-Shirt Tycoon then went to work
and produced some magic with
the pockets. Now that we knew
we could pull off the pockets, we
brainstormed some pocket design
ideas. We wanted to produce
something with a step and repeat
pattern as we felt that would work
best for the allover print. We also
elected not to print anything else
on the front of the shirt as we
wanted the pocket to stand alone.
From a branding perspective,
we chose to print our brand
name on the sleeve. It works
nicely with the discharge
printing because it sinks right
into the fabric, so it’s not too “in
your face.”
We also produced a video of
the shirts being decorated and
made it accessible to recipients
so they could see firsthand how
the garment was produced.
Instead of printing the QR code
on the sleeve (lame promo alert!)
we chose to print it on the inside
bottom corner of the shirt so it
would not be visible to others.
We were really pleased with
the result. It took a lot of time and
care to produce something that
we were proud to distribute to
skucon attendees.
When the t-shirt project was
discussed with RIGHTSLEEVE
and with our supplier partners,
we never strayed from using
the language of emotion. We
told our partners, “We want to
inspire
our audience.” Though
it was important to walk
through specifics, the suppliers
were brought into the
story
and not merely the project.
Rather than just
dropping the
commonsku logo
on items, we saw
each product as
a blank canvas
and that every
promotional item
had a purpose.