Boise bashed for below-par meet T-shirts
Dave Ortman is a national-class M50 sprinter/hurdler/jumper from Seattle who some might say has WAY too much time on his hands. His current complaint in masters track? “Lack of decent T-shirts” proffered by national championships. With the Boise national indoor meet coming up this weekend, Dave began a memo to meet director Tim Severa thusly: “First, congratulations on hosting the National Indoor Masters. I am sure that you will do a fine job.” Then Dave gets down to the nitty-gritty.
“However, I have just received your merchandising sheet in the mail and you have hit upon one of my pet peeves. To be blunt, your embroidered logo does not SELL track & field. Take a look at basketball, baseball, and football t-shirts. By and large they are instantly identifiable as representing their sport. Your embroidered logo looks like something representing the Chamber of Commerce. Plus I have no way of knowing the size of the printed logo. If the Track & Field lettering is at least an inch and a half high, that at least would be a good thing, but there is no way to tell.
“Lack of decent track & field t-shirts has been a perennial problem at both US Master Nationals and world master meets. I put the blame squarely on National Masters and WMA. Neither, to my knowledge provide any guidance or
requirements for masters T&F merchandising to meet hosts.
“I have written a column about this and collected some good T-shirt photo examples.”
Dave concludes: “We can do a lot better.”
My take?
I agree that handsome, T&F-selling shirts are good, but I recognize that T-shirts also serve a money-making function for meet managers. They often contain ads for local sponsors. These sponsors “(Chamber of Commerce types”) help lower costs of running the meet and make it possible for meets to bid on hosting the nationals. Boise may not be Boston, but it gives masters in the West a better chance of competing at an indoor nationals.
We can’t throw hurdles into the path of potential host cities by handicapping easy revenue streams. I’d rather we get an ugly T-shirt than face an ugly entry fee or have to pay for admission to the meet (for family members). That’s what the New York indoor nationals at the Armory Track & Field Center plans to do in 2007!
Ideally, someone could design a T-shirt that looks good and helps pay the meet’s way. But I wouldn’t get too worked up over mediocre design.
4 Responses
I don’t think Dave Ortman’s comments are out of line. He wasn’t criticizing the meet, only the t-shirts. My favorite t-shirts have attractive logos that stand out. Unfortunately, the t-shirts from the national and world championships have been sub-par. My favorite t-shirts are from John Powell’s discus camp and from Hayward field. My performances at recent national championships have been below my expectations. I blame the t-shirts.
As the regular host of the Southern California Association Championships I have (so far) chosen to forego the selling of T-Shirts. ¬†T-Shirts are one of those expenses and hassles for a meet director that makes it a factor that suggests early registration is required. I try to run a spartan ship and would have to raise the entry fees if I included T-shirts. Nobody has asked for a shirt, it is not missed at my events. Most experienced runners, particularly any who have done Road Racing have such a closet full of shirts that they don’t really feel the need to add to the collection. Personally I have a large collection of shirts I won’t wear because the only readable word on the shirt (amongst the myriad of unreadable sponsor logos) is the name of some dreaded disease I’m glad I don’t have.¬†
 
Granted the National Championships is a little more souvenier oriented and probably a lot more necessary. The significance of getting to the National Championships is something important enough that would encourage someone to want to advertise that fact on their chest. 
 
I agree the artists who get creative in their design should take notice that the announcement of ones personal accomplishment is the motivation for the T-Shirt and they should make sure the statement of the significance of the event is the priority in their design. 
I have to say that most people like to keep things simple when it comes to design because simple is safe and if you can sell it why make it better. I design alot of layouts for track and field teams and it is hit miss. Some people love them and others hate them but in the end I find my self just staying with the simple, why because it sells. But if you want me to do up shirts for your team or track meet let me know. I have some layouts on my site I have done in the past for teams.http://www.youngbloodscreenprinting.com/track-and-field-t-shirt-design.html Jason Fletcher
Cool, there are actually some good ideas on this post some of my readers might find this worthwhile, I must send a link, thanks.
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