Remember Archie Bunker, one of TV's greatest characters? I used to provide T-shirts to a radio station that ran an Archie Bunker "Dingbat" of the Day award.
I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday and is enjoying the time between the years. I know in Europe most businesses are closed during this time but here in the US there are still a lot of busy decorators working and if you’re not busy, it’s a good time to be planning for the future. During a lull in our family’s celebrations, I jotted down a list of ideas on groups, occasions or organizations that could possibly have a need for custom t-shirts. I am always thinking about this and I thought I would just start making a list. Here is what I came up with so far and please feel free to add to this list at any time:
- Intramural teams
- Class or school clubs (chess, drama, philosophy, student council, etc..)
- Track and field days, jogging or running clubs
- Homecoming events
- Bridal showers
- Family reunions
- Fishing tournaments
- Family cruises
- Retreats
- Birthday parties
- Food and wine tastings
- Radio station givewaways
- Car Clubs
- Harvest celebrations
- Company picnics
- Pub crawls
- Bachelor/bachelorette parties
- Fund raisers
- Spirit week
- Booster clubs
- Bowling teams
- Youth groups
- Dance teams
- Class reunions
Regarding the radio station giveaways, if you have a radio station in your town you might be able to get some free advertising in exchange for providing custom t-shirts that the station can give to callers or winners of a specific contest. For some reason, people seem to be willing to do almost anything for a free t-shirt. Even at t-shirt industry trade shows, where most of the people at the show work with t-shirts all day long, you always see long lines at the booths that are giving away free t-shirts. Back when I owned several engraving stores, I once sent a personalized pen to a disc jockey and he happened to open it on the air and mention the name of our business. I also supplied the station with t-shirts for the winner of the Archie Bunker Dingbat contest, where people would call in and brag about how stupid they were…I’m telling you, people love to get free t-shirts. 
If the first radio station you call isn’t interested, call another one. Persistance is key when you are trying to get free advertising, but it usually pays off.
I’m busy working on putting together my compilation of Predictions for 2010 and have received a lot of excellent input from GroupeSTAHL colleagues. I hope to start posting that tomorrow, so keep checking back. Thanks for reading.