Dude, got any t-shirts? A lesson in creating merch…

I get asked a lot of questions, but lately this one has risen to the top:  “Can you recommend a good/cheap/fast place to get shirts made?”  Every single band feels that after they’ve recorded some tracks and booked a few gigs, they need to have t-shirts to sell.  And while your “Kiss Army” t-shirt from ’82 is a prized possession, keep in mind that you’re not Kiss, and you’re not selling as many t-shirts at Gene, Paul, and the boys.

When I worked in radio (back when people listened to the radio), the single biggest request at events was “dude, got any t-shirts?”  I never understood why — ‘cuz the shirts weren’t all that creative (just a white t-shirt with the station logo and call letters), and they weren’t the greatest quality either.  But everybody wanted one.  But if you reply with “Sure man, $5…” you’re likely to get a “fuck you, dude” in return. People love free shirts, but if they gotta shell out the cash — good luck!   Come up with something intrinsically cool though, and I’m willing to be wrong.

The funny thing (as you might’ve figured out) is that as anyone who’s ever worked with me knows– I HATE T-SHIRTS!!!  It’s not for any type of fashion sense, or stylistic intent, it’s just that as a marketing tool, t-shirts always end up being a disaster.  I’ve had 5 people ask me just in the last 2 days.  So once and for all, here’s my rant/explanation.

I really hate t-shirts, and here’s why:

On a per unit basis, they cost a lot of money ‘cuz there’re WAY too many options.

Let’s say your band wants to make t-shirts to sell at their gigs.  You only want to make around 100. But without knowing who’s gonna buy these shirts, what sizes do you get?  What happens if you get too many XLs and you end up playing a bunch of gigs to teeny tiny people?  Oh shit.  Put the XLs back in the van, they ain’t moving tonight!  No matter how good you are, you’ll end up with stuff that just won’t sell — the odds aren’t in your favor here.  And without being totally stereotypical, if you’re playing shows in LA, get smaller shirts.  Playing in Mississippi, get bigger ones.  Seriously.

Then you’ve gotta price ’em out with printers and manufacturers.  Obviously, they’re cheaper by the dozen, but if you’ve only got $100 to spend, you’re lucky to end up with around 25 shirts.  So that’s a $4 per shirt cost.  If you can sell ’em for $15, that’s sweet!  You’ll make $1500 on shirts that cost you $100.  But again, pick the wrong sizes and you’re sitting on a pile of size x-small’s that won’t go anyplace but back to your storage facility.

I have this GREAT idea.  There’s a 5-color patch on the sleeve, and a really cool silvery outline of a rainbow on the back.  And maybe a unicorn too.   Unicorns are cool, right?

The other sucky part of printing t-shirts is that with rare exceptions, you pay on a per color AND per placement basis — along with the actual cost of the shirt.  So you want to add another color, that’s an extra $2 per shirt.  And print in more than one location.  That’s an extra $1.50 per shirt.  Did I mention that prep and pre-press charges?

A few years ago, the folks at Sonicbids gave me one of their t-shirts.  It was a nice, gray American Apparel t-shirt with 4 color printing in two locations.  It was a REALLY nice shirt, and a great advertisement for Sonicbids (assuming you wore it…), but unless they made gazillions of t-shirts, they had to have cost a lot.  And if they made gazillions, then they still spent thousands on the shirt.  Granted, if you’re Sonicbids, you can afford it.  Incidentally, if you wanna see/steal some cool merch ideas, they’ve always managed to create great promo shwag.  In particular, and if they’re reading this, I’d love to get my hands on one of those red track jackets they made.  And the water bottles were very nice too.  But I digress ….

What kind of shirt do you want?

I work with a band who has some very cool designs, and they want them printed on American Apparel t-shirts. For those not in the know, American Apparel is a manufacturer who makes a particular type of shirt that’s a fairly thin, but high quality, material.  They’re extremely nice shirts and priced as such. They’ve also got retail locations across the country selling their goods — most of which are totally blank designs!   It sort of a hipster/utilitarian approach I guess, and for them it seems to be working.

Also – American Apparel shirts tend to run a bit small.  If you’ve got a 6-pack, killer pecs, and monster biceps, then you want American Apparel. Their shirts make you look like even more of a god.  Of course with that kind of body, it probably doesn’t matter what you wear.  But if you’re more of a “how ’bout some nachos” type guy, err, you don’t care for American Apparel.  Think about your average/potential customer — what would they wear?   This decision is less about what you like, and more about what your fans prefer.

Anyway – getting your design onto American Apparel shirts comes at a premium compared to a lot of other brands.  For starters, you’ve got to decide what you want the shirt made of (Cotton?  Cotton/Poly blend?), and keep in mind that anything less than 100% cotton tends to look somewhat cheap, but the cotton/poly blend is often a lot more affordable.  Since lots of companies make shirts, there’s some comparison shopping to be done.   In particular, I’ve used Haines Beefy-T’s, Fruit of the Loom, Champion, Anvil, and Gildan all with very good results.  And I’ve used American Apparel too — they’re great shirts, no doubt about it.  And who’s making these shirts for you — there’s a million printing companies around.  Do your research…

Dude can I get a shirt for my girlfriend?

Here’s the BIGGEST reason I loathe t-shirts.   Let’s assume you get 100 shirts made.  There they are all pristine in the box, waiting for your fans to throw money at you and claim one.  But before that happens, each guy in your band gets one, their girlfriends want one (and you don’t want to deny the girlfriend and piss off your drummer), and you probably wanna give a few out to folks that helped you get that gig opening for Ted Nugent’s cousin (that Ted was coming to, and he’d hear you play, but he got stuck in traffic and only heard his cousin.  Sorry, maybe next time..).  See where this is going yet?  Suddenly you’ve given out around 10 shirts (actual cost $40, retail value $150), and you haven’t sold one yet.  10% of you revenue/earnings potential is gone.

But wait, there’s more…

The shirts live in the back of your band’s van.  And after the gig, the drummer is just plain nasty.  He sweat through whatever he was wearing, and you’ve gotta drive another 4 hours with that stench to get to the next city on your world tour.  Ugh, nobody wants to be next to that — just take one of the t-shirts from the box, ok?

And still more …

• Trying to make a good impression on that potential booking agent?   Here, have a t-shirt …
• Potential soulmate shows you her … assets?  Here, cover those up (temporarily) with a XS t-shirt.
• Shit – what was in that box we left at the venue?   Oh man … too late to go back now.
• We bought a commemorative shot glass from every city we toured in.  Don’t want ’em to break, uh, wrap ’em up in one of the t-shirts…

Where’re we gonna put ’em all?

You’ve got that van packed to capacity.  And the bass player is gonna just ride up on the roofrack, ‘cuz you can afford to replace him — but not the PA.   All 100 of your slick new shirts are in a big box that takes up a lot of room.  And strangely, they’re not the most lightweight thing to lug around.  I don’t know how, but 100 shirts on their own weigh about a pound.  But once they’re in a box, they weigh a ton and take up 10x the room.  It makes no sense.

So what should you do?

I shared the radio station example before.  Here’s another, slightly more recent one.  A couple years ago, Nimbit was looking to do some promo gear.  Naturally t-shirts got floated, and I was completely against it for the abovementioned reasons.  Instead I said, since the primary goal of these is to brand the company, let’s do something of a higher quality (more desirable) and in a smaller quantity.  Ultimately I coordinated the design and ordering of Nimbit hoodies.

At the holiday party, we gave ’em out to team members, board members, and a few select others.  Over 4 years later, people still wear the hoodies, newer staff members want to know how to get theirs, and while the per piece cost was around $22 — what band t-shirt gets worn (actively!) for 4+ years and lives to tell the tale?

The lesson here is that you need to understand what your audience wants, what they’re willing to pay for, and what will give you the most return on your investment.  There’s no magic answer — and for some bands, t-shirts are definitely the right way to go.  But if you’re trying to watch the budget, ordering shirts may not be the best idea.

Some bands make their own shirts — they’ve got their own screenprinting gear, shop the outlet stores for sweet deals, and every shirt is a custom, one-of-a-kind masterpiece.  There’s a big time commitment there, but creating something CUSTOM is a huge enticement to a fan.  No two products are the same, and the band actually made MY shirt.  That’s worth $15 to me!  Or possibly more…

You don’t have to wear it

Earlier this year I went to see Peter Wolf perform.  People didn’t realize that he was selling merch after the show due to a weird venue layout where you didn’t actually pass the merch table.  But I knew it was there and went to take a look.  One of the coolest items for sale was a signed and numbered poster print of his (latest) album art.  Asking price:  $40.   I bought one without hesitation…

I love posters — nice ones, signed ones, vintage ones, etc.  In another post, I’ll share some pictures and stories of how I got ’em all.  But, for Mr. Wolf to travel with a box of posters is a helluva lot easier than lugging t-shirts around.  He did have shirts too, by the way.  $20 each.  I don’t think anybody bought one.

Think of it this way:  Instead of spending a LOT of money on printing up t-shirts, he created an object that probably cost the same (factor in design, manufacturing), but he could sign/number it, charge $40 for it, and only had to sell 1/3 the number of products to at least break even.  All the rest was pure profit.  And if they didn’t sell, they’re still much easier to schlep city to city.

What makes the most sense?

Selling music, while a noble cause, isn’t the greatest way to try and make a buck. Without doing the work for you (and denying myself valuable consulting dollars!), think about whatever it is that your fans are going to buy.  If you know they’re all gonna be using pogo sticks, then create something pogo-stick related that doesn’t detract/distract from their pogo-ing.

More importantly:  fans always want access to their favorite musicians.  Make a product (like the Sarah Borges t-shirts) that provides a direct-t0-fan engagement opportunity, and you’re a success.  Ultimately, that’s the purpose of any promo product.  You want cash, but there’s equal value in the promotional opportunity — a t-shirt is just a walking billboard for your band.  Hopefully that cool t-shirt you gave to the potential promoter isn’t only getting used when he washes his car.

Am I missing anything here?

Please contribute your thoughts, suggestions, and criticisms here.  Let’s make this a big ol’ learning experience. Thanks!!