Tee Shirts
 

Why don't I see more FIRST tee shirts being worn? I go to malls, air ports, all kinds of places with crowds of people and always look for team shirts and except for events I almost never see them. I see people wearing advertisements for soda, companies, races, even the color pink. I have gathered many FIRST shirts in the 4 years since I joined and I end up wearing them often. This is a great way to advertise.

Re: Tee Shirts
 

There are 29 teams in New Hampshire*. Assume each team has 20 students (some will have less, some will have more), which means there are about 580 FRC students in New Hampshire. The population of New Hampshire (as of 2010) is 1,316,470**.

This means that 0.04% of the population of New Hampshire are FRC students. 0.04% means about 1 in every 2500 people you encounter will have be wearing an FRC shirt IF they wear their shirts every day.

So assuming the students wear their shirts all the time, go shake hands with 2500 people.


*http://www.usfirst.org/whats-going-o...rch_teams_form

**http://www.census.gov/popfinder/?fl=33

Re: Tee Shirts
 

Now I'm probably weening on the side that my knowledge is limited but I'm going to go with this assumption.

FIRST is still far too localized/small for you to go into any mall/airport/crowded place and see FIRST shirts on a regular or even seldom basis. Think of it this way if FIRST has 800,000 participants in the US that's 800,000:314,000,000

The odds aren't in your favor to ever really see FIRST in public places.
Now obviously those odds are terribly inaccurate because if there's no FIRST presence in the city you're in then there is 0 chance you'll ever see anyone.

Like Dean said. Our problem is no one really knows who we are and you are just stating an excellent example of that truth.

The idea I have in my head more often times than not is how do we solve this problem. Having the support of international superstars is one thing, but until we have a YouTube video with over 10,000,000 views I don't believe people will know we exist. Just remember...Justin Beiber a sensation with just based off of his twitter following is 41 Million strong.....started on YouTube.

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Over the years many of the kids on my team wouldn't be caught dead wearing our team shirt outside of robotics. So most of the normal public won't be wearing our shirt. It's a niche product with a exclusive audience.
Though Greg Needel did spot a shirt at the Salvation Army and someone spotted a homeless man wearing one of our shirts (a ringing endorsement for the program if there ever was one for sure...:rolleyes: )

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I've been known to dust off a BC shirt or a team shirt every now and then. All of my team shirts from my High School days don't fit anymore, and even my current ones are a little tight :ahh:. Granted, I'm in "rural" Massachusetts, so finding someone with a FIRST shirt is like trying to find a needle in a haystack.

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Being the nerd that I am, I attend Scifi and anime conventions, at these events I have run into people rocking their team shirts (at Mega Con 2008 in Orlando two members of 233 were there one in the team uniform the other in the pink gorilla suit, really sticks out to me.)

Now out in public with the exception of seeing my own team members wearing our shirts I have run into members of 179 and 180 (all 3 of us wearing our team shirts) at the grocery store.

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Best place to see them? A college campus. At U of M, you can see them on a daily basis. Some of first people I met in college were because of a robotics shirt, easiest ice breaker ever!

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Even in the FIRST-saturated location we're in, I seldom see any signs of other teams around. And what I DO see isn't related to team t-shirts; twice I've seen 548's bumper stickers on cars in the grocery store parking lot, I've seen 503's robot trailer parked in their sponsor's back lot, and I've seen the Adopt a Road sign designated to 68. I've never noticed anyone wearing a team shirt before, other than myself (when you have 6 team shirts, they tend to cycle through the laundry pretty frequently, hence it's a bit rare for me to not be donning my toaster apparel).

Some of it is a matter of chance. Part of it is based on the saturation of FIRST's presence in your area. The rest is all personal preference; while I wear my shirts any chance I'm given, I know some of my teammates never wear them outside of competitions or meetings. And for those people who choose not to wear them, it might even be a matter of them trying to preserve the shirt longer for memories -- I've had to retire my 2011 shirt because I wore it so much it was turning from blue to green! :P

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I was down at a summer camp at Mizzou recently, I saw one guy from 1986 Titanium wearing his shirt, one girl from 2345 KARS/Animal Control wearing hers, and I myself wore at least two of mine, plus the 973 shirt I own.

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I tend not to wear my team shirt outside robotics. I think it really depends on what your team shirts look like. Ours are flourescent green designed to be as noticable as possible with a big cat on the front, so I can't just wear it casually. I do like to wear my JCPenny FRC shirt around. It still rocks the first logo but doesn't look wierd.

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I always wear my colors proudly.
They can be the loudest dumbest looking shirts around (and black and red tie die can look pretty loud) and I'll still wear it around.
If you don't have love for your own team then who will?

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I want a FIRST Logo flatbill hat. I'd wear that thing 24/7.

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See if 610 has any left in stock, I wear mine all of the time.

I wear my bright pink florescent Robolions "I <3 Robots" shirt all of the time, it is a great conversation starter.

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The students of 192 design 3 new shirts each year. The students buy their own shirts so while they are on the team they get 6 to 9 shirts. The students and the mentors tend wear their shirts around town.

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I've collected a few of the Texas teams' shirts and wear them along with my own team's all the time.

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I'm perfectly happy to wear my team shirts in public. However, team shirts are part of our uniform at not-very-formal presentations, at our weekly booth at the farmer's market, and of course at competitions. This means that if I wear team shirts outside of those events, I run the risk of the shirts not making it through the laundry in time for the next team-related event, especially if I need to lend spares to newer members of the team.
(I wear team shirts more often now that I've been on an FRC team for two years and have older shirts with an out-of-date list of sponsors on them, but I still haven't gotten out of the habit of saving them for team events.)

For advertising the fact that I'm involved in FIRST and that FIRST exists, I much prefer my pair of FIRST-logo earrings. In my experience, people usually don't comment on our team shirt unless they already know what it's about, while whenever I wear the earrings I get compliments and questions. As soon as someone asks me about them or mentions that they look cute, I take the opportunity to practice my elevator pitch. (With the earrings as a starting point, I almost convinced one of the cheerleaders to come check out our team, but their practice schedule conflicts with our meeting schedule.)

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Same here. I have easily over 25 different FIRST-related shirts, many of which are from different teams. They honestly make up over a third (probably actually closer to a half...) of my entire shirt supply, and I wear them all the time. I will have to buy some new shirts for college, though :rolleyes:. Just yesterday I wore my new "Don't Mess With Texas Robots" shirt that I got at IRI to honor TRR, and today I wore my "2013 World Champion Alliance" shirt (also got at IRI) to honor 1477's finalist performance at TRR.

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We have black and Red tie dye shirts too, but the worst part is the black,red, and white camo cargo pants.

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I've worn my "Koko Ed is my homeboy" shier out plenty...

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Like Pault and Koko Ed, our team's shirts really stand out. They are neon Pink with a gigantic 696 logo and tend to get some weird looks. Great for events but not something every student would wear.

I have seen kids from teams with more neutral colors who rock their shirts in super markets and such. Blue is one good color to wear around.

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*In the voice of the e-trade baby from commercials* Apparently wearing shirts with a skull and crossbones on the front is FROWNED UPON in THIS ESTABLISHMENT!. Seriously though wearing a PVC Pirates shirt doesn't exactly bring the best attention to ones self. I've had people walk away from me while fundraising because they don't like our shirts. So as much as I'd like to show off my true FIRST colors in public, I can't wear my own teams shirt often outside of school without getting dirty looks. I do still where shirts from competitions (Battlecry, Beantown, Mayhem in Merrimack) so I guess that counts for something.

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When I first joined our team the logo included a crazed looking tin man running with a raised axe. The following years he has become friendlier despite my objections. It was explained to me that the crazed tin man was a bit scary to the younger kids. I guess as far as advertising goes they were right.

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Bright florescent yellow isn't the type of shirt you see every day on the streets, and it always makes people look at you, which is why I wear my team shirt as much as I can. It's bright and obscure, but then again so is FIRST, so it's a perfect fit. I've introduced quite a few people to robotics through the question of "what's with the shirt?".

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Took the words out of my mouth. The more noticeable and dynamic the shirt is, the more likely people are to look at it. It helps if it looks sharp too, because people will often judge a book (in this case FRC) by its cover.

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As some people have said I think it varies on the color of your shirt. I wouldn't be caught dead in my old Stang colors on the street. However, any FIRST polo is totally fair game.

Something to keep in mind, when you're wearing your shirt your actions are not just your own, you are representing your team, their sponsors, and FIRST as a whole. I still can tell you the team number of the kid who was acting like a fool at a concert years ago.

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I wear my FIRST shirts when I can, but in the hot summer months, a t shirt full of screen printing isn't the best for the summer heat. Next season our team is going to look into better heat alternatives. Even moisture wicking material is extremely uncomfortable.

I also know for most people they don't like wearing their team apparel outside of competition for risk of damaging it and having to replace "team uniform".

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At this point, I have seven "Team 2220" shirts, a state tournament shirt, one of the "Create, Inspire, Engineer" shirts from champs, and a FIRST jacket. If I time my laundry right, I find I can wear one of my FIRST shirts every day of the week, all year round (and most of the time that's exactly what I do).

I think my team's rather unobtrusive colors (that also match the school colors) makes it easier for our students (and mentors!) to wear them.

I think it's highly area based. I occasionally notice people in team/FIRST related shirts when I'm out and about in my area, but we also have a fairly high density of FIRST teams.

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I always try to wear my team shirt when I go to cities with FIRST teams. Of course, what with my living in Michigan this isn't too hard ;). I do not particularly like my team's new colors - fluorescent yellow with blue (opposite of my pic) - but I wear them proudly anyway. I love wearing my FIRST shirts/hoodie. It's a great way to meet people. I've seen many FRC shirts around, but then again, that may just be Michigan for you.

I know a lot of our first-year members don't wear the shirts too often in fear of ruining them (as they only have one set so far), but the rest of the team wears our shirts pretty regularly. I've been a member for two seasons, and I have five 240 shirts alone. I also have an FLL volunteer shirt, FIRST robotics camp volunteer shirt, and FIRST hoodie.

It's even better when you go out with your friends and all wear your team shirts. FIRST pride and weird looks are abundant!

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Especially when travelling, I wear FRC shirts - but usually not my own team. I'll wear a volunteer* or IRI or state champ shirt because I figure they're more recognizable to those in the know than a CyberCards shirt.
But if I'm out locally, I'll wear team shirts - usually those of other teams (THRUST, Purple Precision, Thunder Chickens, UPS, etc.) because my own team shirts get worn at school and events and I don't want them getting threadbare.

*I'll rock my Lunacy volunteer shirt, but that probably has the same effect as an I <3 MECANUM shirt - those that know what it means will probably avoid the wearer based on philosophical issues

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Melissa and I wore our matching "Walpole Robotics" t-shirts yesterday during the dog's afternoon walk in a local park. Stopped to chat with a young couple with a toddler. Toddler wanted to pet the dog. They asked about the robotics team and we gave the quick explanation. They asked more, very interested and maybe wanting to help, and so we gave the fuller description. We spent some time talking about what it was all about, the different FRC, FTC, and FLL teams the schools have and when their "seasons" were, and of course that they don't need a child in the school to help out (it would be a couple of years for PK-FLL). All because we wore robotics t-shirts.

Oddly, they did not ask about the Great Blue Heron bobble-head I was wearing.

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Is there a place where we can buy shirts from different teams when they send in their orders this year?

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You'd have to ask the teams about it, I don't believe there's a place where you can buy them. I know 987 sold them on chief Delphi last year.

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Also if I remember correctly 254 has a print-on-demand thing set up on their website.

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So on Tuesday March 24th I saw a person at Disney World in Orlando wearing a 624 shirt, unfortunately I could not get out of line to speak to you, who ever you are know that I saw you and was wearing a 2080 shirt. Just updating the thread lol

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My teams wear them all the time. I do fll,FTC and FRC. The shirts are blue and gold and have the same fonts and eagle. Year to year sponsor change but layout is the same. Being in Michigan we see a lot of different teams out and about with shirts. I have run in to dozens every year in all sorts of places. You can't miss some of the colors and it's hard to miss Martians green, flyers pink, engineerd black, killer bees yellow or rush running suits. We have vertical numbers and love our slogan "making better humans...one robot at a time" I get asked about it often. Frchartland.org

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The majority of my t-shirts are FIRST related shirts, mostly volunteer shirts from FLL tournaments (and a few VEX shirts). I wear them quite frequently, because I have several from each year. Siblings/friends/teammates wear them often too, and since we represent our entire area, we don't see anyone else wearing them but us really.

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Sorry 2337 spell check error. Enginerds