Where do you get your uniforms/custom team jackets?

[meg]

Hey!

At team 900 we're looking to start forming a more cohesive look for our team members. We've got the zebra pants, and team shirt but it's cold enough at regionals time to need a jacket.

Does anyone have any good suggestions for where to get customized jackets? Many of the students have found the hoodies we get to be less professional/cool looking than they would like.

Generally I use CustomInk for buying things because they're pretty cheap, have great customer service and a 2 week turnaround, but all the team jackets I found don't seem to let you put names on the back.

I'd appreciate any suggestions!

[Billfred]

4901 got their hoodies from http://www.RushOrderTees.com, where we do all our team shirts and other miscellany (mentor polos, team T-shirts, we use them for SCRIW...). We don't do names on them, but they offer that option.

[Alyssa]

Our team members were worried about hoodies being a bit too casual as well, especially if we ever had to attend any cold outreach events. ("cold" we're based our of San Diego) We settled for a 1/4 zip fleece with our logo on the left front breast. http://www.mylocker.net/custom-quarter-zip.cfm

[GreyingJay]

There are a gazillion custom imprinting/embroidery options.

Here's a website I use for merchandise a lot ...

www.4imprint.com (well, I use their Canadian site)

For very small quantities of items like hoodies and shirts, you can try places like CafePress or VistaPrint, but they don't do jackets.

You could also just go buy a bunch of jackets from a regular retailer and bring them to an embroidery or silkscreening place in town to have them put on your logo, letters, names, etc.

The local places tend to be more flexible about custom options like multiple imprints (front and back) since they do the work themselves, some of the larger places like 4imprint seem to be just distributors who send out the work and have it drop-shipped.

[Monochron]

Originally Posted by Billfred

4901 got their hoodies from http://www.RushOrderTees.com, where we do all our team shirts and other miscellany (mentor polos, team T-shirts, we use them for SCRIW...). We don't do names on them, but they offer that option.

Would you mind sharing the price they offer you for shirts? Last I checked RushOrderTees was a good bit more than we pay locally, but I have heard a lot about them recently so I figured I should double check.

[lpickett]

We are fortunate in having one of our team members mom has an embroidery business. She does all our clothing and gets screen printing done, also. We have team t-shirts for practice day, polo shirt for qualifications, and a pit shirt for finals day. Can be a little pricey at first, but we only change the t-shirts from year to year. She also does jackets.

[Ben Martin]

This year, we have done a lot of our custom branded orders through a local business, Elliott Productions. Everything they have produced for us has been fantastic (embroidery, screen printing, etc). We make an order periodically, and get TechFire sweatshirts, beanies, hats, track coats, etc... for anyone on the team that wants them.

[swoopert]

Greetings,

Some time back, we had the opportunity of doing business with a custom sports uniform / jersey manufacturer based in the Philippines. The quality of the uniforms is unbeatable and the price is extremely competitive. I would wholeheartedly recommend you check with them. They not only do uniforms but team apparel as well. They are called Mr. Wilson's Sportswear and can be found at http://mrwilsonsportswear.com/ ask for Wilson.

Cheers,

Robert

[Libby K]

Originally Posted by Monochron

Would you mind sharing the price they offer you for shirts? Last I checked RushOrderTees was a good bit more than we pay locally, but I have heard a lot about them recently so I figured I should double check.

It depends on what you do on those shirts, and how many pieces are in your order. I just quickly mocked up a one-color front and back order for 50 pieces, and it came to $9.73 per piece. Once you start getting fancy, of course, the price goes up. (ex: 1923 uses metallic silver ink on our shirts. While it's still a one-color print, that puts us up towards 10-11 bucks.)

I will always be a RushOrder fan: they saved 1923's hides 9 seasons ago when we didn't have shirts on the Tuesday of our regional week... True to their name, my team had apparel the very next day.

Their team has always been fantastic to work with. We've now grown to ordering 100+ pieces from them every few months (team wear & event volunteer shirts), and everything they've ever shipped us has been fantastic. I would highly recommend ROT - what extra you might pay is worth it in the long run for their quality. Their art team is happy to work with you on anything, too - they took a napkin sketch & some photos of old robots and helped us turn it into this.

Edit:: Meg, to your original point - Here's one ROT item with a more 'professional' look than the hoodies - United Therapeutics ordered these and I can show you pictures of how they turned out - just send me a PM. Another vendor I've seen with a bigger jacket selection (although we have not used them, I've ordered samples) is 4imprint.com

[dubiousSwain]

We use http://dandsdesigns.com/ since they are local, but they ship anywhere. We use them for our shirts and hoodies, and they have always been high quality.

[GreyingJay]

Originally Posted by Libby K

Edit:: Meg, to your original point - Here's one ROT item with a more 'professional' look than the hoodies - United Therapeutics ordered these and I can show you pictures of how they turned out - just send me a PM. Another vendor I've seen with a bigger jacket selection (although we have not used them, I've ordered samples) is 4imprint.com

4imprint is my go-to for merchandise (for another organizer I volunteer with, but I will probably use them for my new FRC team as well). They're a big shop, so they are a little bit impersonal, but if know exactly what you want, and what you want it on, they have a huge selection and decent pricing. They also let you order samples of their merchandise, so if you see a jacket you think you like, you can have one sent to you to check out. Generally samples are free but they might charge if the item is pricey.

4imprint also has a "deal of the day": http://promotions.4imprint.com/dealoftheday/

Every day they offer some small quantity of something different for a very good price. (Today's deal is 6 embroidered polo shirts for $89). I've found it to be a good way to pick up a variety of branded goods like water bottles, notebooks, pens, etc. for relatively cheap.

No affiliation with 4imprint, just a very satisfied customer

[GeeTwo]

For our pit crew shirts, we (or actually Ingersoll Rand) used a local company
http://artmasterspromos.com in Covington.

Looking for a recommendation for local company for quality jackets, I would ask the local high school's athletic department where they get letter jackets.

[Carol]

There are a lot of local shops that order shirts and print/embroider them. They also have catalogs with more options that you may be able to find by yourself. If you look around you should be able to find one near you.

Shopping local can have a lot of advantages. They may even partially sponsor you......

[meg]

Thanks Everyone! We ended up going with Custom Ink. I'm not completely sold on the jackets we got, but it's hard to find something not a sweatshirt look in black and white! I went looking through a lot of the catalogs to no avail.

This is what we ended up with. My biggest complaint is that the white is on the inside of your hand, so isn't great about staying clean.

[Monochron]

Can't wait to see on in person! You guys' branding is already super recognizable, glad to see it isn't stopping.