Promotional T-shirts

I go to a lot of technical conferences and get a lot of promotional t-shirts. Many of them are never worn (or only a handful of times) and then donated – this is a very poor return of investment (ROI) for the company handing them out. There are some promotional t-shirts that I come back to again and again. I wanted to outline some of the characteristics of those t-shirts that get a lot of wear.

Well Designed

This is the number one motivator for me to wear a promotional t-shirt. I have t-shirts from companies I dislike, yet I wear them because they are well designed. In the case of t-shirts from companies I dislike, they’ve also made the clever decision to make their branding small and unobtrusive.

Comfort

Many promotional t-shirts feel stiff and uncomfortable. I am way more likely to wear a comfortable t-shirt. In some cases, I have t-shirts I wear around the house or to work in the yard strictly because they are comfortable (even if they are poorly designed).

Brand Loyalty

Brand loyalty plays a part when selecting a t-shirt to wear, however, it is a distant third to the first two factors.

Sal Ferrarello (@salcode)

Sal is a PHP developer with a focus on the WordPress platform. He is a conference speaker with a background including Piano Player, Radio DJ, Magician/Juggler, Beach Photographer, and High School Math Teacher. Sal can be found professionally at WebDevStudios, where he works as a senior backend engineer.