{"id":27868,"date":"2020-08-27T08:06:50","date_gmt":"2020-08-27T13:06:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ipromo.com\/blog\/?p=27868"},"modified":"2024-12-04T13:21:01","modified_gmt":"2024-12-04T19:21:01","slug":"promotional-t-shirts-101-everything-youve-always-wanted-to-know","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.ipromo.com\/promotional-t-shirts-101-everything-youve-always-wanted-to-know\/","title":{"rendered":"Promotional T-Shirts 101: Everything You\u2019ve Always Wanted to Know"},"content":{"rendered":"

In-person conferences and events may be on the back burner for a while. Many may recall the classic staple image of different company reps wearing promotional t-shirts. This is perhaps the quickest way to let passerby know who you are and what business you\u2019re repping.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"With that said, you don\u2019t need to be at a conference or other event to make use of a promotional t-shirt. These are a great item to get your feet wet when it comes to promotional items in general and have a lot to offer in terms of opportunities to further your brand. But when did they first become a thing? How can you make them work for you? Here are the answers to every question you could possibly have about promotional t-shirts.<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

Where Did Promotional T-Shirts Come From? How Can You Use Them?<\/span><\/b><\/h2>\n

In many ways, the promotional t-shirt is at the intersection of both t-shirts and promotional items becoming mainstream. While there are examples of promotional items from the Roman era onward, the first <\/span>major American example<\/span><\/a> is the work of Jasper Meek. He got his start by asking one of his printing customers if they wanted to buy ad space on school bags which he would give to local children for free. This essentially turned the local children into walking billboards and Meek began creating branded bags, calendars, and other products for merchants in the area. By the dawn of the 20th century, this became more and more common, and the advent of plastic took the potential to a whole new level.<\/span><\/p>\n

On the other side of the equation, we have t-shirts, which first came to prominence in the late 19th century, created by laborers to keep cool and also manufactured for the Navy as \u201cstandard undershirts.\u201d However, it wouldn\u2019t be until the 1950s where a t-shirt began to become a popular garment on its own, as opposed to an undershirt. This is due to actors of the day like James Dean and Marlon Brando making the style popular.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Custom<\/a><\/p>\n

So, how did these trends intersect? In the 1950s, a group of Miami businesses started using the then-new invention of <\/span>screen printing <\/span><\/a>to put their company logo\/mascots on shirts. In the 1960s, screen printed t-shirts began to become a counterculture icon, before things finally went full-circle in the 1970s. At that point major brands like Coca-Cola started creating branded t-shirts, setting the ground for where we are today.<\/span><\/p>\n

So, with that in mind, what are some of the modern uses we are seeing for promotional T-shirts? Some of the options on the table include:<\/span><\/p>\n