30,000+ Super Bowl T-Shirts Will Hit Shelves Overnight

Big game means big bucks for promotional products companies 

TREVOSE, PA – February 3, 2011 – With Super Bowl XLV looming, hundreds of promotional products companies are working overtime to produce logoed Super Bowl items by the truckload for on-time delivery to eager sports fans. 

According to the Advertising Specialty Institute (ASI), celebrations on the field mean screen printing in the shops – more than 30,000 Super Bowl T-shirts will be produced overnight for fans to snap up the morning following the big game.   

Jim Silver of Pittsburgh, PA-based Precision Screen Printing (asi/603946) says his company will produce 25,000 to 35,000 T-shirts by devoting two presses and 14 people over a 36-hour period. Another company in Steelers territory, All Pro Embroidery, produced about 40,000 T-shirts leading up to the game and expects to print 20,000 more if their team wins.

“ASI research shows the T-shirt, a promotional product powerhouse, is the top-selling apparel item for the last four years among Super Bowl fans,” said ASI President and Chief Executive Officer Timothy M. Andrews. “Companies also continue to order them throughout the football season as employee gifts and giveaways to clients.”

More than 2,000 jackets are expected to be ordered online immediately following the big game. 

“Craftsman-style Super Bowl jackets, our most popular item, are decorated on-demand and shipped within 48 hours directly to the fan,” said Matt Gray, chief operating officer of Dunbrooke Apparel Corp. (asi/50930), a leading supplier of NFL jackets under its licensing agreement with Reebok and the National Football League. “We bring in 12-hour nightshift crews to man the 250 embroidery-machine heads and begin the process the minute the final game whistle blows.”

Dallas, TX-based Purple Giraffe (asi/80086) is operating 16 hours a day to produce packaged T-shirts in the shapes of footballs, postcards and DVD cases, as well as to put Super Bowl T-shirts into Pepsi bottles. “We’ll make enough money to pay owner and general manager Jerry Jones for signage rights to the new Cowboys Stadium,” joked manager Robbie Weinberg. “Just kidding, Jerry.”

In addition, sports-related products provided by ASI member companies include watches from Fossil (asi/55145), a cooler shaped like a helmet from America Zebra Line (asi/35745), a helmet snack server (chips stay in the top and dip goes in the facemask) from LarLu Display-Tec (asi/66390), and the big No. 1 foam finger and oversized, logoed cowboy hats from Spirit Industries (asi/88740).  

“It’s great for our industry,” said Joe Durand, senior vice president of ASI member company LarLu, an officially licensed provider of the Green Bay Packers’ Titletown Towel and the Pittsburgh Steelers Terrible Towel for Super Bowl XLV.

McArthur Towel & Sports, a LarLu company, has produced the renowned yellow towels fans have waved at Pittsburgh Steelers games for the last 14 years. Recently, the company was also licensed to bring back a new version of the Green Bay Packers Title Towel. “The towel is a tremendous sponsor product with excellent visibility at sporting events,” Durand said.

McArthur will work around the clock to produce the Super Bowl XLV Trophy Towels that will be used during the on-field celebration.

Shirts, jackets and other wearables are among the top six product categories by sales volume in the advertising specialties industry, according to ASI’s annual State of the Industry research report. Sales of all promotional products were nearly $19 billion in 2010. Ad specialties beat out prime-time TV, radio and print advertising as the most cost-effective advertising medium available, according to a recent study from ASI.  

About ASI
The Advertising Specialty Institute is the largest education, media and marketing organization serving the advertising specialty industry, with a membership of over 26 ,000 distributor firms (sellers) and supplier firms (manufacturers) of advertising specialties. Supplier firms use ASI print and electronic resources to market products to over 23 ,000 ASI distributor firms.Distributor firms use ASI print and electronic resources, which contain nearly every product in the industry from more than 3,200 reputable suppliers, to locate supplier firms and to market services to buyers. ASI provides catalogs, information directories, newsletters, magazines, websites and databases, and offers e-commerce, marketing and selling tools. Visit ASI and The ASI Show at asishow.com, and on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and the CEO’s blog.