Are we really in 2009? It seems waaaay too early, but here we are! This is when we look back through our emails, order database, art files, and photographs to see what the heck it was we did all of 2008 that kept us running in circles. So let’s see…
Close to ten thousand designs breezed through here this year, so there are tons to look back on. It seemed best for us to just round up highlights for 2008 we felt summed up the past year.
Of course, local customers stand out, as these are the people we see face-to-face throughout the year. Not only do we see them when they stop by our office and place orders, but they’re also even sitting across the dining room at a restaurant wearing t-shirts we printed.
Since 2006, we have been printing the t-shirts for the Glasgow Highland Games. The four-day event is held each year on the weekend following Memorial Day at the Barren River Lake State Resort Park. Nearly 20,000 people from the United States, Canada, and Great Britain attend this south-central Kentucky celebration, and the festival has sold out of t-shirts each year we have printed them. We now start preparing the artwork for this shirt nine months before the event, and the client decided to pre-print t-shirts for 2009 to sell at events leading up to the Games. All we can say is, wow!
During the summer, we printed shirts for the Bowling Green East (11-12 year old) baseball team. The “All Stars” were preparing for an upcoming weekend full of baseball and wanted to represent their team. Following that weekend, they decided to order more t-shirts as they had won several games and were moving up in the league, eventually moving on to the state championship. Within a month period, we printed four different t-shirt designs for them. Megan, our receptionist, has many memories of this particular client: “As their customer service representative, it was fun to keep up and be able to follow along with their status. When they were on the news, I enjoyed watching their time on the air and picking out the shirts that BlueCotton had produced for them.”
A major highlight according to Marcus in our Embroidery Department is a design sewn for the Bowling Green Dart Association. Among the vast amount of designs we sew, this one will probably stand out among the others for years to come. The reason? It’s size. The design is about 10” x 10” and covers the entire back of the garment it is sewn on. There are over 130,000 stitches and it takes about 3 ½ hours to sew! Since the majority of the embroideries are three or four inches wide, it is apparent why this particular one trumps them all in 2008.
Local business definitely takes up much of our time, but we also were up to our ears with national and international business also.
We found it exciting to play a part in history this year with the vast amount of 2008 Presidential Election t-shirts. Political t-shirts are often remembered for years, such as “Dew it with Dewey” slogan on shirts in Thomas E. Dewey’s 1948 Presidential campaign, and of course the ever-popular “I Like Ike” slogan used for Eisenhower. T-shirts we printed throughout this campaign could be collector’s items someday… you never know.
Patriotism and military support t-shirts filled our print shop throughout 2008. Shirts were printed supporting practically all branches of the military at some point. Many orders were shipped to deployed soldiers in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Germany, while others were printed for loved ones here at home to wear in support.
T-shirts are a way for people to express themselves, be it showing their affiliation to a group or organization or just for fun.
An individual named Ryan Kimball contacted us for a t-shirt order in early 2008. Ryan had started a Kickball League in Rochester, NY in 2007. That first season there were only 4 teams, but has since grown to 28 teams with over 450 players in a very short amount of time. Ryan explained he had gone to several screen print shops in his local area for league t-shirts, but none were able to print the design as he wanted for a fair price. He hopped online and found BlueCotton.com, and we have enjoyed an ongoing relationship since. Upon receiving a shipment of t-shirts, Ryan was gracious enough to send us an email about his experience working with us as well. “Thank you so much again to everyone at BlueCotton.com. Once again my shirts arrive on time and they look amazing! I can’t wait to hand them out tonight. Your staff was very friendly, helpful, and informative and always kept me up to date on the progress of the order. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate that. I definitely look forward to a long-lasting relationship with you,” he said. Often we are unaware of the customer’s experience once the order is out our door, so emails received by someone concerning their new t-shirts are always appreciated.
Horizon House, a non-profit agency that works to help mentally disabled individuals, has been a favorite of many employees. Not only was Jenny Ricci, the agency’s Program Specialist, a pleasure to work with, but the design she created in our Design Studio was also so creative we chose it as the Design of the Week in July 2008 and featured it in this blog. “I spent hours online looking at various t-shirt sites, the design software on each, variety of shirts available, and of course, price. At BlueCotton.com I was pleased to find everything I was looking for and was able to design a few different shirts for the planning committee to make a choice from. The software on your site is so incredibly easy to use and versatile enough that I could do some really creative things with it,” Jenny told us.
And we can never forget the schools and universities that choose BlueCotton.com to screen print and embroider their school apparel. We have had a long-standing relationship with Florida College and Union College who continued their repeat business throughout the year. Also, the Greek organizations who flood our greekt-shirts.com website with orders each semester often leave a mark – especially with our Art Department, as we work closely with them to design fun, creative t-shirts for their events. There are so many memorable clients and designs from 2008; it would take all of 2009 to acknowledge them all!
It’s been a busy year! Correction… a packed year! Who knows what else lies ahead for 2009. Aside from the current cold and wintry weather, we can’t wait to see what’s in store.