Merch?

I was just wondering if we had any trucking truth merch? I just think it would be cool to have shirts or hats. Thanks!

Not at the moment we don't. It's something I've always pondered but I haven't pulled the trigger on.

Brett came real close about a year or so ago. Started a thread about things we would want and everything. Then he pulled the plug. We were broken hearted for months, lol

Well that's a bummer! Merch can be pricey but there are some decent options out there.

Interesting thread, Merchandise, while a great idea, is a much trickier thing than many realize for a non profit such as this. 1st, you have to have a logo and unless you are a graphic designer or know someone who is, creating the logo can be an expensive undertaking. 2nd, most merchandise suppliers do not do one offs of items and will want a minimum order of 50, 100 or 250 units as a guaranteed purchase, and this in and of itself creates a myriad of problems, putting the money up for the initial product purchase, then keeping stock, then reselling which creates the need to keep an inventory list and then of course we can never forget the government that wants their tax dollars from the sale whereby you almost need to create a company to keep it separate from personal income. Again, a great idea that I wouldn't wish on anyone and having done it for two charity organizations in the past, have the records of it being a losing proposition even for those that started it out with the best intentions of it being a fund raiser.

Slowpoke

Bah! There are plenty of resources out there to one-off stuff with good quality. The biggest issues would definitely fall under logo design, etc. After that comes the headache of setting up the initial accounts, etc.

For something like this it's not so much about the production, but all the time and administrative headache that has to be put into to it.

There are a dozen places from Amazon to CafePress where the merchandise can be created and sold. But those services would eat most profit margin, as well, so it needs to be done with the understanding that this is more for promotional use and advertising value (or membership pride) than for profit.

Next, there has to be enough interest from members to make it worth Brett's time to set up all the stuff that an initial set up would require. After that, it should just about run on auto-pilot.

And merchandise could go a long way for gaining more traffic! I sure got a good deal of advertising miles out of nailing my permit test the first time and introducing people to the High Road CDL Training Program and also from my printed version of Daniel's Pre-Trip Inspection Guide here at CRST.

Finally, I'm another TT groupie interested in TT merchandise if it ever comes back around.

I thought this was the logo?

It would look sharp on black caps and shirts....

...I always forget the "GO!"

There are plenty of small batch places out there, but like Jeremy said it isn't completely profitable. One of the Youtubers watch for gaming uses one company that works quite well, I'll try to find out who they go through.

This is actually the business that I'm currently in. It's not too bad as long as you have a general idea of what kind of logo you'd want. Your costs increase with better shirt or hat quality, ink colors, and number of locations that you want printed. Our minimum to run is 12 pieces if they are being printed. Embroidery can be single piece and looks much better on hats, but can be a little pricey depending on your stitch count. If it were me, I would pick 2 logos: one that can be easily embroidered on a shirt AND hat, and a logo to be printed on a shirt. It's a lot cheaper than you'd think.