T-shirts as Uniforms Anna M April 18, 2009 Printing, T-Shirt Printing There are many good reasons for choosing the humble T-shirt as your company uniform: • Purchase Cost – buying T-shirts is not expensive, compared to the cost of formal clothing like collared shirts, suits and business jackets • Maintenance Cost – this is really low: T-shirts can be hand-washed, washed in a machine, tumble-dried, line-dried, all of which means that the poorest part-time student worker or the most affluent Managing Director will pay about the same amount to wash a T-shirt – the student will do it by hand for pennies and the M.D.’s maid or au pair will shove it in his top of the range washing machine, but the cost per clothing item is about the same. Compare this to the cost of washing and ironing formal shirts or the dry-cleaning costs of jackets and business trousers and skirts, and you can see that the people at the bottom of your company will pay disproportionately more for maintaining their company uniform, because you can’t easily dry-clean your formal business wear at home, especially if you don’t have a washing machine • Communication – a lot of companies don’t think about this, and they should. If the T-shirt is your company uniform, you can budget for clothing that conveys a company message to both staff and visitors: a strong bright logo builds your brand image and helps people remember your name, and a slogan or business statement allows your staff to buy into the company ethos. You can’t get that on a business shirt • Brand support – it’s much easier to create a strong brand and to have promotional activity on posters, and as giveaways like branded bags, keyrings or other tiny items, if your brand has been strongly established through staff clothing • Staff turnover – if you have a degree of staff turnover, such as summer staff, it’s both cheaper and easier to outfit them with uniform because T-shirts come in all sizes and shapes and can easily be held in stock or swiftly re-ordered to meet company needs. So when you’re planning a company uniform, think smart – think T-shirt!
