RD wants to know what you want in a race t-shirt (Page 3)

Excellent feedback; keep it coming! This has been super helpful to hear. And if you have more ugly shirt designs you want to load up, I did enjoy the last one posted or if you want to load a super awesome one up there too! It is cool to see what people are doing, good, bad or ugly. Thanks so much!

Echoing some of the earlier comments:

- attractive logos

- attractive colors

- lightweight, high quality material

I have a finisher's shirt from a local half that is school bus yellow, with a big pink star and the word "FINISHER" above the star.  It's horrific.  I would have rather paid $5-10 less for the race fee.

I wear my shirts unless they are absolutely awful, and unfortunately, I have a 50-50 split of good tees vs. awful ones.  I prefer tech tees, as I will wear those around town too, whereas a cotton tee will never be worn in training.

Black would be preference on color.

Tie Die or something bright to run in might be acceptable as well.

White would be last color choice.

I like getting shirts so I telling my wife she can't throw them out even if they are from the 80's and 90's.

Name of race on left chest on front, only thing on front.  On back if your sponsers want to advertise I think you should ask them to be creative and not use the standard logo. 

I have two favourite styles:

1. a long-sleeve cotton shirt that I can wear with jeans, etc.  Something in a nice colour and without too many ads and logos, or

2. a tech shirt that I can work out in.  Use a quality brand name, not the cheap polyester ones.  Some small tasteful logos, as I find that the printing defeats the wicking ability of the tech fabric.  And NO PRINTING OVER THE NIPPLES.  That's the only thing that ever causes me to chafe.

It's been interesting reading all the responses.  I'd say IMO, if the RD wants to advertise their race via shirts, it depends on which "group" of people they're targeting.  For those who prefer tech shirts (myself included), it's mainly because we train in them.  Therefore the "audience" being marketed to via shirts are athletes if the RD chooses tech shirts.

If the RD wants to advertise their race via their shirts and they choose cotton (horrible workout option), chances are they figure the shirt will be worn "around town" and therefore the RD is probably targeting a general audience, potentially "couch to 5K."

I've done many races where they give a crappy cotton t-shirt and I just throw them in a storage tub so one-day maybe I'll have a quilt made with them....

OTOH, I wear "too flashy" hi viz shirts on bike rides given their inherent safety value.

Also, it's nobody's fault but mine, but white shirts seem to get readily stained.

It's been said before but bears repeating - women's cut as an option, assuming tech shirts. Even the "best" "fitting" tech shirts I've gotten in "unisex" sizing are good for short runs at best - for longer runs there are invariably seams somewhere in the underarm area that chafe. 

If you do cotton, the design (or accomplishment) has to be pretty awesome for me to wear it around town, usually they just go into the sleep-shirt drawer.

Please. No cotton Ts. That's like having moved to CDs in the early 90s and then your parents go and buy you the new album that you wanted for Christmas - on tape!

I was part of organizing an inaugural (please don't call it first annual, there is no such a thing) 5K last year. People loved that we were offering Tech-Ts. Really put the race up a notch. I never wear the cotton race Ts.

Please offer women's sizes - and, yes, make sure they're long enough.

White is fine with me. Just don't order a gross color like mustard yellow.

Give the racer the option of not buying a T-shirt for a lower registration price.

People typically expect a T-shirt. If you're going to replace it with something else, it must have the same "a-ha" worth. I don't know if a visor does that.

Logo placement or size doesn't bother me.

Best of luck to you.

Agree with above:

- Good quality tech shirt (find myself wearing them more than cotton nowadays)

- Not white (get grody looking), colors other than black would be good

- Tasteful front design (keep it modest, huge billboards are not appreciated)

- OK with back advertisements, these guys pay for this (I got no problem with free market capitalism and (maybe) help keep registration fees lower)

Prefer good quality tech tees in any color but white.  By good, I mean I like the Brooks brand tees I've received in a couple races but hate two off-brand, cheap tech tees I've received recently.  If not a decent brand, I'd rather the race fee be cheaper and no shirt or increase the fee to cover a nice quality shirt.

I'm ok with cotton t-shirts for short, cheaper races so long as the colors are "normal".  Last year I received one cotton T that I could best describe as pink-orange-red mixed together.  I also received an orange tie-dyed that sucked too.

Since the OP asked IN not on I offer this suggestion:

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I used to love tech fabrics - now, not so much.  After a few years of races, I now have a closet full of shirts for running, but have to go out to the store to pick up something for casual wear around town.

Beyond that, make sure that the design changes year over year, that when possible, the graphics are sublimated (instead of screen printed) - nothing worse than logo sweat, and that (again, if possible) there is distinction between the different events (sprint/oly/half).

SYJ

One that I can actually wear would be awesome, my wife however has a great collection of shirts !! i have not worn L or XL since college !! larger sizes for us CLYDES !!! please !!! Thanks ..