For those of you interested in getting shirts, here is some more information about them and the printing/ordering process...
The company prints them "one-off", individually, so they don't have to be ordered as "a group" and can be in different styles or color, and be specific sizes to your liking. To order, they are setting up a Mountain Miler club-specific webpage, to be available sometime later today or tomorrow for orders. I should have details about that very soon.
The printer only prints on "tech-shirt" type breathable, wicking shirts... which is excellent not only for cooling, but also staying warm when sweating on cool/cold days. The printing is done using "dye-sublimation" process, similar to that in most bike-racing jerseys, where the print is actually fused into the fabric, not laid on top. This is not only more durable, as there is nothing to peel off (they say the logo should outlast the shirt), but the shirt also breathes better, as the fabric where the logo is is still porous and stretchy, rather than covered by plastic ink.
The printer says the dye-sublimation process works best on "lighter colors", less well on medium colors, and not well on dark colors. Their order of printing preference for color (and what they have in stock or readily available), is as follows for each style:
Unisex Long Sleeve 1.) White 2.) Silver Grey Men's Short Sleeve 1.) White 2.) Silver Grey 3.)Sand 4.) Lime Shock 5.) Yellow/Gold 6.) Carolina Blue 7.) Pink 8.) Tropic Blue Men's Sleeveless 1.) White 2.) Silver 3.) Lime Shock Women's Short Sleeve 1.) White 2.) Silver Grey 3.) Lime Shock 4.) Yellow/Gold 5.) Carolina Blue 6.) Pink 7.) Tropic Blue Women's Sleeveless V-Neck 1.) White 2.) Silver 3.) Lime Shock(Lastly, *not* recommended by the printer for anything except straight black text and art are True Red, Kelly Green, Royal Blue and Cardinal. Our logo doesn't appear to play well with those colors... bummer)
Though everyone is welcome to choose whatever color they'd like, I think it would be great if to consolidate around one common color (unless we want Julie and Steve's usual group shots to be even more "technicolor"!!) Silver seems available in all styles, and the logo looks really great on them, and the "Silver" color matches between styles I believe (at least the Tee and the Sleeveless ones I have do match). There is also a "Sand" available in the Tee-shirts, which should look nice even with the Silver. Personally, I'm thinking to get a couple of bright ones (Gold, Lime), but mostly for twilight training runs, not for races.
Now, as for cost, it seems we could probably get something similar (though probably not "dye-sublimated", and possibly not even "tech-shirts"...) in the $18-25/each (plus shipping) range... But that would almost certainly require us to do a "group-buy" where we have to gather all the orders and money before placing a group order. We've talked about doing that for the past couple of years... That process is full of coordination and funding challenges, and has been the major obstacle to getting them in the past. This "one-off" approach means each of us can get just what we want, as we can afford it, and no one has to be the "money-person" in the middle, since each of us order and pay separately. That seems like it's worth a bit of extra cost.
The company has offered us a 10% club discount off their posted web prices... So these shirts, regardless of style, size and color, including shipping, would be about $33 each. It can be a bit less, per shirt, if you order up to 4 and they can be shipped together.
And the best part is they come really quick... I had mine within 7 days of sending them the original artwork. Now that they have the logo-art ready to go, they might be able to send them out a bit quicker for most colors, styles and sizes that they have in stock, (assuming they don't get buried by MM orders... ;-) . The shirts I received seem of high quality and look like they will be as durable, or more, than most of my other tech shirts. The company has even more "heavy-duty" versions and brands of some styles, though they may take a bit longer to get printed and shipped.
So, if you have any questions, email me back here, and I'll see about getting answers.
Yesterday, it sounded like quite a few were looking forward to having shirts available again. I know I am... And just in the wearing of mine for a bit yesterday after the race, I was approached about the club by a couple of people interested in knowing more about MM's. That's the best reason of all to have them...
I'll be sending out information about the ordering page as soon as they have it set up for us.
Best to everyone, Tom Hahn
