You read that title right, we had the opportunity to print for "THE" Super Bowl, Super Bowl 58 to be exact. During this contract, we had to print 10,000 t-shirts in about seven hours. A crazy process altogether, but worth every minute.
How Did We Land A Super Bowl Contract?
Great question, well, it involved a lot of communication between our own Matthew Richardson and Nathan Skinner, and the person in charge of these types of Super Bowl contracts, which took roughly two to three months to secure. This process involved questions about our machinery and some requests for samples from our shop. which Skinner was able to situate with them.
Overall, it was a very straightforward process, but the process itself wasn't the tricky part. There was no guarantee that we would actually print, even with the confirmed contract. See, when we took this contract, we were going to print for the Kansas City Chiefs, but there was no way of knowing if the Chiefs were going to win or not. That meant if the Chiefs lost, we'd be out of luck and have to send back the shirts. (Spoiler alert, the Chiefs won)
The Hype Before The Storm:
Naturally, we were beyond excited about the opportunity, this wasn't just another project; it was the Super Bowl! So, we did what any proud team does: we spread the word. We reached out to as many local, alma mater, and industry publications as we could. The response was incredible, we ended up in five newspapers, two TV news segments, a podcast, two radio stations, three online publications, and a number of others.
Getting the news out that we were printing for the Super Bowl was a big moment for us. It gave people a chance to see what we were capable of and helped get our name out into the community and industry in a major way. But even with the buzz and media attention, we knew that awareness was only the first step. Now we had to show that we could actually deliver on time, at the highest quality, and at the level of excellence an event like this demands.
The Printing Process:
The Friday before the Super Bowl was all about getting prepped and ready to roll. Before we could print a single shirt, we had to go through some security checks, unbox, inventory, and sort through thousands of garments, and that alone took 2-3 hours even with a team of 12 people. Once everything was accounted for, we went ahead and got the design dialed in on three separate presses to make sure we could hit the ground running come printing time.
Once we had everything set up and ready to go, we were finally ready for the fun part: waiting. Our crew gathered at the shop on game day, glued to the screen, and running on adrenaline. The big question: would the Chiefs win and kick everything into high gear, or lose, meaning we'd all go home?
From One Big Win to the Next:
After the news got out that we were able to print all of the shirts in time (Even with a 1-hour late start cause the game went long, thanks Mahomes), we started to get some attention, and people were starting to realize how good we really are. Over the next couple of weeks, we had a number of people actually stop in the shop to ask about the shirts. The extra publicity was huge for us as we had solidified ourselves as one of the best printing shops around!
TL;DR (although you should read it all, it's pretty cool):
Matthew Richardson and Nathan Skinner were able to secure a contract to print for the Kansas City Chiefs during Super Bowl 58. There was some risk involved, as there was no guarantee the Chiefs would win, so there was a bit of a gamble, but it paid off. We got the shipments and were able to print and ship 10,000 championship shirts in about seven hours. After which, we finally were able to prove that we were, in fact, one of the best printing shops around.
Moral of the story, make those risky moves, and take a chance, cause if it lands, it has the potential to lead to something incredible!
