Shirting

Wearing message T-shirts every day is an effortless way of spreading good ideas to everyone who lays eyes on you.

Wearing Shirts

When you wear a message shirt, you will come across people who will remark on it and ask you about the message. This is your opportunity to evangelize! Get enthusiastic and tell them about why you are passionate about the message.

Shirting works best if you carry some materials like idea cards to share with curious people on the spot. If you have an iPhone, MacBook or binder, you can recruit them instantly.

Making Shirts

There are a number of options for producing shirts. Cafe Press is the easiest but they don’t make black shirts. There are much cheaper bulk shirt makers that can produce 500 shirts for as little as $2.50 each.

• Cafepress
• Goodstorm make custom shirts
• Spreadshirts allows large numbers of user-editable designs with customizable words like these Chuck Norris facts
• Zazzle produces dynamically generated, customizable shirts and does black ones.
• Use an idea card for your shirt layout.
• Design your own or share your work.

D.I.Y. Shirts

Do it yourself! stenciling and screenprinting are both easy to get started in, and relatively cheap compared to buying premade shirts.

Stenciling Shirts

Some stenciling tutorials are available at Stencil Revolution. I recommend using screen printing ink or fabric paint to put through the stencil. Apply using a hand-held foam roller, available for around 60 to 70 cents at your local hardware store.

Transferring Shirts

1. Print a high-resolution graphic out with an inkjet printer.
2. Use a light colored 50% cotton shirt for the iron's heat.a
3. Clip out graphic.
4. Set hot iron to dry cotton setting, no steam. Wait 4-5 minutes for iron to heat up. Irons are dangerous for kids, ask mom or dad for help.
5. Iron unwrinkled shirt flat on an ironing board.
6. Place transfer ink side down on the shirt. Applying to buttons or seams is a bad idea.
7. Iron for 60-70 seconds in a small circular pressing motion.
8. make sure paper doesn't move and that you heat the entire transfer before peeling.
9. While still hot, slowly peel back paper from one corner to reveal your shirt.
10. Repeat this process if you want more than one image on the sirt, but don't let the iron overlap the already applied graphics or you'll ruin them.

Making Black Shirts

Black shirts are cooler looking but they're also more expensive to make and CafePress doesn't make black shirts.

If you're going to print onto a black shirt, use a solid white underlay before you put your actual colors on.

Shirting Examples

Empowerment Shirts

Empowerment Shirts are part of the Spread Empowerment campaign.

GetFirefox

“Well, I don’t have any zany photographs or accounts of organized marches replete with dancing bears or juggling monkeys. My approach has always been much more subdued and personal. For starters, I have a GetFirefox.com t-shirt that I often wear to large events such as NBA or NFL games or state fairs. I always get many inquiries and proceed to evangelize Firefox right there on the spot."

ProgressWear: Meaningful Message For Thinking People

Evolve Hybrid Road Trip

"Meallem and Taher are at the Sierra Club, paired to preach the hybrid gospel during a 14-day road trip from Seattle to San Diego... Their sell is embodied in the T-shirts the two Middle Eastern road-trippers are wearing: 'I will evolve.'"

—Jew, Muslim forced into companionship, Joe Garofoli, SF Chronicle