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A tribute to Rickey Henderson, printed in Phoenix for the A's spring training
Situation
After Rickey Henderson passed, the Athletics wanted their players, coaches and front office to wear something that honored him as spring training opened. The design was a large, full-color photo of Rickey smiling in an A's cap, printed on a black tee.
They needed men's sizes S–3XL and women's sizes S–XXL, split across three locations: two in Mesa, Arizona, and one in Oakland, California.
Challenge
The shirt had to do two things. It had to look right, because the photo was the whole point. It also had to hold up, because players would be running and taking batting practice in it. The client asked for something softer and more premium than a standard tee.
Time was the other issue. The team wanted the shirts for the first day of full-squad workouts, February 17. Final art approval and payment landed on February 13, just four days before that date. By then our blank supplier's California warehouse didn't have enough black XLs for the order, so part of it had to ship from the East Coast.
What we did
Picked a blank built for movement. We recommended the AS Colour Staple Active Blend Tee (men's) and Wo's Maple Active Blend Tee (women's) in black. They're 60% recycled polyester and 40% cotton, soft, and light enough to train in. We shipped samples of both so the client could approve the feel before production.
Built the print around the photo. The image was separated into a seven-color plastisol screen print across a 9.75" × 16.4" center-chest area, so the full-color portrait printed cleanly on a black shirt.
Sourced blanks from two coasts. We ordered the morning the proof was approved. We pulled most of the order from the California warehouse and the remaining XLs from North Carolina, and had everything in our shop by February 17.
Printed, packed and shipped in-house. Every shirt was printed and packed at our shop in Midtown Phoenix and split by size across the three delivery locations. The client let us send the two Arizona locations first and Oakland after.
Turned the reorder around fast. The team wore the shirts, and the next day the A's ordered 24 more. We printed them in the same design on the same shirt and shipped them to Mesa.
Results
- 437 tribute tees in the first order
- 7 ink colors in the print
- 3 delivery locations in two states
- 24 more shirts reordered the day after the team wore them
Approval and payment landed four days before the target date. We ordered blanks that morning, printed in-house, and the team wore the shirts at spring training within a week of the blanks arriving in our shop.
Our team wore the shirts yesterday and they were a huge hit.
Why it matters
When a date can't move, you need the people quoting the job to be the people running it. Superluxe Merch is factory-direct. On this job we chose the blank, prepped the print and ran it in-house in Phoenix, so there was no middleman's queue between approval and the press. That's how we scale brands, whether it's a one-time tribute or an order that keeps growing.