Hello from Your 2020 Team Shirt
Hello! I am your 2020 team shirt and I would like to take this opportunity to tell you about myself!
Kalia Guheen used fancy software and her bright imagination to bring me to life. It was tough going because Kalia has a full-time job that requires a lot of overtime, plus she has to keep her 2nd grade daughter stay on task with online classes and homework. Kalia spent one evening until 3:00 AM working on my design. After which, I went through seven more renditions with graphic design suggestions, little color tweaks, and some adjustments here and there before my final design was completed.
In the meantime, Cheryl had to find sponsors to pay for me. Because of the economic downturn due to the coronavirus pandemic, finding sponsors was not easy. I was worried I would not make it to production. There were a lot of highs and lows filled with hope, sponsorship setbacks, grant application rejections, and even a little begging! It came down to the wire. Out of eight formal solicitations, Biogen and Thuasne USA answered the call and collectively sponsored 225 shirts!
Not only did sponsorships take forever to secure because of the pandemic, but the shirt vendor Headsweats had to temporarily close their production facility in El Salvador. Thus, they were behind schedule and required seven weeks of production time (oops- make that nine weeks) rather than the usual four weeks. This caused Cheryl to rush to recruit teammates and collect shirt sizes to give Headsweats ample time for shirt assembly and delivery.
The order was placed with Headsweats on September 1st. There was a lot of rigamarole that morning because Biogen’s sponsorship dollars were funneled through the National MS Society. Cheryl had to coordinate payment with MS Society, Thuasne and the Sales Manager at Headsweats. There were many emails, texts and phone calls with Cheryl as the go-between. It got done leaving Cheryl quite brain dead for the rest of the day, but I was so excited to go to production!
Cheryl forwarded Kalia’s vector file to Headsweats. The designer at Headsweats set up my graphics on their software and converted the HEX color codes from Kalia to the closest possible pantone colors. The graphics and colors were not quite exact and Cheryl requested several changes. The designer was very responsive and made all of the updates quickly.
Once the mock-up was finalized and approved, it was sent to the production facility in El Salvador where they began the all-over sublimation printing process.
Why did Cheryl choose fancy sublimation printing over traditional screen printing? Sublimation printing produces high quality digital decoration with vibrant colors. It’s really cool! Also, being a long-distance runner for 20 years, Cheryl appreciates shirts that do not have paint that can cause heat and sweat to be trapped or cause chaffing.
I went through a complex and tedious production process in El Salvador. I started as a large swath of white 100% polyester fabric.
A special Digital Sublimation Printer was used to print my design onto a huge piece of transfer paper. The garment worker carefully laid the transfer paper on top of my fabric to ensure the artwork was perfectly straight and no wrinkles or lint were on my fabric that could interfere with the dye. The ensemble was fed into a Heat Transfer Machine where a heavy plate was laid on top of me for 60 seconds at 385 degrees Fahrenheit at 35 psi. During this time the ink turned to gas and fused into my polyester fibers.
If the pressure is too light or if the transfer paper moves, then there is an effect called ghosting where the dye affects other parts of the shirt. If the temperature is too high, then the image will be blurry. Just like a science experiment, time, temperature and pressure have to be perfect to achieve sublimation success!
In total, this process was done 225 times for the front side of the shirts and another 225 times for the back sides. Furthermore, the artwork’s dimensions had to be adjusted 10 times to accommodate the different shirt sizes Cheryl ordered.
Once my fabric was cured, I was ready for laser cutting. Ouch! A sweet lady named Rosa sewed each of us individually. She was meticulous to ensure all seams were eat to prevent cha\ng on those long runs. Also, of note, my entire back is lightweight mesh for maximum air ventilation.
Once all of us were assembled, we were individually packaged and flown to the Headsweats warehouse in Miami on October 19th. The original estimate was to arrive Miami on October 19th but there was another week of delays due to coronavirus. We further had a clearance delay at the US Customs because of paperwork error. We spent several days waiting while Headsweats worked out the issue. It really sucked to be delayed but at least there was air-conditioning and Ricardo the Customs Agent was nice. FedEx picked us up and delivered us to the warehouse on October 23rd.
The workers at the warehouse prioritized and shipped Cheryl’s a big box of 45 shirts above all other individual orders because she had to further mail to international teammates. We left Miami on October 27th and arrived PaciHc Grove the night of October 29th. I have to say, we were hanging on for dear life on that trip! A worker did not put enough tape on the box and the bottom split open! Fortunately, the good postal delivery people handled the box with care and none of us fell out.
Brian and Cheryl took inventory and quickly realized Headsweats miscounted. Cheryl’s order was missing a women’s medium but had an extra men’s medium. To top it all off, Cheryl’s XS shirt was eawed. Remember I said above that the white polyester fabric has to be laid carefully on the Heat Transfer Machine? Well, the fabric for Cheryl’s shirt had a wrinkle and this caused white splotches on her shirt. Brian opened his shirt and there were no flaws. However, please let Cheryl know ASAP if you have problems and she will request a replacement.
The next morning on October 30th, Brian and Cheryl worked to mail 21 packages destined for the US and 11 packages destined for the continents of Asia, Australasia, Africa, Europe and South America.
The US mailings were handled expediently and should arrive by November 4th. But the international shipments were very time consuming. A week prior, Cheryl tried to be proactive by collecting international envelopes at the Post Offce. A Postal Agent advised her on the appropriate envelopes to use. She pre-paid the postage and completed the international customs forms online. However, when she brought the packages to the Post Offce, a different Postal Agent told her she used the wrong envelops! What?!?! Brian and Cheryl spent the next hour tearing open the old envelopes and repackaging us in new envelopes. Cheryl was not confident at all and is now worried we will not make it intact to our international teammates.
As for the rest of the teammates who ordered their shirts before the September 1st deadline, your shirts were mailed directly to you from the Miami warehouse. Let Cheryl know if you do not receive yours by November 3rd.
I hope you enjoyed reading about my little adventure. I myself have a massive headache and need Alka-Seltzer, but trying to put things into perspective. Best of luck in your virtual events! Don’t forget to take pictures and make videos! Go RAMMS 2020!