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We've had lots of great ideas / designs posted and clearly folks have put a lot of time and effort into these designs. It seems that there is a lot of interest in having an official SB tshirt but this thread is going nowhere - so here's a suggestion
Lets put some structure to this issue - lets set a date by which 3(?) finalist designs are selected. The selection of the finalists should probably be done by John (or a moderator). Then once the finalists are selected - an official voting thread is started with a poll where users vote for the design they prefer. We set a deadline and the design with the most votes wins.
Now comes the tough decision - how to handle the pricing, production and distribution of the shirts.
Pricing - I'd suggest that the shirts be done as a fund-raiser for the site so that John could hopefully re-coup some of the costs of running the site. I don't think any of us are looking for a "bargain" - we just want to display to the world (and those in the know) that we're part of a great online community.
Production - The site could make the most margin by buying blank shirts cheap and having a local screener make them up. This would be the most profitable way to go - but it requires somebody to do the dirty work. It also means guessing how many Kids, M, L, XL, XXL we need and how many we'd sell. Then somebody would have to pay for them up front with the hopes of selling out and making monay later.
I don't want to sound like a broken record here - but there is an easier way. The site could set up a shop at cafepress.com and price the shirts at $5.00 over cost. (Before you cynics start belly-aching - I have no ties to this site - I've just used it in the past and find their service to be good and the selection and quality of the items to be great). They handle the printing, credit cards, shipping etc. The site makes $5.00 / shirt and there's no leg work involved. The other nice thing about their service is you can use 4 color process designs (halftones, etc.) - where screening requires spot colors (solid colors - no shading or gradation of color). If people don't like the shirts and don't buy them - no harm, no foul (and no up front costs lost!). If they are a big hit - we could always print them locally later and make more per unit.
Distribution - again if we do the shirts locally, we have to deal with shipping, or delivering the shirts, etc.
-Just a suggestion from a guy who wants a shirt and would love to see this project get off the ground.
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