WordCamp New York City 2009

Today in the mail I got the printed proofs of the WordCamp NYC shirts. They are, in a word, awesome.

WordCamp NYC shirt (women's M)

Sorry for the slightly-blurry image; iPhone self-portraits are *really* awkward with that button placement. Anyway, the shirts! They are black, long-sleeved cotton shirts printed with the logo in white, yellow, orange, blue and black. There is nothing on the back. There’s nothing worse than getting a cool conference t-shirt and then realizing the back is plastered with sponsor logos, right? This is a shirt you can wear happily until you wear it out. Men will be getting American Apparel, while women will be getting Bella brand shirts (not USA-made, but sweatshop-free according to their web site).

The men’s shirts are actually unisex, and are USA-made and sweatshop-free. Sizes available are S, M, L, XL, and XXL. A word on sizing: these do not seem to run small. I had my brother try on the men’s Large. He 6′, 210 lbs., and usually wears an XL in t-shirts, with a 16.5″ neck and a 32″ sleeve in regular shirts (and more than a little extra around the middle, truth be told). I just wanted to see where the printing would fall height-wise on the chest, but I was pretty shocked to see that the Large fit him really well.  You can see in the image below that it’s not tight around the shoulder at all. So, if you tend to get XL or XXL just to be safe, you might want to think twice or you could be swimming in cotton.

WordCamp NYC shirt, Men's L

The women’s shirts have a little more cling to them and are of a slightly smaller-knit jersey. I’m wearing the sample right now and it’s great (pictured at top of post). Nice and soft, with a loose neck and sleeves that come down just a bit past the wrists: the perfect long-sleeved t-shirt. The women’s shirts are available in S, M, L and XL, and the women’s shirt also surprised me. I was thinking it was roomy for a Large, which I usually wear, but this shirt is a Medium! So unusual… American Apparel women’s L shirts are always a little small on me, so this was an awesome change of pace. The women’s shirts are not available in XXL: if you are a woman and normally require an XXL, you should order either a women’s XL or one of the American Apparel unisex sizes, but probably NOT a men’s XXL. The men’s Large  or XLarge would likely do it.

So! Awesome shirts! A lot of effort when into these, so I want to thank the people whose efforts led to this outcome. Jason Alvich, Krista Gonzalez, Andrew dela Serna, and Dan Simmonds submitted subway-themed entries to our logo contest a while back. Volunteer designer Christine Labate took on the job of synthesizing the elements of the four logo entries into one cohesive graphic that we could use to brand the event. Volunteer designer Matt Thomas did additional graphic cleanup and pre-press preparation. And last but not least, our fantastic printer, Lo-fi Mike, helped us with decisions around shirt stock, logo size and other shwag-related things, and whipped up the samples in record time to make sure we were happy with them before beginning the first print run. This is my second time working with Mike on shirts, and he’s been amazing both times.

The kicker: our last shirt order is being placed on November fourth to ensure we receive it by the event. If you do not register before November 4th, we CANNOT guarantee having a shirt for you. So, please, go register right now! This will also help us with ordering the right amount of food. Late registrations will not receive shirts unless we have extras, so let’s consider November 3rd to be the registration deadline if you want to be an awesome attendee and get this awesome shirt. Thanks!