Pizza Today - February 2021 - 14

MAN ON THE STREET

SCOTT WIENER

Looking for ancillary income?
Design a sweet T!

made a huge mistake on January 1,
2019. That was the day I decided to
reorganize my entire pizza t-shirt
collection. I pulled out every single one of
them and organized the whole lot by color,
then posted a picture to Instagram. The next
day, I had dozens of messages from pizzerias wanting to send shirts to add to my
" collection. " Until recently, only the touristy
pizzerias in New York offered t-shirts, yet
clearly they're a popular item at pizzerias
everywhere else. At a time when small businesses are looking for alternative means of
making ends meet, I truly think t-shirts are
an incredible way to boost sales and amplify
your brand without breaking the bank.
Original design t-shirt sales in the U.S.
alone is a $516 million dollar industry

(SOURCE: Ibisworld). Customers love
shirts that express novelty, humor and
support for important causes. That could
mean anything from political statements
to obscure jokes from a podcast.
Your customers want t-shirts. Families
haven't been able to make their
annual pilgrimage to eat your pizza. They'd
certainly fill the emotional blank with a
t-shirt. College students miss their favorite
campus pizzerias and would love to wear
their support.
The old school way of selling shirts is to
contract a printer, invest in a large order,
warehouse the product and fulfill orders.
Today it's much easier to offer t-shirts
thanks to Print On Demand technol-

ogy. This is the business model of a bunch
of Websites with the word " Print " in the
name. You just upload a design, choose the
t-shirt you want it printed on, price it, then
sell through a link on your website and
social media. Your POD partner handles
the transaction, printing and shipment. You
don't have to do anything.
Most POD services are free to use since
the company makes their money only
when your product sells. Shirts are printed
only when products are sold, so they use
a Direct to Garment print method that
doesn't look as nice as screen printed shirts.
One major benefit is that these companies
usually offer more than just t-shirts, so you
can put your logo on hats, cell phone cases,
umbrellas, etc. for no additional cost.
The POD companies I just mentioned
offer direct sales, which means you provide
the sole portal for customers to discover
your products. If you plan to offer shirts
to a wider audience, perhaps with artwork
that isn't specific to your pizzeria, you can
use a marketplace option like Tee Public
or Tee Fury. Those sites are popular for
esoteric novelty shirts, but they're also used
by podcasts to offer merch to their fans.
There is an option for a custom t-shirt
that offers the ease of POD with the quality of screen printing. Sites like Custom
Ink offer Group Printing, which means
you pre-sell a product for a limited time,
then they print and ship only what sells.
The more you sell, the less you pay per
piece. Shirts and prints are of the highest
screen print quality but you don't have to
warehouse and fulfill. It's the best of both
worlds!
Shirts are a great way to offer your
customers a way to support your business
while wearing a piece of hometown pride.
If you've been holding out because of the
time, space and expense you can rest easy
knowing that technology has caught up
with your dreams. Now make some cool
shirts so I can wear them! ■

SCOTT WIENER is the founder of Scott's Pizza Tours in New York City and SliceOutHunger.org Instagram: @scottspizzatours

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http://www.SliceOutHunger.org http://www.PIZZATODAY.COM

Pizza Today - February 2021

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