On 24 May 2010 00:29, Brian McNeil [Wikinewsie] brian.mcneil@wikinewsie.org wrote:
I've found what seems like a really good T-shirt shop in Edinburgh; and, they do print-to-fabric instead of crappy transfers or expensive, and likely to crack, screen printing. The main reason for me seeking such is to get accredited reporter tees for Wikinewsies; however, depending on the Chapter's mandate to fundraise and permissions with relation to logos, my chat with the owner indicated he'd be delighted to do local-area tees, with Wikipedia/Commons content appropriate to the area (Think T-shirt with WP logo, image of Edinburgh Castle, and intro text from the associated article.)
To be blunt, the CafePress offerings are overpriced, and just not tempting enough for people to buy. I've CC'd Kul as he's likely to have the effective final say on drawing up deals with local businesses like this. But, I'm hoping the idea has appeal to a lot of UK Wikimedians.
Thoughts?
I've - finally - got a couple of days off (well, I'm doing 1830 to 2230 overtime today, Monday), but can have a chat with the guy in the shop this afternoon, or Tuesday. There's potential for something a million times smarter than the "I visited <location>, and all I got was this lousy T-shirt" stuff; with most reasonably-well-made tees costing around £20 to buy, but there being a 100% markup, I think it'd be easy to ask for a £1/tee licensing fee for the logos.
Does WMUK have that authority?
It is an interesting idea. I don't think WMUK has the authority to do it unilaterally (we can sell t-shirts to members at cost price, but once you start to get commercial we need to consult the WMF), so you were right to CC Kul. What do you see as being the benefits of doing this? I think the financial benefits wouldn't be worth the effort (we make hundreds of thousands of pounds a year from donations, I wouldn't expect us to make more than a few thousand pounds a year at £1 a t-shirt). Do we think the PR/marketing side of it would be a significant benefit?