Poll: Best style of race t-shirt

I'm fine with either cotton tshirt or tech shirt if the quality is good and the design is attractive.

What I don't like are bad quality shirts (scratchy cotton or heavy, stinky, or oily tech shirts) or shirts with weird, ugly or amateurish graphics. If that's all that you can provide without the entry price being too high, I would rather not have the shirt because I would just put it in the bag for the Salvation Army anyway.

From a marketing standpoint, giving everyone a nice medal instead of a tshirt would probably attract more runners, although probably not more serious runners or runners who read LRC.

"...although probably not more serious runners or runners who read LRC."

LOL!! I am glad you separated those two groups.

...the end of my post was cut..

Cotton shirts are affordable but tend to be sized too large, wear too stiff for training runs, or have sleeves cut to the elbow. The end result being they're worthless after race day. Tech shirts are generally liked but they have similar issues and can be a budget breaker for our small races. A few of you knowledgeable LRs must know of a go-to style or brand that we can consider.

Thanks in advance for the help.

A local 5- and 10-mile trail race near me has just separated the t-shirts from the entrance fee, which I think is brilliant (reminds me of high school invitationals: school paid for me to race, I paid for the shirt).

It's now only $10 to register months in advance, $15 to register up until tomorrow, and $20 on race day (Saturday). Can't remember prices like that since the late 1990s.

But you have to purchase the shirt separately, which is great, because I wouldn't want it (how many unnecessary shirts do we all amass that we don't really need, cotton, high-tech, or other?). Not sure if this is their plan, but if you don't put the year on the shirt you can keep reusing it until you need to order up a new batch. Helps avoid useless shirts when you order 50 in every size from XS to XL only to have no more than 150 runners and loads of extra shirts in all sizes with the date you can't use anymore.

My $.02 on it wrote:

What I don't like are bad quality shirts (scratchy cotton or heavy, stinky, or oily tech shirts) or shirts with weird, ugly or amateurish graphics.

Are you kidding? I have a race shirt that's so ugly, it's classic. It is scratchy cotton in an off-white shade that looks vaguely like diluted urine. The race theme was nutrition, and on the front is a picture of a cartoon carrot, tomato, and beet all with huge ears and noses and skinny stick legs and arms. They are grinning like morons while running across a finish line. The colors are neon bright. The shirt is the most horrible shirt I've ever seen. It's great!

There's not a single cotton shirt I've gotten at a race in the last 2 years I found worth keeping and give them to charities. But I'm wearing one right now I got at a store which is extremely comfortable. It's called Sonoma Life + Style.

If I get a tech t-shirt at a race, I keep it.

I know race supporters like recognition but I'm more likely to wear a shirt if it isn't plastered with 20 company names on the back.

I have a sugoi tech shirt I got in a race and i love it. It's high quality, something I'd buy at a running store. It's light, slightly fitted, great for running.

Those super cheap "tech" shirts are terrible. Scratchy, stiff, too thick to actually wear running.. I'd rather have nothing.

Honestly if you can find some way to do it dont give a tshirt. Give a coffee mug, a knit stocking cap, a pair of boxers, athletic bag, any thing but another crappy shirt, running gloves (if the race is in Fall or Winter).

If you arent going to do a cotton shirt that is wearable or presentable, dont do one at all.

Cotton shirts are superior. You want something that people can wear any day. You can only really wear tech shirts while running, and even then I think most people would prefer cotton because you can wear it pretty much any time of the year (but I live in New England).

Cotton is also way cheaper. You don't need to get some low quality stuff but even if you do I still don't think people would care as long as the shirt looks cool. If this is the inaugural race, I would start out with one base color for the shirt and change the color every year while keeping the logo/etc the the same.

My $0.03, AnonymousPseudonym, et al, thanks for the specific recommendations, and thanks for the general idea that no-shirts are better than bad shirts. We like the idea of a logo'd pint glass, maybe logo'd race socks, or a decent water bottle. We're going to look into both the Sonoma Lifestyle and Sugoi brand shirts.

Anyone else with recommendations please keep them coming. Maybe together we can push crappy race shirts back out into the wasteland that they came from.

I can't stress enough that the shirt be attractive enough to wear out in public.

ideas that aren't shorts:

reflective vests (not day-glow orange, but safe for night running)

hats

bags

gloves

beanie (hat)

nothing

I got a logo pint glass at the Utica Boilermaker in 2002. It is still my favorite glass.

I've gotten bath towells with the race name on them - kind of neat but was unreadable after a few washes.

Coasters? Ball cap, henna tattoo (kidding)?

reed wrote:

ideas that aren't shorts:

reflective vests (not day-glow orange, but safe for night running)

hats

bags

gloves

beanie (hat)

nothing

This:

light_em_up wrote:

I can't stress enough that the shirt be attractive enough to wear out in public.

+1

I generally prefer tech shirts over t shirts but I've got some pretty ugly tech shirts over the years and they're only good for cutting the lawn.

Most runners have accumulated masses of t shirts from races over the years and probably have too many as it is. So it is imperative that the shirt is attractive and sets itself apart from the others.