Summer will be here before you know it, making now the perfect time to strike while the iron’s hot and present your clients premium cotton tees and tanks for their warm-weather promotions. Keep an eye out for these common summer events that require large-quantity decorated T-shirt orders, and then win the sale by showcasing our favorite cotton styles from Next Level Apparel (asi/73867), along with the ideal decoration method each project and garment is best suited for.

#1 - Charity Runs & Races

As the weather gets nicer, you’ll find tons of charity runs, marathons and walk-a-thons taking place. These event providers typically give participants a complimentary shirt to thank them for signing up, to wear during the event and cherish afterwards. Depending on the size of the event, this can mean huge order sizes with huge profits to boot. Individual teams running or walking together are also a smart customer base to tap into. While they’ll require smaller quantity orders, you never know where that connection can lead to in the future if you impress with branded shirts that show off their team names in style.

• NLA Summer Style: Unisex Cotton Tank (3633)
  
  This versatile muscle tank offers great mobility for active audiences such as marathon and charity walk participants.
• Decoration Suggestion: DTG (direct-to-garment) is a great decoration method for charity race apparel as DTG prints are not only durable but also breathable – both important features for shirts that will be worn during exercise.

#2 - Corporate Team Building Events 

With summer often bringing with it a slow-down in office tasks, this season is a popular time for corporate clients to plan team-bonding celebrations or offsite company events for their staff. Long-sleeve cotton shirts are a popular choice for incentives that employees can wear during the event as well as in often chilly offices later throughout the year. Be sure to present shirts with a wide range of color options so you can effortlessly match business brand colors without needing exact color matching. You can also ask clients if they’d like to purchase different colors for each department to reinforce that sense of pride and community for individual teams. 

• NLA Summer Style: Unisex Cotton Long Sleeve T-Shirt (3601)
  
  Made with 100% combed ring-spun cotton, this long-sleeve tee will keep wearers comfortable during team events or long shifts at the office.
• Decoration Suggestion: DTG (direct-to-garment) offers an affordable way to print full-color graphics on any shirt color, no matter how dark or light. This allows your clients to purchase shirts in their company colors with no limitations, including shades like white or black.

#3 - Trade Shows & Conferences 

Trade shows and promo apparel just go hand in hand. From event staff to booth volunteers to giveaways for attendees, there’s no shortage of needs for branded cotton apparel. However, this also means these events are very saturated with promo T-shirts, creating an opportunity for your clients to stand out by investing in unique styles. We love NLA’s ringer tees for this need. Boasting nostalgic, throwback style that’s all the rage in retail right now, these on-trend tops will stand out from the sea of standard styles and position your clients as having their finger on the pulse of current consumer demand. 

• NLA Summer Style: Unisex Cotton Ringer T-Shirt (3604)
  
  Putting a retro cool spin on the classic cotton tee, this unisex style is sure to be a hit with staff and attendees alike.
• Decoration Suggestion: We recommend screen-printing for trade show giveaways to keep costs down on large-quantity orders. NLA’s cotton ringer offers a stellar printing surface that will ensure screen-printed designs hold up over time.

#4 – Nonprofit/Volunteer Activities

Warm weather creates the perfect conditions for many volunteer and fundraising events, especially for environmental causes or activities taking place outside. Volunteers for events like community cleanups will appreciate a soft and stylish shirt to wear to easily communicate to others that they’re a part of the organization. Street teams can also attract more attention with shirts decorated with their nonprofit’s logo and eye-catching graphics, resulting in greater reach for their important cause.

• NLA Summer Style: Unisex Soft Wash Cotton T-Shirt (3600SW)
  Newly launched for summer, this vintage-look T-shirt is super soft and slightly faded in all the right places. This cotton tee will instantly become a beloved keepsake for end-users long after the volunteer event is over because it’s already preshrunk and broken-in, so it’s familiar right from the start.

• Decoration Suggestion: Discharge printing will maintain the super soft feel of this cotton shirt, as the shirt’s color will be replaced with your desired ink colors, rather than printed on top.

#5 - Sports Game Giveaways

From baseball and softball to soccer to track and field and beyond, there’s plenty of need for sports apparel and gameday giveaways. Branded T-shirts make cost-effective and crowd-pleasing spiritwear that can be tossed into the stands or sold at merch stations. Booster clubs can sell shirts as well to raise funds for team activities. Last but not least, many sports leagues themselves, particularly for young children, can wear cotton shirts as their uniforms during matches or competitions.

• NLA Summer Style: Unisex Cotton T-Shirt (3600)
  
  This tee is an all-time favorite and iconic top-seller.
• Decoration Suggestion: Heat transfer is a savvy choice for shirts showing off individual player names, as different transfer designs can be used without tons of extra setup fees. This differs from methods like screen-printing that can quickly get expensive when custom screens need to be created for each piece.

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