“I’m not a betting man,” Ron Augelli says. “I don’t bet. I don’t go to the casino. But on this game, what do I have to lose, right?”

This isn’t the story of someone falling victim to the siren song of sports gambling. It’s how the owner of one branded merchandise printing company saw the opportunity for a business windfall thanks to a bit of magic on the part of the Philadelphia Eagles.

Augelli owns Talk Shirty To Me, based in Dickson City, PA – a couple hours north of Philadelphia. Thanks to an impressive track record of producing championship merchandise for teams across the country, Augelli and co. were offered an opportunity to print for Super Bowl LIX merchandise.

Only there was a choice to make: Accept smaller purchase orders that would allow Talk Shirty To Me to print wearable merch for either the Kansas City Chiefs or Philadelphia Eagles regardless of who won. Or, take a risk and get a bigger purchase order to print just for the Eagles – but only in the event they actually prevail. Augelli decided to roll the dice. From his vantage point in the Keystone State, surrounded by plenty of Eagles fans and doing the simple math that it would end well for his business, he took the Eagles PO.

Boy, did it ever pay off.

The Eagles crushed the Chiefs 40-22 in the big game on Feb. 9. And in a mad-dash printing fest that started pretty much as soon as the final whistle blew and continued into Monday’s wee hours, Augelli and his crew dashed off approximately 17,000 Eagles-branded apparel pieces destined for retailers selling the T-shirts, long-sleeve tees, hoodies and women’s shirts to deliriously happy Birds fans.

“A few years ago for the Super Bowl, we were awarded the same contract for the same vendor, and the Eagles lost, so our purchase order got cut in half and we printed a lower amount of numbers for the opposing team, and you have a bad taste in your mouth,” Augelli says. “I’d rather have one monster purchase order than half of a purchase order. My staff’s here. Let’s go for it all. And that’s what we did.”

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Game Plan

Augelli’s been in business for a while, first printing in his basement before going full time. He’s built his company into a printing powerhouse, expanding the size of his staff and workload in the last couple years. And as mentioned, Talk Shirty To Me is no stranger to printing for big-time sporting events.

Even with his background, mass producing thousands of apparel pieces at the drop of a hat (or confetti) is no easy feat. Augelli and his company started planning well in advance.

“You’re starting to build your roster of what employees are key and make this go round and really work in case the big order does come,” he says. “Then, all of a sudden, there’s a championship game, they win, and the next thing you know it’s Super Bowl week and you’re like, ‘Oh man, here we go. We’re back in the dance.’ It gets real when the truck starts showing up and there are pallets and pallets of T-shirts getting unloaded.”

Go Time

By the time those blanks arrived, Augelli and his team were placing calls to make sure they had the right inks and drawing up the particulars of the plan for printing, curing, packing and shipping.

“Shipping and receiving is usually the heaviest part,” Augelli says. “For printing, you have your lead printers and your assistants, you have some floaters, and then the finishing department because you have to make it official with the holograms.”

Packing is critical – making sure everything is packaged and shipped correctly, which requires calmness and attention to detail in the heat of the moment. Augelli’s almost two decades of experience, along with his crew’s organization and inherent coolness and expertise, had Talk Shirty To Me ready for action.

“It was really cool to see it all come together because you have such a big plan,” he said.

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Clock Management

The Talk Shirty team actually finished ahead of schedule, meaning on Monday they could fulfill some straggler orders after trucks left Sunday night with the initial waves of merch.

“There’s something that happens when you start printing in that quantity and timeframe,” Augelli says. “It just flies by. And you’re hitting numbers, and you’ve got to motivate correctly. You’ve got to make sure everybody’s hydrated, bring them food. Got to ensure everyone is taking breaks and staggering the presses. Have backups to backups.”

It’s not totally unlike the game plan of a team in the Super Bowl – you need to plan for every scenario and variable.

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More than 17,000 pieces later, the dust has now mostly settled for Talk Shirty To Me – another big order down and more experience under the belt of Augelli and his team.

Scouting Departments

So, how does a small print shop in a midsized city between major media markets get this job?

Augelli says it comes down to “reaching for the stars,” persistence, networking and proving yourself capable of handling the task. In this case, it was what Augelli calls a “unicorn” situation – the vendor who awarded the PO reached out to Talk Shirty, not the other way around. The company’s reputation had preceded it, and the offer presented itself.

“Sometimes just by getting some industry exposure and getting your name out there, they start finding you, and that’s great,” Augelli says. “It’s a nice, nice feeling.”

It’s also great when you know your staff is celebrating a win for their “hometown” team. It certainly boosts morale during a hectic work schedule.

“This year,” Augelli says, “there was a different vibe.”