most... awesome... t-shirt... ever....?

so... it has been a long journey getting the t-shirts done for the relay. but, they're done. or... as done as they are going to get. this is what they projected the shirt to look like:

i ordered them online, from cafepress.com through their "create your own" shop. they make it incredibly easy to upload a design and then have it printed on whatever you want. however, actually getting the colors right from your image file seems to throw them for a loop.

the reason i'm posting this is not to complain about them; it's simply to put my experience out there in case you'd like to go through cafepress for a project of your own. after all was said and done, i would consider using them again... but i'd also put more effort into looking at local screen printers.

so... i started 5 weeks ago. i ordered a test shirt. it came back to me printed blue instead of purple. i called and cafepress was very helpful and ordered a free replacement and upgraded the shipping. it came back blue. i called, they tried again. blue. i called, re-formatted the image coloring on their suggestion, accidentally uploaded the old image (i figured that out later) and the 4th shirt, using the exact same image file as the 3 prior, came out perfectly purple! what?!

i say, great! we have a winner. i call them, put in the bulk order using the existing image, they upgrade my shipping for free, expedite the order, and i get it in a few days! amazing! i open the box, 3 items are purple. 30 are blue. what?! they were printed from the same image file.

i call them 3 different times that day (cuz i was not satisfied with the solutions presented to me and i know i'll speak to someone different every time), and i finally get to speak with a supervisor. he is already familiar with my plight. he lets me keep the blue shirts. (shipping 17 pounds of shirts back would have been money wasted on either side.) then has me upload the reformatted image and puts in a replacement order. (this is where i figured out the reformatted image had never been stored on their system.)

i had a bad feeling, but i wasn't about to call again. the new batch came today, printed with the reformatted image. they are pinkish-purple. but, that is how the reformatted image appears when i printed it on my color printer. the original image... it prints out purple just fine for me.

so i call the supervisor today to thank him for his help getting replacements so quickly. and i tell him, the new ones are pink, but i understand why, so i'm not requesting replacements.

i did, however, also talk to him about the fact that some shirts were blue and some were purple even when they were all printed from the same file. he had no answer about that little anomaly.

anyway, all in all, cafepress customer service (in toronto) tried their best to help me get this issue resolved with the printers (in kentucky), and although i'm not convinced that this issue couldn't have been resolved a lot sooner and simpler with a little better understanding (on their end) of their printing process, i still think they are a good company to work with.

so girls on the team will get pink, boys will get blue and kiddies will get purple. no biggie.

and at this point, i'm not even all that bothered by the shirt color (which is odd for someone as detail-obsessed as myself), because it's the cause that really counts here, not t-shirts. we have raised over $4000 for the american cancer society and we're not done yet!!! so awesome!

i can't say thank you enough to all of our team members and supporters!!! you are amazing!!! see you on june 9th!!!