Custom Ink News & Events

A Tie-Dye Picnic With Custom Gear


No one anticipated how popular the tie-dye activity would be at the Engineering Solutions, Inc., annual picnic.

We were looking for something fun to give out as a takeaway item that both adults and children would like,” explains ESi’s Samantha Schwartz. “We were pleasantly surprised to see how many grown-ups participated in an activity that we thought would be primarily for the children attendees!” 

Photo courtesy Samantha Schwartz/Engineering Solutions

The picnic has always been one of the small business’s largest and most popular events, with almost all of the employees and their families in attendance. ESi—which provides information technology and engineering solutions to the intelligence community—prides itself on having strong corporate values, and has been named a top workplace in the Baltimore Metro area by The Baltimore Sun four years in a row. 

Bringing the company together was bound to be a great time, but the tie-dye event really took things up a notch. Besides being a great way for everyone to flex their creative muscles, it offered the families an opportunity to engage in a hands-on activity for all ages while enjoying the outdoors. Work/life balance is an important priority for ESi, after all, so inviting family participation was key. Samantha tells us, “Tie-dyeing covered all of our bases! It is a family friendly activity and allows everyone to customize the shirt to their liking.”

Two women smiling at one of the tie-dye stations at the ESi picnic

Photo courtesy Samantha Schwartz/Engineering Solutions

The shirt in question? The Bella + Canvas Jersey T-shirt, a super-soft classic available in both youth and adult sizes. The ESi logo in bold black remained prominent even when the team was ready to express their creativity by dipping and dyeing. “Tie-dying our items served as a great ice breaker,” Samantha tells us. “It was so fun to see our employees try different techniques and color combinations and get ideas from one another.”

Tie-dye is a great way to add a splash of fun and color to your look, but if you’d rather not make your own, we have a great selection of tie-dyed shirts ready to customize with your design or logo!

A man and two children stand at the tie-dye table

Photo courtesy Samantha Schwartz/Engineering Solutions

Branded gear isn’t just important to ESi for team-building and employee recognition. Promoting the brand and ramping up name recognition both play an important part in the utilization of apparel featuring the ESi logo: “As a small business, it’s important to use every avenue to get our name out there,” says Samantha. “A majority of our employees work off-site and work closely with other companies. By providing our employees with branded gear, it gives them the opportunity to talk about ESi, and what better way to market than to hear about our company culture straight from our employees? They are proud to carry our company apparel and display who they work for, just as ESi is happy to have our company openly represented by our awesome employees.”

A line of adults and children adding dye to receptacles, preparing shirts to be dyed

Photo courtesy Samantha Schwartz/Engineering Solutions

ESi has returned to Custom Ink over the years for a variety of branded items. “We have purchased from many different custom websites over the years,” Samantha tells us, “but Custom Ink is the one we always go back to. The pricing is straightforward, the website is incredibly user friendly, the customer service is top notch and delivery estimates have always been reliable.” 

We’re thrilled to have been able to serve Samantha and the Engineering Solutions, Inc. team! And as for what the employees think of our products, Samantha had this to say: “Our employees always love it. New styles, colors, and comfortable vendors keep everyone happy.”

You can find Engineering Solutions, Inc. on social media @enginsol7030, or visit their website.


Tess Lynch is a copywriter at Custom Ink.

    Start Designing
    View Comments
    There are currently no comments.

    Leave a Comment