Hitting Home Runs in Custom Breast Cancer Tees

At Custom Ink, we see lots of sports and charity customers come our way. So you can imagine our excitement when those worlds collide. The St. Louis Prospects softball team in St. Louis, Missouri created amazing and totally personal team shirts for their Pitch 4 The Cure breast cancer tournament in October.

The Prospects played in the tournament for the past few years but never had custom jerseys like the other teams. This year Danielle, one of the team moms, decided to do something extra special for the team by getting them custom apparel of their own. “All the other teams have custom jerseys..so the girls were THRILLED [to have their own],” Danielle explained.

Danielle had never made a custom shirt before, so she turned to Custom Ink to help her create t-shirts worthy of the cause they were playing for. She used customink.com’s chat feature and connected with Sera, a service rep, to find the right shirt. She knew she wanted the shirts to stay true to the team’s colors of red, white, and black, so together they decided a black tee would really bring Danielle’s vision to life.

She explained her hopes for the shirt–the girls’ names and numbers on the back, the team name “Prospects” with a breast cancer ribbon as the “o,” and a design including the team motto ”peace, love, prospects” on the front pocket. As an extra special touch, Danielle wanted to put the name of someone each girl wanted to honor on the right sleeve. Sera sent over samples of different tees and design images and the two worked together to get the shirts just right for all 11 team members and two coaches. In less than a half hour, Sera created Danielle’s exact vision in our Lab.

Once the design was finalized, Danielle received a confirmation email with the design, along with a list of the girls’ names, numbers, and names for the sleeves. All she had to do was approve the final design and wait for the shirts.

“I was giddy when they arrived. They were JUST what we had hoped to see,” Danielle wrote on her blog, Pretty Extraordinary.

The girls were so excited to wear their custom tees, and Danielle loved how special it was to honor both the breast cancer tournament and the loved ones on the girls’ sleeves. Finally having their own team jerseys was “amazing” according to Danielle, and the girls were so excited. The Prospects love their shirts so much that they’re using them this season as practice jerseys and plan to wear them again for this year’s tournament.

“I couldn’t be happier with the results. The girls, parents, and coaches loved them and [Custom Ink’s] ‘chat customer service’ was divine with guiding me through the process seamlessly,” says Danielle. “We were able to design EXACTLY what we wanted in less than 30 minutes. It was amazing.”

Need custom tees for your sports team or charity event? Head into the Custom Ink Design Lab to get started, or use their easy and quick customer service chat feature just like Danielle did.

Custom Ink makes it easy to put your team’s custom apparel order together with tools like the Group Order Form. Collect sizes and payment by simply sharing a link—Custom Ink takes care of the rest. Custom Ink’s Group Order Form You can also start a t-shirt fundraiser for your own charity which, through Custom Ink’s Fundraising Platform, is as simple as designing a shirt and choosing a cause. The Fundraising platform makes it easy to focus on garnering support and donations with an easy to use dashboard—you won’t have to worry about collecting money, shipping, or handing out orders.

If you’re inspired by The Prospects and their custom breast cancer charity uniforms, try these tips to customize your own tees and uniforms. Here are five simple steps to get you going:

1. Pick a great cause and a name for your group. Whether you’re playing for breast cancer awareness or supporting your local nonprofit, pick something that’s important to you. Come up with a name that stands out, or use your group name on your shirts.Custom Ink’s reps can help you pick the perfect fonts and designs to make it shine.
2. Align your colors. You can use your group’s colors along with the colors of the cause you’re supporting. Custom Ink reps can help you find ones that complement one another–such as using the Prospects’ black with breast cancer pink for a look that really pops.
3. Envision your design. Upload an image or chat for help. Danielle had her team name and colors set, and Sera was able to help her come up with the perfect design. If you have an idea of what you want but aren’t sure how to execute it, a Custom Ink service rep can work with you in the Design Lab to get it just right.
4. Make it personal. So many of our t-shirts and apparel products can be customized beyond the front and back. Danielle’s use of the sleeves shows how easy it is to give everyone the same shirt on the front, but make it uniquely their’s with the rest of the design.
5. Wear, share, and sell. While charity events are great for raising funds, they’re about awareness, too. Just wearing your tees helps get the word out about your cause, but don’t forget to take some pics and share them on social. If you’re interested in going the extra mile for your cause, you can set up a campaign through Custom Ink’s Fundraising Platform and sell your shirts, too.