Whether or not you're coming to the Carlisle event ...
I don't pipe up here very often, but I'll follow this thread to make sure I don't miss anybody's questions or order status. For those of you whom I haven't met yet, this is the "official" tee-shirt thread for the Carlisle 2013 Speedsters meet Spyders event coming up in May.
It contains the method to my madness this year for ordering shirts -- and is pretty specific in what I need folks to do -- but I promise I'm not a butthead, and I promise this year's shirts are as good as they ever were.
If you would like to order a tee-shirt, please pay attention to this thread. I will attempt to describe the offering this year, along with how-to, when-to, where-to and delivery-of those shirts. There will not be any method of obtaining a shirt except for this one. Not that that's a huge deal, since they're just shirts.
But ...
In 2011, we went with a blue shirt which had a white outline-style back and a white-lettered front "pocket" with the event name on it. It was simple, one-color, took a minimum of time and materials to produce and was done before the show.
We're doing something similar this year. It's a tan shirt, with a black outline and two colors on it; a Speedster, a Spyder, a coupe and a cabriolet in blue and red. The company which is doing it is in Boston; same company we used before, same Gildan shirts but in a lighter color -- and the same range of sizes. There will not be any produced which deviate from the proscribed colors, and I've made my selections based on imputs from a few SOCers already -- who represented the rest of you (us) very well along the way.
Special thanks to Rich Drewek, who took a sketch and ran with it. Thanks also to those West Coast artistic types who helped with tweaking the sketches before they got to Rich, and special thanks to Gordon for going and looking at them at the printer's shop. We've been at this since early December, trying to achieve a retro-looking design that incorporated everyone's Speedster- or Spyder-derived replicas (sorry, TD guys) and yet was easily enough produced that they'd still be inexpensive and not a wear-once product.
So ... Here's this year's shirt:
The front is still in progress, but Dawn (the lady at the shop doing the work) says she'll have the proof up for me tomorrow. It's very similar to the 2011 design, but has been updated to 2013.
Here's the cost for the shirts:
A shirt, long- or short-sleeved, in a small, meduim, large, 1XL, 2XL or ladies' equivalent (including the cap-sleeved style) will cost you $15.00.
A shirt, long- or short-sleeved, in a 3X will cost you $18.00. There will probably be a second set of screens required to make the art proportionate to the size of the 3XL shirts (so they don't look like postage stamps on larger people), and I'm doing this as a lesson learned from 2011. You'll thank me, I promise.
So that's it: Any shirt you want up to 2XL, $15. If you want a 3XL, it's $18.00.
Here's the "Can I have it mailed to me?" procedure:
Mail-out is possible. I'm sure, if the 2011 shirts were any indication, that about half of the shirts y'all order will be mailed -- and if we do this in as orderly a fashion as we did a couple years back, I'll be able to manage it easily enough. So yes, I'll do mail-outs.
I got screwed a little bit in 2011 by saying I'd ship 'em for five bucks a shirt. This year, I'll do one shirt for five bucks, but subsequent shirts will be an additional $2.50 each. Those Postal People are very happy to take my money for the "if-it-fits, it-ships" packages, and they all went out Priority last time. I'll do that again, but this year, I'm passing the "savings" on to you.
How and where to send your bread:
The only way I will order you a shirt is if you send me a check. Period. No money-orders, cash, banker's draft or anything else creative. Seriously; a check I can deposit into an American bank and get American money for.
On the "Memo" line, mention the sleeve length (L/S or S/S) and tell me how many of what sizes you want, and if they need to be shipped. For example, "L/S Shirts: One 1XL and Two 3XL, shipped." If there's not enough room for all that in the memo line, just write me a note.
The amount of money to write the check for is easily calculated if you take that step. That's one shirt at $15.00, two shirts at $18.00, and $5.00 plus $2.50 plus $2.50. Ergo, the check should be written for $61.00.
Make your check payable to me by my given name, James Drake. They'll cash one made to Cory, but I hate the headache that can cause if the teller's a rookie. My mailing address is below. Please make sure YOUR mailing address is either the one printed on the check, or very clearly printed on the envelope -- so I'll get it back to the right place. If you have a special shipping address, like Fiji, for example ... just include that in the note. We'll take care of you.
If you're ordering a shirt and you've mailed me your check, please annotate here what you want as a failsafe for me if I can't read your writing. Whatever would've been in the "Memo" would be great.
Window of opportunity:
I will accept anybody's order that comes to me in the month of April. If May 1st rolls around and you haven't ordered a shirt, you're out of luck. I will not put this lady through what I put her through a couple years ago with trying to get more done in a hurry right before the show.
Deadline for ordering shirts is April 30.
Address correspondence to:
James Drake
372 Hall Rd.
Crownsville, MD
21032
Thanks for reading the whole thing. 
