Overnight distribution: More than 30,000 Super Bowl T-shirts to be released for sale

The upcoming Super Bowl XLV is not just a major event for football fans, but also for the advertising specialties industry. According to the Advertising Specialty Institute's (ASI) annual State of the Industry research report, wearables such as shirts, jackets, and other apparel are among the top six product categories by sales volume.

One of the most popular items in the lead-up to Super Bowl XLV has been T-shirts. ASI research shows that the T-shirt is the top-selling apparel item for the last four years among Super Bowl fans. Companies continue to order these T-shirts throughout the football season as employee gifts and giveaways to clients.

Precision Screen Printing, based in Pittsburgh, PA, plans to produce 25,000 to 35,000 T-shirts for the Super Bowl, while another company, All Pro Embroidery, produced about 40,000 T-shirts leading up to the game and expects to print 20,000 more if their team wins.

Dallas, TX-based Purple Giraffe is also joining the fray, producing packaged T-shirts in the shapes of footballs, postcards, and DVD cases, as well as putting Super Bowl T-shirts into Pepsi bottles.

Other promotional products companies are also cashing in on the Super Bowl fever. Fossil is providing watches for Super Bowl XLV, while Spirit Industries is offering the big No. 1 foam finger and oversized, logoed cowboy hats. America Zebra Line is offering a cooler shaped like a helmet, and LarLu Display-Tec is providing a helmet snack server.

Dunbrooke Apparel Corp., a leading supplier of NFL jackets under its licensing agreement with Reebok and the National Football League, is also working round the clock to meet the demand. They operate 12-hour nightshift crews to man the 250 embroidery-machine heads for Super Bowl jackets production, starting immediately after the final game whistle. Their most popular Super Bowl item, the Craftsman-style Super Bowl jackets, are decorated on-demand and shipped within 48 hours directly to the fan.

The sales of all promotional products were nearly $19 billion in 2010, as per ASI's research. This is not surprising, as promotional products have been found to be more cost-effective than prime-time TV, radio, and print advertising, according to a recent study from ASI.

As the Super Bowl approaches, hundreds of promotional products companies are gearing up to produce logoed Super Bowl items. The search results do not provide explicit information about which company produced the largest number of Super Bowl XLV T-shirts. However, notable U.S. sportswear manufacturers like Under Armour had involvement with NFL gear around that period, but there is no direct evidence they produced the most Super Bowl XLV T-shirts.

Regardless, it's clear that the Super Bowl XLV is a significant opportunity for the advertising specialties industry, with companies like McArthur Towel & Sports, a LarLu company, working around the clock to produce the Super Bowl XLV Trophy Towels that will be used during the on-field celebration. Robbie Weinberg, manager of Purple Giraffe, joked that they will make enough money to pay owner and general manager Jerry Jones for signage rights to the new Cowboys Stadium.

In the end, the Super Bowl XLV is not just a sporting event, but a marketing bonanza for the advertising specialties industry.

Overnight distribution: More than 30,000 Super Bowl T-shirts to be released for sale