If you want a one-of shirt with your favorite saying on it, you can go to someplace like
Cafepress and have one made.
The host chapter at most of the AMCA swap meets sells T-shirts. They have learned that people will pay good money ($20 or $25) for a premium shirt. I buy one at almost every meet I go to, and most have lasted 20 years, or until I destroy them with motorcycle grease. So what, in my humble opinion, is a premium shirt?
1) The material is good quality - either 100% pre-shrunk cotton or 50-50 blend. Cheap material falls apart after a few year's use. I don't know if these brand names are still around, but Haynes BeefyTees and JerZees were good years ago.
2) It has a pocket. I won't buy a shirt that doesn't have a pocket. Where else do you keep your sun glasses, reading glasses, pens and pencils, small tools. For those of you who still smoke, where else would you keep your cigarettes?
3) It has a pleasing multi-color graphic and some text on the rear. The colors in the graphic go well with the color of the shirt. Sometimes you have to adjust the colors in the graphic to match the shirt. Sometimes you have to pick the shirt color to match the graphic.
For an antique motorcycle marque club, adapting some factory literature is usually the best and easiest choice. Skip over to the Literature section, and look at the Harley Postcard, 54 KH - Harley Brochure, and 1956 KH/KHK Pamphlet. Would these be good candidates?
4) The front has either text and/or a graphic, on, or above, the pocket, which says something about the group or event.
OK, let's see an example! Below is the design for the Harley Hummer Club's last run of shirts in 2000. The design was adapted from a 1957 Harley brochure.
On the rear:
Above the pocket:
Colors - unless you're making thousands of shirts, you are probably going to be restricted to one color of shirt, and that color is going to be dependent on the graphics. This particular design worked quite well with a red shirt. A side benefit is that whenever you walk in a room wearing a red shirt, everyone turns and looks at you.
Count up the colors in the graphic. This was not an inexpensive short to produce. And the screen printer wanted a large press run - I think 200 was the minimum. But that was 20 years ago. Maybe the technology has changed.
My suggestion would be to include both a K model and old Sportster in the rear design, which might go well with "Old Sportster and K-model Research Group" above the pocket on the front.
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