I’m all for runs, races events etc charging high entry fees when raising money for a charity, but I wish event organisers would stop giving out free poor quality event logo’d t-shirts that I for one do not want. Am I on my own here? Does anybody actually wear these?

Would you rather do a mtb race for £25 or £30 with a free t-shirt?

A 10k for £20 or £25 with a free t-shirt?

I understand of course after all the organisation and fees are paid, most events are actually very fair value, so I’m not moaning about that, just the t-shirts! If any organisers on here consider it some friendly feedback!

I wear my Scott MTB marathon ones into the ground.

The thing is t shirts give the organiser space to advertise/sponser. No t shirt and that opportunity is lost.
At work the office do a 5k run every year (organised by a local law firm) and there must be about 50 companies sponsoring it. My guess is that they cover most of their costs from advertising on the t shirts. That means everything else is “profit” for the charity.

I use a local printers for the CVMBC event. He uses decent quality (Fruit of the Loom or Gildan etc) shirts. Entry fee is £17, which also includes a certificate and free food & drink throughout.

I’ve bought a few, never actually had a free one. It probably adds a pretty trivial amount to the real cost tbh. In terms of costs at least, it doesn’t follow that the price is inflated by the cost.

I wear my Endurance Downhill one quite often as a bit of silent willy waving 😆 And my twwedlove crew stuff is just my Digging Clothes. (But I think the other thing is, mostly they’re designs I just wouldn’t wear anyway.

The t-shirts that Wiggle provided at the recent Ups + Downs MTB event are so poor that I can’t believe it does them any favours at all. Mine had holes in it before I even put it on, and I’m not even talking about the dodgy seams!

I like them, I wear them a few times then they go in on of those hoover shrink bags. I’ve loads of them, nice souvenir of the day. But must admit I hoard alot of this stuff, medals, number boards, mugs and stuff. When I did Ironman races I kept just about everything, I still have bobbles that they gave out to signify you had done a lap.

Fair one re sponsorship but a lot of the time the event just has the events name on it, printed poorly on a poor quality t-shirt. May start declining them and see if anybody gets the message.

The price of printing and buying 500 tshirts can’t be so low that it doesn’t effect the entrance fee, if some people like them and wear them then ok. Be nice if there was an option.

most of the events i do have good quality Tees ….

i still wear Ts from events back in the early 2000s……waste not want not.

did have one terrible one from the puffer when they did the grey ones.

@The Sanity Assassin – fruit of the loom T shirts are not ‘decent quality.’

@the op, you’ll always need clothes to paint in or do the garden. 8)

Cotton t-shirts go in the garage rag bin.

Proper technical ones get used.

Oddly, most of the running events I do, give out proper technical tees. Albeit cheaper ones. Cycling events seem to go for the cotton jobs. Can’t remember the last time I actually needed to buy a running shirt.

@ jekkyl

organic fair trade hand woven by virgins with a VW badge on it they may not be …. but they have lasted much longer and held their print much longer than some of the shite i have had from some events…. some tees so thin you can see through them…. those go in the rag box. Id rather pay more and get a lasting teeshirt than one that doesnt even look decent new.

fwiw – fruit of the loom do varying qualitys of tee.

YoKaiser – Member

But must admit I hoard alot of this stuff, medals, number boards, mugs and stuff.

I’ve kept all my number boards. Though I have no idea what a lot of them are for.

Innerleithen MTB Racing
17
Icycles

I get medal envy when my brother does runs, I swear my folks go “Running 5k must be way harder than downhill racing, they never give Andrew any medals…”

I’ve just got rid of a load of cheap technical tops from 5ks and triathlons that I never wear as I always grab something else in preference. That said, one of my favourites still is a Crewroom bamboo top from the Royal Parks half marathon I did several years ago, and I got a couple of decent Endura tops from the Rat Race events.

Cotton t-shirts – nope. I have plenty of them for doing DIY in already.

The price of printing and buying 500 tshirts can’t be so low that it doesn’t effect the entrance fee

About £1.75 each for a half decent tshirt for a print run of 500 so if you’re complaint is the tshirts aren’t half decent then probably less than that.

As part of the whole cost of organising the events (which is covered by both sponsorship income and entry fees) the cost is a drop in the ocean. Not having the tshirts would make so little difference to that overall budget that there would be no variance in the price you pay for a ticket. They’re offered as part of the inducement to take part but the real reason for them is that you might wear them from time to time and in doing so publicise their future events

I’d prefer pay an extra few quid and get an event tee.

I wasn’t a fan of the awful neon green ones at the UK marathon events last year mind! Those have never been out the front door since.

I like the ‘free’ t-shirts and wear them for running/the gym.

However, I am fed up of paying £25-35 (or more) for events.

There’s a sprint distance triathlon that I have entered for a few years, and year on year the price has increased by £5. I noted that last year entries were significantly down, which the cost must a least partly contribute to. I’ve not entered this year but have signed up to more local events costing in the £10-15 range. I won’t get a t-shirt but will enjoy them just as much without the slightly sour taste of feeling fleeced.

Mixed response then, some like them some don’t. Suppose there could be worse free things.

You think you have a gripe for these. We entered a bouldering comp for my daughter at the weekend and i feel personally violated considering the costs.

1) National comp (But advertised as an open event)
2) 1/2/3rd podium places
3) £38 to enter or £28 if you are member of BMC

So that all sounds ok, if a little steep compared to every single other event on the cicuit which is between £10-15 and usually includes a t shirt (This didnt).

So imagine my suprise when my daughter and her training partner win the respective age catagories only to be told they dont get a trophy because they are not Scottish. Regardless of placing 5/6th the 1st placed Scot gets a trophy. Imagine my suprise when 1st gets handed a 50p Medal and a certificate. Imagine my suprise when the older age cats (Non Scottish) then get more than the younger cats.

I know its my choice to enter (We wont be again) but I now feel very much discriminated against. We basically paid to fund the scottish climbers and the older age groups. I had to delete the feedback email in case i said what i thought and blacklisted my daughter for future events.

Yes i am bitter 🙂 But it feels better to say it here than tell the very close knit climbing community what i think

Most of mine (from running) are great quality tech Ts and get used loads. I’ve not had to buy any running tops for years.
The cheaper local races seem to be the lower quality offerings, but when you’re only paying 7-10 quid to race it’s not an issue for me.

I like and wear event Ts so long as I can get one the right size, especially technical/thermal material which I wear for sport. Pisses me off a bit when I get given something unwearable especially if I’ve ordered a specific size only to get “oh we ran out of large”.

With the events I’ve been involved in people seem miffed if there’s no T-shirt, even more so if you tell them they can buy one.

I swear my folks go “Running 5k must be way harder than downhill racing, they never give Andrew any medals…”

My kids get medals for cross country do you want some to impress your folks?

I’ve got a lovely one from Charlie’s Gravel Dash from 2 years ago. Nice print, no product logos, heavy cotton. What’s not to like?