NFL T-Shirt Malfunction

[sc49erfan15]

That pretty much sums it up. It's the risk you take and the price you pay when you outsource, unfortunately. #madeintheusa

Because having the wrong tag on the inside of a t-shirt would never happen in an American factory.

[bucknut40]

That happened with my school and some Nike basketball shirts we got for a camp, when I got mine it had the swoosh on the front but the tag was Gildan

[Neon_Matrix]

But I am confused why I paid full price for a shirt that is not made by Reebok, even though it had the Reebok logo on the shirt and it even had the NFL Trophy Collection sticker on it.

As someone who works for an international Apparel company, I can admit to you, that 90% of the time, Reebok doesn't make shirts. A manufacturer of blanks makes those shirts, with "tear away" tagging, and then a Heat Transfer Reebok neck label is heat pressed onto the blank...

It seems what you have is simply Reebok's artwork printed on a Gilden blank, that wasn't appropriately tagged and labeled. It's almost certainly not a knock off, just simply, as already mentioned one that didn't make it through the correct process...

Depending on the turnaround they won't always remove the original tag. Doesn't mean his shirt is a fake, it means they REALLY rushed the shirt to get it out to retail.

[Big Billy]

When I went shopping today for a Giants Super Bowl Champions shirt, I was appalled when I saw this once I purchased it. Usually when I get an NFL shirt, it has the Reebok tag on the back to show that it is NFL apparel. Instead, it had a Gildan tag on it even though the shirt still had the Reebok logo on it. I am hesitant if I should return it or not. But what I don't understand is, if the shirt says Reebook on it, what does it not have a Reebok tag on it??

EDIT: I know I know, I posted this topic twice by accident. Please don't comment that I did because I know I did. I apologize for my mistake.

Adidas uses Gilden and Anvil-manufactured shirts for their non-tech T's. Usually they have a Reebok or Adidas label, sometimes one slips through. Usually the ones that slip get pulled in final inspection and end up at Rugged Wear House.

When I worked at Tennessee, we would occasionally get a few of these in our camp t-shirt shipments. Quality control was pretty good on team shirts, but for the camp shirts, just about anything would go.

A friend of mine worked at Notre Dame and they got a bunch of football jerseys from Ripon one year that had the NFL Equipment jock tag instead of the Adidas tag.

That pretty much sums it up. It's the risk you take and the price you pay when you outsource, unfortunately. #madeintheusa

I didn't even notice this comment before.

It doesn't make the slightest bit of sense since this shirt was printed in the USA and the American workers were the ones that didn't change out the label.

[guest23]

But I am confused why I paid full price for a shirt that is not made by Reebok, even though it had the Reebok logo on the shirt and it even had the NFL Trophy Collection sticker on it.

As someone who works for an international Apparel company, I can admit to you, that 90% of the time, Reebok doesn't make shirts. A manufacturer of blanks makes those shirts, with "tear away" tagging, and then a Heat Transfer Reebok neck label is heat pressed onto the blank...

It seems what you have is simply Reebok's artwork printed on a Gilden blank, that wasn't appropriately tagged and labeled. It's almost certainly not a knock off, just simply, as already mentioned one that didn't make it through the correct process...

pretty much all apparel (nike and adidas are 100% contract I believe)is contracted through 3rd party manufacturers...non proprietary items like cotton t-shirts will simply be ordered from the contractor's general stock and as others have mentioned during the screening process the tags typically are removed.

so in this instance it was either poor quality control or adidas allowed it to go through to expedite the process.

for people folks that aren't that familiar with large scale manufacturing, just about every industry (e.g.auto parts, electronics, aerospace) contracts out its manufacturing to 3rd parties as the operations tend to be very costly to set up and maintain and with modern manufacturing productivity, minimal production capacity often exceeds the demand of a single company.

in short it's all about efficiency and cost control.

[BRice16]

That pretty much sums it up. It's the risk you take and the price you pay when you outsource, unfortunately. #madeintheusa

I didn't even notice this comment before.

It doesn't make the slightest bit of sense since this shirt was printed in the USA and the American workers were the ones that didn't change out the label.

And American workers add the labels in the first place. They typically arrive from China without labels at all.

[guest23]

That pretty much sums it up. It's the risk you take and the price you pay when you outsource, unfortunately. #madeintheusa

I didn't even notice this comment before.

It doesn't make the slightest bit of sense since this shirt was printed in the USA and the American workers were the ones that didn't change out the label.

And American workers add the labels in the first place. They typically arrive from China without labels at all.

that seems terribly inefficient to pack large quantities of product for shipping as each unit most likely needs to be shrunk wrapped to protect from damage...it would then have to be manually unpacked labeled and repacked for shipping again...at that point you've pretty much doubled your cost of labor.

[andrewharrington]

That pretty much sums it up. It's the risk you take and the price you pay when you outsource, unfortunately. #madeintheusa

Because having the wrong tag on the inside of a t-shirt would never happen in an American factory.

Well, if the shirts were manufactured by Reebok instead of outsourced or purchased from a third party vendor, then no, they wouldn't have the wrong tag.

When I went shopping today for a Giants Super Bowl Champions shirt, I was appalled when I saw this once I purchased it. Usually when I get an NFL shirt, it has the Reebok tag on the back to show that it is NFL apparel. Instead, it had a Gildan tag on it even though the shirt still had the Reebok logo on it. I am hesitant if I should return it or not. But what I don't understand is, if the shirt says Reebook on it, what does it not have a Reebok tag on it??

EDIT: I know I know, I posted this topic twice by accident. Please don't comment that I did because I know I did. I apologize for my mistake.

Adidas uses Gilden and Anvil-manufactured shirts for their non-tech T's. Usually they have a Reebok or Adidas label, sometimes one slips through. Usually the ones that slip get pulled in final inspection and end up at Rugged Wear House.

When I worked at Tennessee, we would occasionally get a few of these in our camp t-shirt shipments. Quality control was pretty good on team shirts, but for the camp shirts, just about anything would go.

A friend of mine worked at Notre Dame and they got a bunch of football jerseys from Ripon one year that had the NFL Equipment jock tag instead of the Adidas tag.

That pretty much sums it up. It's the risk you take and the price you pay when you outsource, unfortunately. #madeintheusa

I didn't even notice this comment before.

It doesn't make the slightest bit of sense since this shirt was printed in the USA and the American workers were the ones that didn't change out the label.

Again, if Reebok made their own shirts instead of outsourcing the manufacturing of them (or buying them from an outside vendor), the problem wouldn't exist because they would be Reebok shirts, not Gildan shirts. The fact that the production of these shirts is outsourced is the root of the relabeling problem. Not sure why everyone's jumping on me for supporting U.S.-made goods.

I'd gladly pay $30 instead of $22 for a locker room tee if that meant I could have it on a better quality, U.S.-made shirt.

[Big Billy]

That pretty much sums it up. It's the risk you take and the price you pay when you outsource, unfortunately. #madeintheusa

Because having the wrong tag on the inside of a t-shirt would never happen in an American factory.

Well, if the shirts were manufactured by Reebok instead of outsourced or purchased from a third party vendor, then no, they wouldn't have the wrong tag.

When I went shopping today for a Giants Super Bowl Champions shirt, I was appalled when I saw this once I purchased it. Usually when I get an NFL shirt, it has the Reebok tag on the back to show that it is NFL apparel. Instead, it had a Gildan tag on it even though the shirt still had the Reebok logo on it. I am hesitant if I should return it or not. But what I don't understand is, if the shirt says Reebook on it, what does it not have a Reebok tag on it??

EDIT: I know I know, I posted this topic twice by accident. Please don't comment that I did because I know I did. I apologize for my mistake.

Adidas uses Gilden and Anvil-manufactured shirts for their non-tech T's. Usually they have a Reebok or Adidas label, sometimes one slips through. Usually the ones that slip get pulled in final inspection and end up at Rugged Wear House.

When I worked at Tennessee, we would occasionally get a few of these in our camp t-shirt shipments. Quality control was pretty good on team shirts, but for the camp shirts, just about anything would go.

A friend of mine worked at Notre Dame and they got a bunch of football jerseys from Ripon one year that had the NFL Equipment jock tag instead of the Adidas tag.

That pretty much sums it up. It's the risk you take and the price you pay when you outsource, unfortunately. #madeintheusa

I didn't even notice this comment before.

It doesn't make the slightest bit of sense since this shirt was printed in the USA and the American workers were the ones that didn't change out the label.

Again, if Reebok made their own shirts instead of outsourcing the manufacturing of them (or buying them from an outside vendor), the problem wouldn't exist because they would be Reebok shirts, not Gildan shirts. The fact that the production of these shirts is outsourced is the root of the relabeling problem. Not sure why everyone's jumping on me for supporting U.S.-made goods.

I'd gladly pay $30 instead of $22 for a locker room tee if that meant I could have it on a better quality, U.S.-made shirt.

So you think if Reebok made their own tees they would make them in the US? I'm not jumping on you for supporting USA made goods. I'm just saying that the problem relating to the product not getting labeled correctly was made by US workers.

[guest23]

That pretty much sums it up. It's the risk you take and the price you pay when you outsource, unfortunately. #madeintheusa

Because having the wrong tag on the inside of a t-shirt would never happen in an American factory.

Well, if the shirts were manufactured by Reebok instead of outsourced or purchased from a third party vendor, then no, they wouldn't have the wrong tag.

When I went shopping today for a Giants Super Bowl Champions shirt, I was appalled when I saw this once I purchased it. Usually when I get an NFL shirt, it has the Reebok tag on the back to show that it is NFL apparel. Instead, it had a Gildan tag on it even though the shirt still had the Reebok logo on it. I am hesitant if I should return it or not. But what I don't understand is, if the shirt says Reebook on it, what does it not have a Reebok tag on it??

EDIT: I know I know, I posted this topic twice by accident. Please don't comment that I did because I know I did. I apologize for my mistake.

Adidas uses Gilden and Anvil-manufactured shirts for their non-tech T's. Usually they have a Reebok or Adidas label, sometimes one slips through. Usually the ones that slip get pulled in final inspection and end up at Rugged Wear House.

When I worked at Tennessee, we would occasionally get a few of these in our camp t-shirt shipments. Quality control was pretty good on team shirts, but for the camp shirts, just about anything would go.

A friend of mine worked at Notre Dame and they got a bunch of football jerseys from Ripon one year that had the NFL Equipment jock tag instead of the Adidas tag.

That pretty much sums it up. It's the risk you take and the price you pay when you outsource, unfortunately. #madeintheusa

I didn't even notice this comment before.

It doesn't make the slightest bit of sense since this shirt was printed in the USA and the American workers were the ones that didn't change out the label.

Again, if Reebok made their own shirts instead of outsourcing the manufacturing of them (or buying them from an outside vendor), the problem wouldn't exist because they would be Reebok shirts, not Gildan shirts. The fact that the production of these shirts is outsourced is the root of the relabeling problem. Not sure why everyone's jumping on me for supporting U.S.-made goods.

I'd gladly pay $30 instead of $22 for a locker room tee if that meant I could have it on a better quality, U.S.-made shirt.

So you think if Reebok made their own tees they would make them in the US? I'm not jumping on you for supporting USA made goods. I'm just saying that the problem relating to the product not getting labeled correctly was made by US workers.

the problem is that reebok/adidas does not own nor to they want to own their own production facilities as it does not make financial sense...for a product as generic as a t-shirt it makes much more sense to procure the finished product from an apparel manufacturer based on demand...I think the OP's issue is more with the supplier and quality control so the alternative could have been that adidas use an american supplier like american apparel that sources and manufactures in the united states and is known for supplying high quality t-shirts.

[BRice16]

And American workers add the labels in the first place. They typically arrive from China without labels at all.

that seems terribly inefficient to pack large quantities of product for shipping as each unit most likely needs to be shrunk wrapped to protect from damage...it would then have to be manually unpacked labeled and repacked for shipping again...at that point you've pretty much doubled your cost of labor.

No, you're misunderstanding me here. They're manufactured in China and arrive here completely blank, in shipping crates, wrapped by the thousands.

They aren't typically labeled at all until they are printed or are divided up into smaller shipments to be sent to local printers. It doesn't double the effort because they have to be sorted and wrapped, based on order, anyway. A manufacturer like Gilden/Anvil makes and sells shirts for dozens of companies, including Reebok, Nike, Adidas, and under their own labels. They also sell their blanks (with Gilden tag) to local custom printers. But they aren't going to just send a local print shop a pre-wrapped batch of 10,000 shirts straight from China. They are sorted and labeled here, then packed in more manageable boxes, typically of 144.

Now, back to the original topic here. After talking to a few people in the business, here's what most likely happened in this case. For Championship shirts, Reebok (and others) use dozens of local printing companies all over the country so the stock gets to retailers within hours of the game. Reebok or whoever sends the blank shirts, tags, and licensing stickers to all of these places, then send them the graphics whenever the the game is no longer in doubt. Likely, a local shop either used a box from the wrong batch of blanks, or they weren't sent enough from Reebok to fill the order.

Again, this is something that happened in an American factory, regardless of where the shirts were initially manufactured.

[guest23]

And American workers add the labels in the first place. They typically arrive from China without labels at all.

that seems terribly inefficient to pack large quantities of product for shipping as each unit most likely needs to be shrunk wrapped to protect from damage...it would then have to be manually unpacked labeled and repacked for shipping again...at that point you've pretty much doubled your cost of labor.

No, you're misunderstanding me here. They're manufactured in China and arrive here completely blank, in shipping crates, wrapped by the thousands.

They aren't typically labeled at all until they are printed or are divided up into smaller shipments to be sent to local printers. It doesn't double the effort because they have to be sorted and wrapped, based on order, anyway. A manufacturer like Gilden/Anvil makes and sells shirts for dozens of companies, including Reebok, Nike, Adidas, and under their own labels. They also sell their blanks (with Gilden tag) to local custom printers. But they aren't going to just send a local print shop a pre-wrapped batch of 10,000 shirts straight from China. They are sorted and labeled here, then packed in more manageable boxes, typically of 144.

Now, back to the original topic here. After talking to a few people in the business, here's what most likely happened in this case. For Championship shirts, Reebok (and others) use dozens of local printing companies all over the country so the stock gets to retailers within hours of the game. Reebok or whoever sends the blank shirts, tags, and licensing stickers to all of these places, then send them the graphics whenever the the game is no longer in doubt. Likely, a local shop either used a box from the wrong batch of blanks, or they weren't sent enough from Reebok to fill the order.

Again, this is something that happened in an American factory, regardless of where the shirts were initially manufactured.

from your knowledge is the screening/printing ever done overseas? I would think there are still cost savings if I'm nike and/or adidas and I need to manufacture 100k units of "fall 2012 t-shirt style #123" the would just send the artwork over and have the 100% finished goods sent over.

it makes sense to have short lead (e.g. championship gear) and smaller quantities to have blanks screened locally so you can quick turn and not deal with customs etc...but to the best of my knowledge a full seasonal line (with 6 months lead time) would be made to order and all printing/screening/tagging/embroidery would be done end to end in the same location.

[andrewharrington]

So you think if Reebok made their own tees they would make them in the US? I'm not jumping on you for supporting USA made goods. I'm just saying that the problem relating to the product not getting labeled correctly was made by US workers.

Yes. In order to 'make their own tees,' Reebok would need to make them in the U.S. Otherwise it's outsourced, unless Reebok owns an office and factory in whatever country the tees are made in. In other words, the only way the tees would be 'Made by Reebok' would be if the workers are actually on Reebok's payroll. I know the mistake in this case was made by an American worker, but if these companies made their own shirts, there wouldn't be any relabeling to do, and these errors would be avoided (not to mention all the worker's rights/more American jobs benefits that would come with making your own tees). That's the only point I'm trying to make. When you outsource or buy tees from another vendor, you're going to inevitably end up with errors every now and then, and that's one of the prices you pay for getting the cheaper price that outsourcing provides.

from your knowledge is the screening/printing ever done overseas? I would think there are still cost savings if I'm nike and/or adidas and I need to manufacture 100k units of "fall 2012 t-shirt style #123" the would just send the artwork over and have the 100% finished goods sent over.

it makes sense to have short lead (e.g. championship gear) and smaller quantities to have blanks screened locally so you can quick turn and not deal with customs etc...but to the best of my knowledge a full seasonal line (with 6 months lead time) would be made to order and all printing/screening/tagging/embroidery would be done end to end in the same location.

That's exactly how it works. Short lead stuff and graphics that can easily be printed on a blank tee, smaller quantity designs, etc. are printed here. Reebok and adidas licensed stuff is printed primarily in Indianapolis, and their brand stuff is printed at a variety of places. There are a great number of finished styles that come in all ready to go from overseas. These are usually your more complex garments and stuff. Zip up jackets with team colored panels and printed design elements that go from seam to seam. Stuff that's not easily done here. The minimums on these styles are usually much higher, though.

[guest23]

So you think if Reebok made their own tees they would make them in the US? I'm not jumping on you for supporting USA made goods. I'm just saying that the problem relating to the product not getting labeled correctly was made by US workers.

Yes. In order to 'make their own tees,' Reebok would need to make them in the U.S. Otherwise it's outsourced, unless Reebok owns an office and factory in whatever country the tees are made in. In other words, the only way the tees would be 'Made by Reebok' would be if the workers are actually on Reebok's payroll. I know the mistake in this case was made by an American worker, but if these companies made their own shirts, there wouldn't be any relabeling to do, and these errors would be avoided (not to mention all the worker's rights/more American jobs benefits that would come with making your own tees). That's the only point I'm trying to make. When you outsource or buy tees from another vendor, you're going to inevitably end up with errors every now and then, and that's one of the prices you pay for getting the cheaper price that outsourcing provides.

from your knowledge is the screening/printing ever done overseas? I would think there are still cost savings if I'm nike and/or adidas and I need to manufacture 100k units of "fall 2012 t-shirt style #123" the would just send the artwork over and have the 100% finished goods sent over.

it makes sense to have short lead (e.g. championship gear) and smaller quantities to have blanks screened locally so you can quick turn and not deal with customs etc...but to the best of my knowledge a full seasonal line (with 6 months lead time) would be made to order and all printing/screening/tagging/embroidery would be done end to end in the same location.

That's exactly how it works. Short lead stuff and graphics that can easily be printed on a blank tee, smaller quantity designs, etc. are printed here. Reebok and adidas licensed stuff is printed primarily in Indianapolis, and their brand stuff is printed at a variety of places. There are a great number of finished styles that come in all ready to go from overseas. These are usually your more complex garments and stuff. Zip up jackets with team colored panels and printed design elements that go from seam to seam. Stuff that's not easily done here. The minimums on these styles are usually much higher, though.

all good to know...I'm actually supposed to meet up with a friend of a friend next week who has a company that contracts out large scale apparel jobs to asia...I'll definitely get his perspective on what sort of work that he solicits...in the past I've heard that for minimums to make sense they were somewhere around 10k piece minimums.

thanks for the info.

[BRice16]

from your knowledge is the screening/printing ever done overseas? I would think there are still cost savings if I'm nike and/or adidas and I need to manufacture 100k units of "fall 2012 t-shirt style #123" the would just send the artwork over and have the 100% finished goods sent over.

it makes sense to have short lead (e.g. championship gear) and smaller quantities to have blanks screened locally so you can quick turn and not deal with customs etc...but to the best of my knowledge a full seasonal line (with 6 months lead time) would be made to order and all printing/screening/tagging/embroidery would be done end to end in the same location.

For a lot of stuff, yes. Anything with a large production with a long lead time they do overseas. Most companies will wait and apply the retail tags and licensing stickers here when they are sorted and boxed for shipping to retailers.