# \[T-shirt Design\] Ed, please answer this question.

**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/t-shirt-design-ed-please-answer-this-question/490722
**Category:** About This Message Board
**Created:** [March 25, 2009, 11:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/t-shirt-design-ed-please-answer-this-question/490722 "2009-03-25T11:07:09Z")
**Posts on this page:** 1
**Showing post:** 49

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### Author: ![Ed\_Zotti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/fbc32d/32.png) [@Ed\_Zotti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ed_Zotti)
#### Post date: [March 29, 2009, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/t-shirt-design-ed-please-answer-this-question/490722/49 "2009-03-29T01:51:48Z")

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> [@twickster](#):
>
> That seems stupid, when dozens of us have made it clear that we’re not buying the existing ones because they’re godawful ugly, but that we would buy a Slug-free design.

I’m not saying we would never do this. However:

1. We don’t sell a huge amount of merchandise, never have. Currently we gross a few thousand a year, and that’s for everything - books, mugs, shirts. It’d take me a while to figure out the net, but it’s probably under $1,000 per year.

2. What with setup charges, price breaks for bulk quantities, etc., we’d have to invest maybe $500 to make this worthwhile, basically on a hunch that there’s a significant untapped market of T-shirt buyers out there who really hate Slug’s art. Say we sell 50 shirts at a profit of $6 each (we’re due to raise the price). We net $300. The company owes - I’m not telling you anything that isn’t in the public record - $31 million. The honchos want me to make them some money. This investment won’t strike them as shrewd.

3. Slug’s art has attained a certain iconic stature. I realize not everybody likes it. However, to request a Straight Dope shirt without it … it’s like going into the Vatican and saying, “Your Holiness, I love that Sistine Chapel. But can you redo the ceiling in flat white?”

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