Tshirt vendors?

I totally understand your challenges! The problem with tees and cons is that better-fitted tees can be significantly more expensive. I find that Unisex style tees work fine and are a little nicer than the standard tee (though they are not particularly fitted, they just have a slightly more refined shape than cheaper tees, they try to bridge the gap a bit between men and women's sizes). Alstyle has been a solid brand for me so far, and their range of colors is pretty good... When I look back at the types of Alstyle shirts I've used in the past, they were Gaziani or AAA, which seem to be the higher quality ones in their lineup. They are all decent fabrics for a decent price. (Not too thin, not too thick, somewhat softer to the touch than your average tee, really comfy. Though not as nice as American Apparel shirts.) The DrupalCamp PDX08 shirts I did were the Gaziani style Alstyle shirts.

I know you weren't asking about shirt printing, but just as a side note, I have used InkBrigade.com a couple of times for printing shirts and I love them (they're a local Portland company, located in NW). They have a nice selection of shirts to choose from and reasonable prices. The printing always comes out great. You could always call them and consult them for your project and see if they are a possibility for your needs... At least they could let you know the price differences between the different approaches. If you did get them to print your tees, they do sometimes have some limits based on availabilities of colors in certain brands, so you want to plan ahead and confirm they have the quantity you need before you settle on a design/color direction with them.

Good luck!

Honestly as far as brands, the only ones I've found consistently relatively good quality, good colour selection, and excellent fit (ie. far superior than any others I've found) is American Apparel. Every other one has been that boxy unisex fit that's always massive on my x-small frame, and those ones just end up in a heap (for some eventual sewing project). Plus I find the fabric that American Apparel uses is a lot softer than some of the other brands.

No clue for printers...

My band uses Royal Apparel T-shirts. They offer similar perks — sweatshop-free production, with a fit that's very similar to American Apparel's — without the thickets of sexual harassment claims that surround American Apparel.

I can provide printer recommendations if you'd like, but we usually use small or union shops in San Francisco and New York. Finding someone in Chicago instead would help to keep your costs down.

I must've been really out of it last night, I thought I was replying to a thread on the PDX Drupal Groups. Sorry for the inappropriate local print shop plug!

I guess I am not as particular about t-shirts as some. I'm fairly average weight , generally wearing a medium size shirt, and I find the unisex cuts work well for me. Sure, something fitted is nicer to me to be sure. I do think it is more of a concern for those who wear small and x-small. Recently a client I made shirts for sold tees at a mostly women-attended event and we did the unisex Alstyle and people loved them. In fact, we did have a few fitted American Apparel shirts in the same color, but because they seemed to run smaller than the Alstyle (a learning curve factor for me), the women tended to opt for the Alstyle shirts instead. I overheard comments that the American Apparel ones were a bit softer, but they found the alternative ones to still be pretty nice. But if you attend a lot of cons and you really want to feel inspired to re-wear a shirt over and over again, I can see how having a fitted tee for a con you love would make a big difference. Knowing that cons I have attended have lost the most money on tees, though, I can see how concessions are made to bring cost down. Perhaps the perfect balance is to offer a few of the fitted shirts in addition to the normal batch. If I loved a shirt and really wanted the fitted, softer version, I'd pay a couple of extra bucks for it. But that may just be me.

I hope I didn't get too off the beaten track in terms of the brand discussion... I don't know if my anecdotes are at all helpful, but I hope so!

I'll check out the Royal Apparel shirts next time I do a tee shirt job. If I'm gonna go with the nicer shirts, I definitely want to go with a more conscientious company.

Thanks for all the insights. You can never really tell how a brand is going to be until you try it out. This gives me some options to look at, at least!

Oh this is a really good question. The only tech t-shirt that I've ever gotten that fit was from WordPress Camp New York. It's an American Apparel Classic Girl — in a baby doll cut. I got a small, although three years later now it's too small. I have a Royal Apparel women's shirt too that's ok, but the AA Classic girl baby doll was way better. To confuse things more, I have a AA Classic girl that's not a baby doll + it's terrible. :(

I have a feeling it might be best to order S & M shirts in a baby-doll cut, and L/XL/XXL/XXXL in another cut, perhaps a straighter cut? I just know that as a small person, the straighter "women's cuts" are just as bad as the unisex cuts. I hate them.

You must have lost money on any women's tee shirts you bought for DrupalCamp LA 2010 -- the camp was a sea of men. I only saw about 10 other women. There was one point where all the participants were outside in a area, and all you saw were hundreds of men.

The Westside LA Drupal meetings are almost 100% men. The women that are involved, and they are very few, are either girl friends/wives of active members or like Rain who I've only seen in a helping "female" role (organizing/administration). I've tried on numerous occasions to talk Drupal with active members at the meetings and camps, and I've been snubbed/ignored each time. I even sent a job request to Christefano last summer, and he didn't even give me the courtesy of an acknowledgment of receipt let alone a call. How many women are doing Drupal development in the Los Angeles Drupal shops???

Well, women are just as capable at Drupal as men -- sorry, men, it's true. If you guys want to lead your all-men groups, go ahead. I'll just go elsewhere.

Susan aka Joyseeker -- now seeking my joy in development frameworks other than Drupal