Twice in recent days, promotional clothing has hit the headlines for the wrong reasons. To begin with, one retailer managed to list T-shirts for sale that appeared to predict a win in the upcoming England v Scotland match!

It appears that an online stock checking system was incorrectly implemented, so that a promotional T-shirt that had been designed to commemorate the 2008 Calcutta Cup win by Scotland were reoffered for sale, in relation to the opening Six Nations match which has yet to be played. Last time the two sides met, England won.

Scotland fans seem to have decided that relisting old T-shirt was a bad omen: the Scots have a story that many companies produced commemorative ties and sportswear based on a confidently predicted English Grand Slam victory in 1990, which had to be destroyed when Scotland won 13-7. The parallels have left many superstitious Scotland supporters very unhappy!

Also making negative headlines is the new ruling that New York City police officers cannot wear, own or possess anything that carries the famous NYPD shield, unless that item is an official uniform component. The ban has caused an outcry, as many officers chose to wear non-official shield-bearing clothing when they are off duty, as a sign of solidarity, particularly since 9/11.

A spokesman for the NYPD said, “The department wants to deter the unprofessional appearance associated with unauthorized police-related logos and slogans.” However, the president of the police union claims that the ruling is nonsensical and may infringe the right to free speech. Many officers are already asking why the only people in the world who can’t have an NYPD keyring or vest are the members of the NYPD itself.

Both stories highlight the risks involved in pre-empting anything, whether it’s public opinion, a sporting result, or market testing before choosing promotional material. It’s difficult to turn bad press into good news, and taking time to ensure that promotional clothing is legal, decent and accurately portrays the story you wish to tell can save a lot of negative headlines.

‘Karl’ is an online fashion collection which will be offered to net buyers for a month before it is made available in shops.

It’s an increasing trend which analysts identify as being part of the move towards rejuvenation of the fashion industry via the web. Online clothing retail has become a large growth area in otherwise moribund economies, and brands like Versace have seen it as a way of maintaining exclusivity for differing areas of their clothing empires, for example by having an online brand specifically targeted at preteens that doesn’t impinge on their established brands for adults.

In the ten years from April 2001 the overall value of online clothing retail grew by an astonishing 3,200% according to a report by the Interactive Media in Retail Group. This may be in part due to the fact that better-off individuals are more likely to buy named brands and also less likely to be suffering the effects of the recession. Mid-range branded clothing is also growing comfortably through online retailing and group purchasing has increased, suggesting sports teams and small companies are focusing on the benefits to be gained from buying uniforms or team clothing online with free postage, easy returns and discounts for larger orders.

Burberry and Coach have also moved into the online retail market which offers several other benefits, including the ability to discount more heavily. Sports brands such as Nike and Adidas in particular are keen to expand their access to new markets and this is likely to mean that online shoppers benefit from bargains in the months ahead.

Once again, printed T-shirts have caused a debate, this time on the football pitch. Liverpoo’s Luis Suarez has been suspended for racist language and his teammates chose to wear a T-shirt with his image on for their match with Wigan this week. It didn’t go down too well with some other players …

Paul McGrath said he was ‘saddened’ to see the Liverpool players in their printed T-shirts and would have been ‘… much happier if they had worn anti-racist t-shirts’ while Jason Roberts (Blackburn Rovers) chipped in on Twitter to ask if other clubs were now going to wear T-shirts with the image of Man U’s Patrice Evra, against who Suarez has been found guilty of using the offending language?

But Kenny Dalgish, Liverpool Manager and Suarez supporting T-shirt wearer was unrepentant claiming that he and the players were showing their their respect and admiration for the suspended player.

It’s yet another piece of evidence that shows how easily printed clothing can become part of a wider controversy – and why it’s important to ensure that your design, slogan or clever promotional idea doesn’t cause confusion or draw criticism from wider society if your intent is to win friends for your product or brand.

With the bad news about retail sales over the past month, it may be time for many small businesses to design a strategy that uses promotional clothing to increase awareness and boost sales.

One of the easiest ways to win a good share of the Christmas spend is to offer something for nothing. Station a couple of temps outside your premises, giving passers-by a voucher for a free mince pie or glass of mulled apple juice. Set up the hospitality station in the heart of the shop or business, so that people have to walk right in to get their freebie and ensure you have good footfall with a couple more staff members giving away the food or drink and more guiding people back on a circular route through the space so that there isn’t a log-jam. Dress the temps and food servers in appropriate hospitality clothing such as branded aprons and caps trimmed with holly or tinsel so that their role is clear.

Alternatively, identify a local good cause and print some promotional T-shirts for your staff, including both your logo and theirs. Tell the press that you’re going to donate a certain percentage of every purchase over £100 to the charity and make sure you have posters and flyers so that customers know their spend is going to help the good cause. Make sure you issue a press release detailing the amount donated and featuring a picture of your staff in their promotional clothing. It gives you three chances at good publicity: through publicity for the event, during the event itself, and as a good news story after the event.

Disappointing figures in the last quarter show that the slew of promotions offered by many High Street retailers have failed to boost sales.

The British Retail Consortium says that the unseasonably mild weather may have had a part to play in the decline in spending, as people felt no need to buy warmer winter clothing or electrical items that usually herald the run up to Christmas because the temperature did not drop until late November. Clothing retailers saw their worst year-on-year performance in more than two years.

The figures also showed that when purchases were made, spending was on promotional and discounted items, so those shops, whether real or virtual, that stayed out of the promotional scurry may have lost out dramatically.

For the next few weeks, nerves will be tightly strung, as the Christmas rush segues into the January sales period. It seems that the more aggressive promoting tactics being used by many stores, such as leafleting outside shopping centres and having staff in bright T-shirts with Sale! Messages offering to give away bottles of water or handwipes, have been successful in driving crowds stores, but what the spend will be is anybody’s guess – until next month.

For many companies, offering a personalised or branded gift at Christmas has several purposes:

1.    It recognises customer loyalty
2.    It creates brand recognition
3.    It offers a thank you to new customers who may not be fully engaged with the brand yet
4.    It establishes the company offering the gift as being substantial and caring.

These are great marketing opportunities that shouldn’t be neglected even when marketing budgets are tight. In fact, thinking creatively around the idea of a business to customer gift is a great way to establish some brand features that will encourage your customers to think of the company as one that supports them in tough times.

Branded clothing has practical value, unlike the traditional forms of corporate gift such bottles of wine or spirits, boxes of chocolates or the more modern and less personal approach of giving vouchers.

At the top end of the scale, monogrammed shirts, or hoodies for younger individuals offer a superb, highly-personalised approach to gift giving. It’s not a cheap way to recognise the customer’s value but for the truly valued client, it’s a brilliant approach. Think outside the box though, and see if you can select something that the customer will really value: sports clothing with a monogram that a customer can use for their favourite sport is an ideal way to say thank you.

In the middle of the market, T-shirts offer a chance to give a gift that gets worn, and is fully appreciated without breaking the bank. If your customers are young, find a young designer to style your company logo in a completely new way, that reflects current trends but if they’re more traditional, go for a classic and simple statement, maybe the company logo as a sleeve print or small embroidered detail with neat and unobtrusive contact details below it.

For the masses, if you have lots of customers and/or want to buy something that can be used for both Christmas gift and general promotional purposes, think about branded hats or lightweight bags. Don’t fall for too much novelty though: amusing images like Santa riding on your logo etc are only funny for a very short time and then fall out of favour and have no value to the recipient. It’s better to think about longevity and choose a hat or bag that will be used year round. Practicality is the key to a successful gift and you can double the promotional whammy you get from such items by running a competition that offers to reward the person who takes the best picture of their hat/bag in an unusual place or in a location appropriate to your business. Post the photos on facebook and tweet about them in your twitter account to get the maximum cross-platform marketing boost from your promotional clothing spend.

The New Zealand Rugby Union is fearful of a boycott of the 2015 World Cup, and it’s partly down to branded clothing.

The International Rugby Board (IRB) has controls over the way national sponsors can be included in international tournaments which means that national teams lose money – according to New Zealand, $13 million in a world cup year. How so?

Rugby and football are very different: at a FIFA World Cup the teams are allowed to continue to promote their individual sponsors by having them appear on clothing worn at the team hotels and at press conferences up to two days before every match. But the IRB imposes a complete ban all sponsors (except their own) at the Rugby World Cup. This means that photo opportunities, interviews and other publicity activities that usually allow a team to parade in branded clothing before a big match are denied to the rugby teams.

And in South Africa the team jerseys being sold to the Springboks fans have caused ructions. One MP has said that he will boycott the national shirts, because they were made in China instead of South Africa – and that this denied the country’s struggling clothing industry a chance to benefit from the Springbok phenomenon.

The South African Rugby Union has been lambasted by the national Trade Union Congress for ignoring national job-creation policy, causing a national and international flurry.

Neither national team has achieved the kind of publicity it hoped with its branded clothing initiatives, and while neither of them are likely to be thrilled by the way their promotional clothing initiatives have worked out, neither issue is likely to cause a long term problem for the national team.  The unanticipated outcomes might have been avoided by operating a better sourcing policy, having regard for fair trade and organic products in relation to national pride, and understanding and considering the constraints of sponsorship agreements in advance of investing in them.

The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) is designing clothing. Marketing Week reveals that the charity branded clothing, along with gifts and pet food, will be launched to attract new supporters and to boost fundraising campaigns. Already there is a range of cuddly toys in production to appeal to young children this Christmas. The aim is to find new sources of income.

The charity says it has established a brand style guide to give a consistent appearance that will encompass shops, shelters and products including staff uniforms and clothing for sale.

Such is the interest in branded clothing for business, that a new one-day conference is planned in 2012, to cover digital and screen printing technologies for fashion lines and promotional clothing.

It’s being organised by ESMA – the European Specialist Printing Manufacturers Association and will include an examination of the swiftly returning interest in brand clothing and the innovations in print technology including digital, 3D, and sensoric textiles which can monitor and even respond to changes in the temperature or humidity level of the body or to outside stimuli by, for example, emitting heat or light from the fabric itself.

Screen printing will also be explored with new technologies in computer to film technology for T-shirt printing.

The one-day event will take place on 3 February in Stuttgart as part the international textile trade fair TV TecStyle Visions.

There’s evidence that shoppers are still buying, despite the lowest High Street sales for years. While retail sales dropped almost everywhere, owing to riots and the general effect of the recession, some shops managed to beat the trend: Debenhams and JD Sports have both managed to increase sales over the summer months.

Aggressive marketing and clear communication have been the keys to the success for both retailers. Newspaper and TV advertising, local radio spots, big bold posters in stores and staff wearing promotional clothing advertising a sale have all kept the bargain-hunting British focused on spending what money they have with these retailers rather than others.

Small and independent retailers have reported similar successes, bucking the trend by giving the public exciting information without sounding desperate. How do they do it?

While ‘red ticket’ items definitely have meaning for buyers, when there’s a recession it may be better to choose a more comforting colour: red implies danger and suggests the store may be about to go out of business. Instead choose purple or green posters and put staff in screen-printed T-shirts in similar rich and calming shades. White is still the best colour for words printed on a dark T-shirt, but yellow – often seen as the attention-getting shade – can backfire in times of economic recession as it has connotations of cheapness that can make the consumer feel they are about to be sold something sub-standard as they associate red and yellow with ‘dodgy dealers’. While red and yellow work in a boom, they can be counterproductive in difficult times.

Wording matters too – ensuring that staff carry the message can be a simple as printing T-shirts that bear the words ‘Sales mania assistant’ or ‘Ticket items 10% off on production of a smile!’ can generate a feel-good factor about buying in a sale that encourages shoppers to spend a little more.

The hospitality industry is changing rapidly. HR Magazine says it now provides one in 15 jobs in the UK, and that over 7% of the working population are in the hospitality sector – it’s also expected to be one of the largest growth areas for new employment in the next decade.

Uniforms for hospitality staff have changed as the sector has grown – polo-shirts and smart trousers have replaced button-through shirts as daywear in around a third of eating establishments and more than two-thirds of pubs and bars.

Even casinos are changing their clothing choices, opting for bright T-shirts under waistcoats for table-waiting staff and black uniforms for croupiers giving way to green, red or even purple as a corporate colour. It seems that these brighter colours are intended to create a ‘point of difference’, in allowing venues to differentiate themselves from other locations. Because they are still dark enough to take stains and spills in their stride, the green, red and purple shirts are proving popular with staff too.

Table staff are increasingly being given ‘throwaway’ clothing – ultra-bright T-shirts or vests overprinted with large messages about two-for-one cocktail prices, house specials, or special rates being offered at the attached hotel for lucky gamblers who’ve won big.

Aprons have become a big deal in up-scale dining, with pizza and flambé chefs who work at table being given special aprons, bearing their name, so that guests can specify which individual they wish to cook their food.