Energy, excitement, and education were in abundance at the Shirt Lab event held in Chicago on July 22. Between the networking, the swag bags, and the presentations themselves, attendees got a good dose of actionable items to implement in their businesses.

Kicking things off on the evening of July 21, the infamous Rock, Paper, Scissors tournament set the tone for the event. Over the course of a couple hours, everyone mingled, got to know each other, and of course, battled over who was the ultimate Rock, Paper, Scissors champion. In the end, it was Maggie Sobilo of M&R Printing who took home the honors.

Throughout the day on the 22, presentations rolled along, covering everything from branding to sales tips, digital marketing, and more. Of particular note was Marshall Atkinson’s discussion of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and what they could potentially mean for the decorated apparel industry. Other speakers included:

• Jay Busselle, Equipment Zone
• Rum Walia, Supacolor
• Kevin Baumgart, setsales.co
• Dawn Sinkule, Digital Dawn
• Matt Marcotte, Printavo
• Renee Hribar, Sales Expert
• Tom Rauen, EnvisionTees.com
• Richard Greaves, richardgreaves.com

“I feel like there was a good energy in the room and amongst the attendees,” says Tom Rauen, co-founder of Shirt Lab. “It was great to see the collaboration between everyone including the sponsors.”

While plenty of questions were fielded throughout the day, the event wrapped up with a panel Q&A session. According to Marshall, co-founder of Shirt Lab, it’s all about bringing these topics to fruition. “  It was great fun presenting cutting-edge strategic and tactical solutions to shop owners and industry leaders,” he says. “What will be even better will be the outcome of what was implemented by our attendees.”