Super Bowl XLIV Printing
Let the printing presses roll as Super Bowl XLIV is settled and the New Orleans Saints win.
Bill Esler -- Graphic Arts Online, February 7, 2010
H.O. Zimman 240-page Super Bowl XLIV Printed Program Converted to Multimedia Online Version
As the New Orleans Saints neared their victory over the Indianapolis Colts yesterday, Rochelle Printing was gunning its Heidelberg Speedmaster, ready to roll posters for either team. The tentative order for 20,000 copies of the Saints poster, more than double that ordered if the Colts were to win, had the printing firm rooting for New Orleans. By 5:00 a.m. today, the trucks were off ready to deliver the job, reports local TV station WFIR. The final score was dropped into the files, plates burned on a Screen PlateRite platesetter before moving onto the 6-color 40-inch Speedmaster.
Each year hundreds of products—t-shirts, mugs, towels, Jerseys—get labeled with the NFL champions name and logo, two versions often produced to meet the crest of interest and demand. Right after the game, the NFL website already carried a DVD of the game with imprinting featuring the winning Saints. Also available were hats, jerseys and other apparel produced by Reebok—the source of a high-profile lawsuit by American Needle that was heard by the U.S. Supreme Court last month.
NFL Super Bowl merchandise: printing two versions to be ready for the Saints victory.
"It's especially good for us around Super Bowl time because, obviously the orders are bigger this time of year," James Mear, CEO of Rochelle Printing, told WFIR. His company is about 80 miles west of Chicago.
More than 50,000 t-shirts were scheduled to be printed overnight last night, according to the Advertising Specialty Intitute, a printing trade group . "We start making T-shirts when the game ends and it's all hands on deck with more than 50 staffers working split shifts, and that includes me,"
says Jeff Henderson, VP of Pony Xpress Printing, an ASI member that runs a screen printing shop in Dallas licensed to produce Super Bowl XLIV apparel. " We start delivering shirts overnight to stores, so they are on shelves the next morning. When things get hectic, it's not uncommon to have a mini traffic jam that requires employees to direct trucks in and out of the warehouse. They pick up for stores and, of course, everyone wants their tees first."
Atlas Embroidery and Screen Printing in Ft. Lauderdale began printing official Super Bowl T-shirts with the Saints as the game ended, with nearly all the employees working overnight, according to a local CBS TV affiliate. Owner Adam Cohen says his firms presses produced 2,000 shirts per hour on five automatic presses rated at 400 per hour each.
Among many printing beneficiaries of the NFL Super Bowl was custom publisher H.O. Zimman, which produced the official program, including a special edition with holographic cover. Lynn, MA-based H.O, Zimman's custom publishing operation added a new twist this year, developing a rich-media online version of the 244-page perfect bound publication using Texterity software.
The 1 million run program is estimated to have 5 million pass along readership. The online version will get an estimated 50 million viewers.
