We printed Patriots victory shirts  on Sunday night.  Yes again. We might be the shop with the most practice at this hot market printing in the country, printing over 30 conference or world championships between the Patriots, Red Sox, Celtics and Bruins. You can even throw in a couple of UConn, Eagles and Yankees victories in the mix. The rest of the country seems to be sick of the Patriots, but at Mirror Image we are not.

“Hot market” printing is when the company with the  sports license needs shirts right after the game. Being about 15 miles from the New England Patriot’s stadium and 35 miles from the Celtics and Bruins and Red Sox has us very conveniently located for all this overnight printing. The first time the Patriots won it took everyone by surprise and being the first championship, the response was epic and we got to do 50,000 shirts which we finished printing in 24 hours. Nothing has compared to that since, but it still is a mostly winter boost that is also a bit fun. Well, maybe not fun, but there is a certain excitement to be in some small way part of the victory celebration. Many things we are proud of for our business, but to most folks within TV range we are, “aren’t you the place that is always printing the World Series and Super Bowl shirts?” We’ve been on TV a bunch of times as it brings home a local RI angle to the victories. This year’s coverage here.

There is great anticipation before the game and lots of preparation. That is followed by either supreme (and somewhat costly) disappointment like when that Giants guy caught his last pass of his life, or like last night when the Rams guy missed the field goal or 17 years ago when Vinatieri kicked a field goal and you jump up and everybody gets to work. We have a great crew at our place and its no fun working all night, but they all not only hit their deadlines, but finished almost three hours ahead of schedule this morning.

Here’s a video of us just getting started, lots of metallic ink…