Tumwater’s Color Graphics Prints Seahawks Shirts Hours After Super Bowl Win

super bowl champion shirts
The finished Super Bowl champion shirts will be picked up by FedEx and delivered to local stores.
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By Eric Wilson-Edge

super bowl champion shirts
Tumwater based Color Graphics won the bid to produce 7,000 shirts when the Seahawks won the Super Bowl.

This isn’t a misprint, a mistake or a cruel joke. I’m not dreaming and neither are you. Still, what I’m looking at doesn’t make sense. There, in the box, is a neatly folded blue shirt. The Seahawks name is there as are the words “Super Bowl Champions.”  Huh?

“I’m still in shock they won,” says Color Graphics co-owner Kiley Gustafson. Gustafson’s company was hired to print 7,500 t-shirts for local distribution. This meant getting to work as soon as the game ended.

I arrive at Color Graphics around 9:30 p.m. The building smells of ink. Heat lamps flash on and off as a freshly screened shirt passes underneath. “We’re averaging about 500 to 550 an hour,” says Gustafson. The project should last between 15-20 hours with the first FedEx shipment scheduled for midnight which is less than three hours away.

super bowl champion shirts
The locally owned Color Graphics team will work for 15-20 hours to fulfill the orders.

A couple of shirts slide down what looks like a conveyor belt. A woman takes them off and puts a sticker on each. It’s the NFL emblem, a sure sign that what I’m seeing is real.  No dream is this specific or this committed to rules.

Dave Claridge is solid muscle. I find him breaking open boxes of blank shirts and placing them in stacks.  Claridge works for the Sheriff’s office, not Color Graphics. He is a customer and a friend. “Awesome to see these shirts with Super Bowl champs on it,” says Claridge.

Claridge has to be at work in the morning but plans to stay as long as he’s needed. We talk about the game with a level of giddiness not typically seen in grown men. Claridge isn’t sure if he’s allowed to take a shirt. Doesn’t matter – he’s going to pick one up in the morning.

The mood at Color Graphics is unusual. Everyone seems happy despite the fact that they’ll be here all night. The next shift takes over at 6:30 a.m. and will go until the job is complete. In between there will be lots of coffee, eye drops and maybe the occasional high five or chest bump.  Why not?

super bowl champion shirts
The finished Super Bowl champion shirts will be picked up by FedEx and delivered to local stores.

The machines run at a steady clip. “We don’t normally print that fast,” says Gustafson. “Most of the time we’re not doing 7,000 t-shirts on a timeline.” He’s not complaining. This is a potential boon for Color Graphics. Getting the job meant ensuring quality and being able to replicate those one of a kind Seahawks’ colors.

An employee takes a newly stickered shirt and sets it neatly in a box. There are a bunch of boxes next to him – 12 to be exact – and they’re filling up quickly. Soon, they’ll be on store shelves. To think, a few hours before this wasn’t a guarantee. Gustafson and Claridge could be at home right now sleeping restlessly, if at all. “It is really cool,” says Gustafson.  “We’ll be walking and we’ll be seeing stuff that we did here in our local community.”

I say my goodbyes. I’m headed back home to watch highlights of a game I watched, to read a recap of things I already know. I’m going to the parade on Wednesday.  I need to see the trophy and when I do I’ll be wearing a Seattle Seahawks Super Bowl XLVIII Champions t-shirt.

 

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