Company (clothes)line

Like most of my former colleagues from The Company, I managed to accumulate more company-logo shirts than any one person could wear out in a lifetime. This was mainly a consequence of the fact that at least one new "official" T-shirt or polo shirt was created each year for convention season, and all staff were supposed to wear the current official shirt at the booth and on the tournament floor. With most of the cons running four days, we'd generally get issued four T-shirts. Add to that special T-shirts for tournament prizes, promos, product launches, product champions, in-house departmental shirts, and annual World Championships, and you can pile up a lot of shirts in eight years of volunteer, contract and full-time work.

To be exact (well, I think I found all of them, though there could be one or two more lurking in the far reaches of the closet), my company shirt tally comes in at 33 T-shirts and polos (25 of which are black), plus 5 long-sleeved black cotton shirts. I know some of you had even more, as you were full-time employees for much longer than I was. Regardless, that's a crapload of shirts, and a lot of them aren't exactly something you'd use for everyday wear outside of The Company. (There's something a tad conspicuous about a black T-shirt with STAFF in 6-inch high red block letters on the back.)

So what does one do with a plethora of company shirts when one no longer works for that company? Well, for one thing, I'll certainly never have to buy a pajama top any time before I die. I can wear'em for painting a ceiling with no regrets when I drip paint on them. They're great for yard work, too; I can dirty up two or three a day without ever running out of clean shirts. And a couple are souvenirs that I wouldn't part with for anything, like my 1997 Worlds Finalist shirt. Still, 33 T and polo shirts are more than I need – I mean, it's not as if these are the only shirts I own, far from it – so it's past time to ship some of them off to a local thrift store.

Especially considering that my new company just gave the staff sweatshirts with the company logo for Christmas. Only one apiece (we don't have anything akin to a con season, thank goodness), but it's begun, and I don't imagine it'll stop there. Best I make some room now.