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I'm really excited to announce that we're now offering select 26 Shirts designs on You and Who, custom, Made in USA shirts. We have a handful of blank shirts left from the initial order we made back in 2014 to fulfill the Indiegogo campaign - in Heavy Metal(Charcoal), Black, White and Light Blue colors. Any designs that we sell on those color shirts, moving forward, will be available on a Made in USA shirt.

It's satisfying for me because it was such a gargantuan effort to make custom shirts in the US. (read more about how hard it was here) Ultimately, the fact it took almost 10 months to get them made after the campaign ended helped steer You and Who into focusing solely on 26 Shirts, and I'm glad it all worked out. I mean, as of the time I'm writing this we've donated over $230,000 to families in need and foundations in Buffalo, Chicago and Pittsburgh. That's amazing. And honestly the impact is greater with the cash donations we make directly to families than it was when You and Who donated matching shirts to homeless shelters.

The Made in USA shirts cost $6 more because they cost that much more to make. Which is also part of the reason it didn't work out as we found out the hard way that not everyone wanted to pay that much more for a shirt - well really $12 more because it was for two shirts. It brought the You and Who shirts up to $42, vs. the $22 that 26 Shirts shirts sell for. Well, $28 for the made in USA version. But with offering it as an option that someone can choose to pay more, if they decide it's worth it to them, makes way more sense. We only have limited quantities of limited sizes left on hand but who knows - if enough people want them then we can get more blanks made, right here in the USA. (Specifically, Allentown, PA) And this time in a few weeks not 10 months :)

If you do decide to get one, please let me know what you think about it. We call them "butter" shirts internally because they're so crazy soft they're like butter. And we worked and worked on the pattern, with Ali from Anatomy, and it's our own custom fit. I hope you love them as much as I do.

So, while they're still available, you can
get a Peng-Win shirt on Heavy Metal and help Pittsburgher Emma Auker, or
get a Great Dhane shirt on Black and help Buffalonian Charles Battaglia.

26 Shirts is ready to take the next step.

What was originally conceived in November 2013 to be a one-year, Buffalo-minded community service project, has taken on a life of its own and raised over $219,000 for needy families and foundations in three different cities.

As this website continues to NOT be a t-shirt website that helps people, but a website that helps people through t-shirts, we've come to a tipping point. We're at the point now where, if we want to continue to follow the path that appears to be so obviously laid before us, we need to start thinking bigger.

As you know, we currently operate in Buffalo, Chicago, Pittsburgh, and (almost) Cincinnati... But did you know that we've also been reached out to by people in Boston, Charlotte, Cleveland, Columbus, Dallas, Green Bay, Indianapolis, Kansas City, NY/NJ, Oregon, Philadelphia, Seattle, Tampa, and Washington, DC?

The national demand is there, and we want to meet it. There's people in need that can benefit from our unique fundraising model of selling sports-related tees that give back to the community and we want to implement it for them.

But this "next step" is about more than just expansion into new markets. We know we can do a better job of getting the word out about what we do in the four cities we're currently committed to. So many people -- even here in Buffalo, where we're based -- have no idea we exist. That needs to change.

But if 26 Shirts is going to undertake any kind of growth, we're going to need resources to do it.

That's where you come in.

Tomorrow, we're launching a campaign called "March Forward" to raise money towards expanding our operation.

For five consecutive weeks, we're going to offer a unique, limited edition product that will serve as a fundraising device to help us obtain the funding we've identified that we need.

We'll unveil each product when its given week arrives.

Our Week 1 "March Forward" product: 26 Shirts logo hats. We've partnered with New Era and they'll be available as 3930s or 5950s. Here's the cool part... 35 random customers will have their hats arrive signed by one of the following athletes:

• Joe Delamielleure
• Jim Kelly
• Pete Metzelaars
• Fred Smerlas
• Darryl Talley
• Thurman Thomas
• Eric Wood

We still have a few asks out there waiting for replies, so if any other athletes get added to the above list during the week, we'll be sure to let you know!

That's the kind of angle we're going to take with these 5 different products. Each one will have a fun element of randomness to it.

Please keep in mind, we're not suspending operation for a month while we do this. We'll still be raising money to help families in Buffalo, Chicago, and Pittsburgh. Don't stop purchasing those shirts! We're hoping you'll go above and beyond and, basically, INVEST in our operation so that we can make a bigger difference in more people's lives.

I always say that the reason 26 Shirts has been successful is because so many people believe in and play a part in its mission. It's not just Dan and me. It's every customer, artist, sponsor, and social media friend helping spread the word. So, from the bottom of my heart: THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU. I love you guys.

Now let's March Forward and continue to change the game. Together.

Hey. Great news, gang!

We're proud to announce that we've teamed up with Scott Flick of Flicktures for a great promotion we'll be doing now through the Christmas holiday... We're calling it 25 Days of Flicktures.

Each day from now until Christmas, we're going to randomly select one customer from the previous day and have Scott send them an 11x14 print! We can't take too much credit for this, though. It was Scott's idea, and we're thankful that he's willing to do what he can to help promote our shirts this month. Thanks, Scott!

Never heard of Flicktures before? At Flicktures, Scott strives to create one-of-a-kind, pencil-drawn masterpieces from original photographs. You can check out all the work he has available for you to adorn your man cave with at his Etsy shop. He's actually leant his talents to 26 Shirts twice in the past. Check out Marv and Moulson, if you've not seen them before. (And also, SPOILER ALERT: he designed shirt #3 for the current volume -- it launches Monday, Dec 7th.)

So what are you waiting for? Go order a shirt, do some good, and maybe get a pretty sweet little "thank you" sent your way tomorrow!

Have you heard? We're getting ready to launch 26 Shirts in its fourth city... Cincinnati!

We can't wait to help needy families and charitable causes in Ohio's Queen City through unique fan-generated, local sports team-related t-shirt designs.

But we need to make sure that, when we launch, enough people know about 26 Shirts: Cincinnati. While the designs and concepts that we've begun to put together are fantastic, it's the families we help that matter most. Like we always say, "We're not a t-shirt website that helps people, we're a website that helps people through t-shirts."

To help build our audience and get the word out, we're doing a launch contest that will see one lucky winner get free shirts for a year... That's 26 FREE Cincinnati-related shirts, on us!

Entry is easy and you'll even be rewarded for helping. Just go to the Season Ticket giveaway page and "Refer friends for extra entries." You get 3 extra entries for everyone you refer to the contest. AND we're giving away two more free shirts just based on the referrals - one for the person with the most referrals and another random draw from those that referred at least 1 person.

So get your link from the contest page and share it on Facebook, tweet about it, email your friends... Start here! --> 26 Shirts: Cincinnati

For those that are unaware, I'm no longer at Roswell Park. Due to restructuring and the like in the department I was employed in, I was let go two weeks ago.

First things first: I leave with no hard feelings and am grateful for the 14+ years I spent there. So many great memories and friendships were forged on that campus...

It's time for a new chapter though.

So, yes, THIS IS A GOOD THING. I've been praying every day for over a year that God would somehow allow me the chance to devote myself to this website full-time. It's what I feel I am called to do, what I was made to do, and with an amazing, supportive wife beside me, I am (we are) going to DO IT.

God knew that, as a provider for my family, I was never going to have the guts to take that first step... so He was gracious enough to take it for me. :) Now it's just my job to trust Him as I take steps 2 through infinity... and I do.

Whether this eventually succeeds as my sole vocation or not, I'm excited to give it a try. And at the very least I now have the chance to get this out of my system. I don't want to be wondering in 20 years if I could have ever made this work.

And it wouldn't be right if I didn't shout out Dan Gigante, a great friend that I'm honored to be working with at You And Who going forward. (You and Who is the parent company that runs 26 Shirts.)

I'm going to attack this new opportunity and have as much of an impact as the Lord will allow through the concept of offering sports merchandise as a means to help people in their darkest hours.

Thank you for your prayers, kind words, and all that stuff. NOW GO BUY A SHIRT!

Del Reid
Founder, AND BELIEVER IN, 26shirts.com