WEST BOYLSTON – Moments after shell-shocked New England fans started commiserating about the Patrots’ crushing defeat, the production line at NewTek DesignGroup of West Boylston was in full swing, printing licensed NFL T-shirts commemorating the Philadelphia Eagles as the Super Bowl LII champion.
Wearing a Super Bowl LI Champion New England Patriots long-sleeve which his printing company made last year, NewTek co-owner Mark H. Euler said Sunday’s big game didn’t turn out the way he was hoping, but his business still had a job to do.
“Obviously, I would rather be printing Patriots shirts,” Mr. Euler said soon after the Super Bowl ended. “I have a lot of relatives texting me before the game, asking me to save them a Super Bowl Champion New England Patriots T-shirt.”
As one of several screen printers responsible for creating official shirts for the NFL, NewTek Design Group’s initial order was a combination of 15,000 Patriots long- and short-sleeve shirts, with a stand-by order of 6,000 Eagles shirts in case Tom Brady didn’t deliver New England to a sixth Vince Lombardi trophy.
Once again, NewTek didn’t know whether they were going to be printing Super Bowl Champion New England Patriots jerseys until the bitter end.
“Anytime the Patriots play, it’s always a last minute win or lose,” Mr. Euler said. “Whether it’s the Giants (who won against the Patriots in Super Bowl XLII in 2008 and Super Bowl XLVI in 2012) or everybody else, it always seems to come down to the last minute.”
And this Sunday was no different.
While this is the first time NewTek printed championship jerseys for an opponent of a New England or Boston team, this is not the first time they had a possibility of printing up jerseys for an opponent’s team.
“Last year for the Patriots, we printed about 9,000 youth shirts and they actually sent us in about 1,500 heather grays to cover themselves for the Falcons,” Mr. Euler said. “But obviously, we didn’t have to do that so those go right back on a truck and they’re out of there.”
Also last year, no matter the outcome of the big game, NewTek knew they were going to be printing up shirts, which wasn’t always the case. And, Mr. Euler said it was a big letdown in 2008 and 2012 when they were ready to print, and Eli Manning brought the New York Giants to Super Bowl victory.
“It’s deflating to lose a game and just come in and load everything back up on the truck,” Mr. Euler said. “They pay us a nominal fee for loading and unloading the truck and having the presses ready to print and everybody’s, kind of, ready to go. But, other than that, it’s by no means a money maker and no means even worth doing if you’re not printing.”
As for Super Bowl LII Championship shirts this year, the advance orders were running 4-to-1 in favor of the Eagles, Mr. Euler said.
“For every one shirt that they were pre-ordering for Patriots, they were getting four times as that for Philadelphia,” Mr. Euler explained. “In other words, if they ordered 150,000 shirts for New England planning on the win, Philadelphia was up over 600,000. Just think about it. New England fans are just adding to their wardrobe now with another Super Bowl, whereas Philadelphia, they have never won.”
With close than a million T-shirts printed for the 2016 World Series Champions Chicago Cubs (after a 108-year World Series championship drought), Mr. Euler thinks the industry underestimates the number of transplants that would want a Super Bowl Championship jersey of their favorite team and questions why they are not made available outside the winning team’s home turf.
“I don’t understand for the life of me why they would think there are not Philadelphia fans in New England, just like there are New England fans in Philadelphia,” Mr. Euler said. “People are transplanted everywhere.”
NewTek was started in 2004 in Millbury and moved to West Boylston in 2009.
On Sunday night, Mr. Euler said he expects they will be printing two different styles of short-sleeves, youth-size Super Bowl Champion Philadelphia Eagles shirts up to 6 or 7 a.m. Monday until they are finished.
“One style has more colors (seven colors in all). We’re going to do that on the larger press,” Mr. Euler said. “And one style has less colors (five colors in all) and we’ll do that on the other press.”
Twenty-four printed shirts are packed in each box. Forty-nine boxes are put on each pallet. A truck will come early Monday morning and transports the shirts to a distribution center. Then the shirts are shipped and made ready for purchase by Monday morning at area retailers.