Excel Sportswear’s Interview with our Featured “Design of the Week.”
Our special holiday “Design of the Week” goes to the Aberdeen Fire Department in Aberdeen, Maryland. We’ve been doing holiday themed shirts for them over the years, and this fun 2018 design features Santa looking over his map while his elves prep his sleigh for deliveries.
Fire Chief Steven Hinch tells us the shirt celebrates their annual “Christmas Street” fundraiser, an event they’ve held for the past 20 years. It’s their biggest fundraising event of the year, one their whole staff of 74 volunteer members and 42 EMS providers cherish because of the level of interaction with the citizens of Aberdeen and the surrounding areas.
The Christmas-themed Aberdeen VFD shirt has become sort of an annual tradition here at Excel. “I believe this is our fifth or sixth shirt and we have had nothing but great comments about the work of the company providing the shirts,” says Chief Hinch.
Artist Eric Poole has drawn the past four Christmas shirts for Aberdeen. Last year’s design featured a Grinch being loaded into an ambulance, the year before that the department helping Santa’s sleigh out of a ditch.
“I enjoy them every year,” says Eric. “They’re fun. They take extra time because of the detail, but it’s always worth it in the end. They come out great.”
And it’s the detail that Chief Hinch says is their favorite part of the yearly shirts.
