Where to begin? It was the best of times. It was the worst of times. It was yours truly, author of this web log, trying to figure out what I wanted to do with my promotional product business for the umpteenth time.

My epic decision to create and sell luggage items decorated with collegiate logos has been over 30 years in the making. It took the intersection of multiple lines of destiny in my life to make it happen. And, to the fortunate readers of this story, my journey culminates here, with you shopping for Victorinox® brand Swiss Army luggage, travel and business gear, decorated with your beloved university's logo.


BACKGROUND

My earliest experience selling logo decorated merchandise was back in the 1970's when my company produced and sold rock and roll tour t-shirts. We purchased the plain shirts from the mills, and screen printed them ourselves. Then we loaded them on a truck and basically "went on tour" with the band. It was a fun time for all, and a real study in human nature. Here were fans ready and willing to pay us $5 for a t-shirt that cost us perhaps $1.25 including the screen printing.

This was also when I learned that America's youth still needed work on their math skills. We had signs posted everywhere at our merchandise booth reading: T-Shirts are $5.00 each. Fans would line up like good little citizens and wait their turn and when I would turn to the next person in line and say: "May I help you?" They would always ask: "How much for one t-shirt?" I learned that it was easiest to simply reply: "All of the shirts are five dollars each." They would then ask: "Well, how much for two shirts?"

During the next decade I watched with a mixture of amusement and dismay as the price of t-shirts quickly climbed from $5 up to $10 each. Plus, no matter how hard we tried, everyone wanted black t-shirts making it necessary to print a white undercoating on the shirts and then quick-cure the coating using a glorified "toaster" first before adding the design colors so they would still look good. This process is now known as the "Flash Cure" and is named after Bernie "Flash" Flannery who accidentally stood up too quickly after examining how the toaster had cured the white ink. His personal cure required nearly 2 gallons of aloe.


COLLEGE MERCHANDISE

One of the most mature and established markets for merchandise bearing a custom logo is the collegiate market. Prior to 1981 if someone wanted to put a university or college logo on something and sell it, there was nothing stopping them. Products ran the gamut from every conceivable kind of shirt, cap, jacket, sweater (and basically, anything you could wear) to cups, mugs, stadium seats, car flags, license plates, banners, statuettes, chairs, tables, jewelry, tote bags, rain ponchos, umbrellas, plush toy mascot replicas, welcome mats, blankets, pillows, window decals, trailer hitch covers, cigarette lighters, drink koozies, glassware, flasks, pocket knives, pens, pencils, and left-handed smoke-shifters. I think you get the idea.

I mentioned 1981 earlier because that was the year that Bill Battle first created the Collegiate Licensing Company. Their mission was to control the use of a given school's logo so that two important things occurred:

1. The school would be paid a royalty if and when their logo was applied to any item intended for retail sale.
2. The item and the decoration thereon had to both conform to a set of standards established by the school and enforced legally by CLC.

As of 2006, the Collegiate Licensing Company had celebrated its 25th year of operation, with more than $500,000,000 in cumulative royalties earned on sales of licensed collegiate merchandise and a customer list of more than 200 of the largest universities in the U.S.

I told you that so I could tell you this:


WE ARE LICENSED WITH CLC

Our company holds an exclusive license with the Collegiate Licensing Company for collegiate logo luggage, travel gear and business gear by Victorinox® Swiss Army Brands. We are the only company in the U.S. that has been granted this license to put your schools' logos on our luggage line. Furthermore, we are the only company in the U.S. offering luggage items with collegiate logos.

• Do you consider yourself a loyal alumnus and fan?
• Do you have a room in your house that is decorated in your alma mater's colors, and filled with memorabilia that you have collected from all four corners of the Globe?
• When you are cut, do you bleed in your school's colors?

If you answered "yes" then isn't it reasonable for you to let your next purchase of travel and business gear come from our fantastic line of Swiss Army products?

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