I agree that greek week is when the snotty t-shirts come out, it's all good fun and we have a competition for who has the best tshirt every year.

Some past ones we've had;
on the front: "Greek Goddess"
on the back: "On your knees, prepare to worship"

on the front: "-184-" (number of girls in the chapter)
on the back: "Just a reminder of how many butts you'll be kissing when this is all over"

So hilarious yet so evil.

I think one of the biggest uproar was caused by a group that had the slogan "Cheesy t-shirt slogans mean nothing unless you have the sisters to back it up."

There have been a few variations of that one... but that one seems to irritate a few.

The chapter's current athletic shirt says "We bust ours to kick yours!" Definitely a step in a better direction from "Go Hard or Go Home!" :rolleyes:

There is a fraternity at my school that has one of those shirts with the little kid looking down his pants, and it says either "Size really does matter" or "Do you have what it takes." Something like that.
Another one says XYZ Fraternity "What did you do to get in"
And another one has a little boy with his middle finger up and it says "Didn't rush LMN, Fine by us!"

We did a Rush shirt a year or so before I joined that had a little girl looking down a little boys diaper and it said "There Really Is A Difference." I thought it was pretty clever although everybody says the most successful rush shirts were blue and said "RUSH FIJI" in white. We put them out after we'd only been on campus for a couple years and not everyone knew who we were. Everyone said they got a lot of questions about who is FIJI and when events were.

I agree that when making a recruitment shirt, the simple ones, with your name and letters are the most effective. People will be more likely to approach you and ask questions if you're wearing your letters than if you are wearing some obnoxious slogan on your t-shirt. I think obnoxious slogans, while sometimes funny, can really turn people off and therefore hurt your recruitment.

I so agree. When wearing shirts for rush or recruitment, it should be as simple and clear as possible. Comes down to basic product placement.

I would add that in addition to the simple use of name and or letters as most effective, a notable outward visible symbol of your chapter can be used as well. For example, if a replica of your badge, shield, flag, or some symbol is on or displayed at your house, having it replicated on the shirt may help tie the member to the house.

And shirts should primarily use the GLO's colors. Frankly, using another chapter's colors for *your* rush shirt is not in good taste nor does it help to identify *your* chapter. The only exceptions might be if the shirt was in your school's colors, or you use some basic colors for either the base or the lettering - such as black, gray, or white.

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU. I know this is trivial, but I am so sick of seeing hot pink shirts on every sorority girl on campus. If you want to have your own personal letters made in pink, knock yourself out. If you want to have a mixer or party shirt in pink, I guess that's OK too. BUT HI, OUR COLORS ARE PINK AND WHITE, BACK OFF OF IT FOR RUSH AND BID DAY. I'm sorry your colors aren't nearly as sexy as ours, but it really confuses new members when they see another sorority walking around in hot pink shirts.

This year, us, Kappa, and Tri Sig for recruitment all had black shirts with hot pink writing. It was good for AST cuz it made them stand out more from everyone else.

T-shirts are your outward packaging-- they represent your organization and YOU.

But they're just t-shirts. You should be able to use whatever colors you like. ADPi doesn't have universal license to azure blue and white--- nor does Tiffany & Co. You can't trademark a color.

While I am not a big fan of distasteful, in-your-face slogans, I also know I joined a chapter that wouldn't promote such things. And if there was such objectionable material in my chapter and the majority ruled on the slogan, I'd have the right not to wear it.

Slight hijack, but I could've sworn I heard somewhere that Tiffany actually did copyright the color on their boxes, or something like that.

Tiffany and Co. has copyrighted the exact shade of blue that theyuse on their boxes, this means that the details of how the colour is mixed etc can not be given out to anyone else, it does not howvere mean that someone can't have a similar shade of blue with silver on it just that the specific shade is theirs alone.

Tiffany Blue is one of the most famous trademarked colors - but just because Tiffany trademarked it doesn't mean it is off limits. They only own that blue in situations where it could be confused with their products-- similiar to McDonald's yellow... You could paint your car in Tiffany Blue without having repercussion.

Also, a company can trademark the color green, but they only get it for that one product.

So you can use a t-shirt in ADPi colors-- one-- we haven't trademarked azure blue and white, and two-- even if we had, this sort of color trademark doesn't apply to a t-shirt/party favor.

*Using ADPi colors as an example because it is my sorority.

I think the idea of these t shirts appeals to people like me. Weird. No, just kidding. People with a wry, quirky sense of humor. I like Happy Bunny and Happy Bunnyesque humor, but it's not everyone's cup of tea.

As far as how the t shirts might look to non-greeks...IMO, I compare it to the relationship between my mother in law and me. I used to try and get along with her but I've found that, no matter what I do, it ain't gonna happen. Since I've come to this realization, I've been known to amuse myself in her presence by being a smarta$$. "Why bother trying to be nice?", I figure, because she's already decided that she doesn't like me.
May as well have fun with the situation.

I do see, though, that this sort of approach wouldn't be appropriate with people who are on the fence about greeks and greek life.

i tend to like when sororities choose colors that stray from the norm.. it makes them stand out more. last year the dg's recruitment shirts were yellow with pink writing, and it looked fabulous and original. the sororities on our campus tend to do the black or pink deal. i would love, just once, to have done a purple tshirt since no one on our campus ever uses purple.. don't know why we haven't since a lot of our paraphenelia is purple.