How I Received Free Shirts from Colleges Across the Country

Have you ever had one of those ideas where it seems ridiculous, but at the time, you wonder why you’ve never thought about before? I have.

It all started at the end of November when I had ankle surgery. Much to my dismay, this pretty much sentenced me to a life of couch sitting for at least 2 months. As boredom ensued, I spent most of my time in the unexplored depths of the internet which really just means I was reading random people’s blogs and searching for ways to get free stuff.

The first search I made was for a list of companies that gave away free stickers because I thought it might add a little excitement to my day to add new stickers to my water bottle. Which, might I add, was exciting. I received quite a few stickers from a very diverse group of companies. Mt. Hood Meadows Ski Resort, Osprey, Chaco, In-N-Out Burger and Fish Hippie to name a few.

After I’d sent out all of my emails requesting stickers, which only took a total of five minutes, I found myself in the same state of boredom.

Then, I had an idea.
(This is where the reason for this whole post becomes really apparent).

My idea was this: what if I emailed a bunch of colleges and asked them for stickers? Or, better yet, because these are big schools we are talking about with loads of money, why not ask for a t-shirt?

Brilliant! Why had I never thought of this before? Every time I had visited a college when I was in high school, I got loaded up with free gear from these schools.

I decided to do a little research because I was sure I wasn’t the only person who had thought of this and I was correct! I ended up reading this awesome blog about a guy who received over 300 t-shirts after he read a blog about a guy who got over 800 or so t-shirts.

With all the time in the world, I started on my emails.

I ended up sending out around 400 emails to various schools around the country and I even included a couple Canadian ones requesting free apparel and information packets. You know, to make me seem like less of a free loader.

Immediately, I started receiving emails back. Most of them were telling me that they wouldn’t be able to send me any apparel. Two days later, I received my first t-shirt. It was from William Peace University in Raleigh, NC.

After the first one, I was getting at least one shirt a day and lots of information packets. My mailman was kind enough to put them on my front porch, but I think it was mostly because I was getting so much mail that he couldn’t fit it in the box.

I ended up getting over 40 shirts, plus a lot of other "swag," as many of the college reps called Majority of the people in the admission offices were nice and very helpful!

My absolute favorite interaction was with St. Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary. Father David was such a sweetheart and even included a handwritten note. I think he was as excited that someone was asking for a t-shirt as I was to receive one.

Initially, I was only doing it to get free shirts because who doesn’t love to rock a t-shirt from an obscure school that no one has ever heard of? But, the more I thought about it, I knew I didn’t really need all of these shirts. So, I kept my favorites and donated the others to a homeless shelter.

All in all, this was a fun experiment. Not only did I get some free stuff and make my time of boredom a bit more fun, but I learned a lot about some really cool schools that I’d never heard of prior to all of this.

If any of you decide to give this a try, I’d love to hear about your experience. Also, feel free to get in touch if you have any questions about any of the process.