City
TTC Apparel: Uglier Than...
Today, Toronto's infamously boneheaded TTC Commissioner, Howard Moscoe, was on hand to proudly unveil the new TTC Merch shop in Union Station.
When I heard the news originally, I was excited to hear about it. Finally, the TTC marketing itself in to tourists and the general public. What potential! Other transit commissions have done this well and with great success.
Perhaps I would finally have an opportunity to pluck my Spacing subway button from my NYC A-Train t-shirt and place it on something more appropriate.
Then I watched some news footage of the merch that surrounded Mr. Moscoe and was swept by sadness. What a total failure. What a missed opportunity. What ugly, boring, bland and painfully unfashionable gear.
The shirts, pins, etc, produced for the TTC store look more like corporate giveaways than something anyone would want to purchase. Boring logo shirts with a the motto-of-sorts, "Toronto's Underground."
Ok, so they're obviously trying to focus on the "underground" (ie. subway), so where is anything subway related? The boring old TTC logo/banner is just embroidered or stamped on anything and everything out of a marketer's catalogue.
The whole thing looks like a project that got dumped on someone's desk, they called up a clothing company, ordered some shirts. When I was on student council in high school we ordered the same sort of merchandise to make school clothing.
Now the storefront itself, is pretty, but the shop clerk will forget how to use the register by the time they sell an item. Oh, and you have to pay a fare to get to the store.
If you're going to do something, do it right. Understandably, people at the TTC are not in the business of doing this sort of stuff... what they do, is run transit. So with that knowledge, why is it they could find one of many local genius marketing companies to handle this? Any volunteers?
And lastly, (really, I mean it) where are the streetcars? Like San Fran, tourists see trolleys and they love 'em... so market the streetcar for the love of tracks... it's our local specialty!
Update: Good article at Eye Weekly with more lovely details.
Discussion
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Is the new stuff uglier than this stuff, or is this the new stuff?
It's classier logos on the same stuff I think. Looked like all the items within sight were black with the red logo and silver/while "Toronto's Underground" over and over...
I sooooo want these ;)
That sucks. Why can't they make stuff like the London Underground?
Maybe we should revive our t-shirt idea with a focus on transit? Fill that gap in the market like Spacing did with buttons?
Given how little of our transit system is actually underground, I find it hilarious that they actually are promoting that part of it.
And yeah, man those are ugly.
I think outsourcing TTC merchandising to the loyal fans might be the best thing they can do. Get people like the Spacing folk and Sean Lerner and all to create merchandise people really want (like the buttons) and have the TTC sell them. Spacing (and others) gets paid, TTC gets paid, and our transit system gets the promotion and loyalty indicators it so desperately needs.
Eh, it's a thought.
Or, I could have just read the Eye article where they were saying the same thing I said above. Oops.
That Legacy Sportswear is one of the most poorly made amatuer merch sites I've ever seen! I can't see them getting a lot of ebusiness with that!
I don't care how much anyone loves the ttc, if I saw anyone wearing this stuff I'd snicker at them :P
Sameer
then they couldn't have rewarded the same idiots who have already had the contract for years.
Someone needs to redo the photos on the web site. Some of them are pixellated beyond belief!
I can't believe there are no mock turtlenecks.
Uglier than Ford/Moscoe slagging match
I'm currently doing a school project on redesigning the TTC logo. I'd appreciate any feedback, thanks.
"Toronto's underground" is the best they could do? That's beyond sad.
The following, however, must be done:
http://www.torontoist.com/archives/2006/10/our_ttc_swag_su.php
I so want one.