Submit Your Local Pride T-Shirt Design Ideas by August 20!

INDEPENDENCE, OH – Celebrating our pride and unity is a hallmark of the SMART Union. 
 
Our Sheet Metal brothers and sisters have a long tradition of displaying hard hat stickers that reflect not only their trade but their strong connection to their local. They put these stickers on their hard hats, lunch coolers, coffee thermoses, and rumor has it that they occasionally appear on the back of a manager’s truck!

TD Members also express themselves through their shirts — we’ve seen some great ones at member gatherings across the country. Let’s show the rest of the world that the transportation side of this union has just as much heart, pride, and creativity. 

To get the ball rolling SMART-TD is launching our first ever Local Pride T-shirt Contest! 

Prizes 

We’ll start with the good stuff: the union will reimburse two winning locals for the production of their shirts. The First-place design will earn up to $2,500 while a People’s Choice award will pay up to $1,500. This can be spent to print new shirts, or to reimburse the local for shirts already produced.  

Submitting a Shirt 

Full details, along with the necessary legalese are at the bottom of this article, but put simply: 

• Send your shirt design to contest@smart-union.org before Aug 20, 2025 
• Any SMART-TD local (bus, freight or transit) can participate. 
• Email either the design file or pictures of your shirt. 
• Finalists will be posted by Aug 22 for online voting. 
• Winners will be announced on Aug 29. 
• Locals will be reimbursed for t-shirt related expenses up to the prize amount. The expectation is that members of the winning locals will receive free shirts with a few left to spare. 

If your local has been on the fence about creating a shirt, this is your call to action. No matter how you choose to share your design, just make sure your local pride is front and center! 

Choosing the Winners 

An impartial judging committee nominated by President Ferguson will review the submissions and select the top five finalists. The committee will select the First-place winner. All five finalists will be posted on the SMART-TD Facebook page to compete for the People’s Choice award. The shirt with the most likes on our page by noon ET on August 28 will win the prize.  

Winners will be formally announced on Friday August 29, just before Labor Day weekend.  

Let’s put our unity, humor, and creativity on full display. Whether it’s bold, funny, classic, or edgy, we want to see what makes your local unique. 

To enter, send your submission to: 
Email: contest@smart-union.org 
Mail: SMART-TD Local Pride Contest 
6060 Rockside Woods Blvd. N., Suite 325 
Independence, OH 44131 

We can’t wait to see what you create! 

Official Rules and Conditions 

Click here to access Official Rules and Conditions for the contest ►