As the COVID-19 vaccine continues to roll out, businesses large and small have been offering an array of incentives to encourage people to get the jab. Krispy Kreme is giving away a free glazed doughnut when someone shows their vaccination card through the end of 2021; other companies are offering various discounts to shoppers who get their shots.

It’s a marketing incentive that’s also made its way into the promo industry. Over the last two months, Uniforms for America (asi/529543) has given out more than 7,000 free T-shirts to Georgia nurses, seniors and teachers for getting vaccinated. “It’s been great,” owner Michelle Thompson says. “Our business has doubled since COVID happened. Now everybody knows about us. They just come in and see all the other stuff we do.”

The vaccination T-shirts were a way to draw people into Thompson’s healthcare uniform store, which has two locations in the Atlanta suburbs. In addition to selling scrubs, Uniforms for America also sells assorted retail goods and promotional products, and offers screen printing and embroidery. The distributor was declared an essential business at the beginning of the pandemic, and since then, Thompson says she’s tried to “think outside the box” to keep the doors of her 20-year-old business open and her 10 workers employed.

Early on, like so many others, Thompson sold masks through her store. Eventually, however, she says, “We decided we needed to come up with something else to keep people coming in and get ahead of the game.”

Uniforms for America first gave out shirts to nurses and seniors who came into the store and showed their vaccination card. When the state’s eligibility requirements opened up to teachers, Uniforms for America was ready – getting a flyer with the shop’s address and details of the promotion to every teacher who received the vaccine. “We gave out 2,000 T-shirts in two days, and they’re still coming in,” Thompson says.

The free T-shirt giveaway was featured on the local news, and the video spread across social media, prompting people from out of state to inquire about the vaccination tees. Thompson recently shipped out 10 tees to someone in California who asked to buy the shirts. “It’s been crazy,” she says of all the attention.

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