T-Shirts can be a problem. As anyone who has ever had to order a bunch of shirts for some charity function knows predicting the sizes of people is hard. A few smalls, some mediums, a lot of larges, some XL and XXL, with a few XXXL for good measure. Or worse, just got with a lot of XL's since "that'll fix everyone".
I've known many techies over the years who wear a size 50 suit (if not larger), and they do gripe about shirt-size availability. With the advent of online registration and "Shirt size" on conference registration forms the shirt ordering process can move from the buggy statistical model to the 'give them what they asked for' model. No need to worry about getting 15 or 25 4XL shirts and having a lot of massive leftovers, just order what they asked for. Problem solved!
Unfortunately, this is a much harder problem for women. I know several women who have a bust size north of 50 inches, and they're also the type who go to technical conferences. The same XXL shirt on the 50-inch chest men does not fit nearly as well on a woman. The shoulders droop, there is a complete absence of shaping, and the shirt is likely to be far too long. If that shirt gets worn, it'll be worn at the conference and then binned.
But even offering women's sizes is no panacea. A great breakdown of why this is can be found here:
http://geekfeminism.wikia.com/wiki/T-shirts
An example taken straight from the wiki article, take a look at ThinkGeek's sizing chart:
http://www.thinkgeek.com/help/sizing-info.shtml
The 50-inch chest woman is still out of luck, since the largest ThinkGeek offers is 42 inches.
Take American Apparel's size-chart, Somewhat better at 46 inches, but that 50-inch chest woman attempting to wear a shirt like that will end up with an over-emphasized bust.
Larger shirts can be found, and it reflects well on the conference when it provides swag that makes attendees actually want to be seen in it.
I've known many techies over the years who wear a size 50 suit (if not larger), and they do gripe about shirt-size availability. With the advent of online registration and "Shirt size" on conference registration forms the shirt ordering process can move from the buggy statistical model to the 'give them what they asked for' model. No need to worry about getting 15 or 25 4XL shirts and having a lot of massive leftovers, just order what they asked for. Problem solved!
Unfortunately, this is a much harder problem for women. I know several women who have a bust size north of 50 inches, and they're also the type who go to technical conferences. The same XXL shirt on the 50-inch chest men does not fit nearly as well on a woman. The shoulders droop, there is a complete absence of shaping, and the shirt is likely to be far too long. If that shirt gets worn, it'll be worn at the conference and then binned.
But even offering women's sizes is no panacea. A great breakdown of why this is can be found here:
http://geekfeminism.wikia.com/wiki/T-shirts
An example taken straight from the wiki article, take a look at ThinkGeek's sizing chart:
http://www.thinkgeek.com/help/sizing-info.shtml
The 50-inch chest woman is still out of luck, since the largest ThinkGeek offers is 42 inches.
Take American Apparel's size-chart, Somewhat better at 46 inches, but that 50-inch chest woman attempting to wear a shirt like that will end up with an over-emphasized bust.
Larger shirts can be found, and it reflects well on the conference when it provides swag that makes attendees actually want to be seen in it.