Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senator Jake Maccoby is spearheading a project to increase Tufts' presence in Boston by having vendors throughout the city sell Tufts-related merchandise.
Maccoby, who is also an editorialist for the Daily, noticed that merchandise advertising other area universities was available in Boston stores. Such institutions as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Northeastern University and Harvard University offer clothing and other merchandise, but Tufts is lacking in this department.
Maccoby said that selling Tufts apparel would be a publicity boost for the university. "I think that Tufts and the Tufts administration are always trying to get the Tufts name out there any way they can," Maccoby said.
He hopes that the campaign will help Tufts gain recognition as a top school in the area and throughout the country.
"Everybody knows that we're here, but you don't see us around as much as some of the other schools," he added.
TCU Historian Alex Pryor is also working on the campaign. "It's kind of strange when you go into Boston and you go into Cambridge and they have sweatshirts and T-shirts from other schools but not from Tufts," she said. "Tufts is a major university in the city and it's a very good university, and there's no reason it shouldn't be represented."
Maccoby and Pryor are currently working with vendors, manufacturers and Tufts administrators to produce apparel like T-shirts and sweatshirts. "The idea was at least to try and see if we can start anything," Maccoby said.
It will be possible to maintain the promotion of Tufts merchandise in Boston "if we get a vendor who's willing to try this, and then we do well," he said.
"We're going to try to be proactive," Pryor said. "It's the first year we're seriously allocating resources and time to it."
Maccoby added that the administration has helped as the project has progressed. "The school has actually been fantastic," he said. "Everyone's totally on board with this." He cited Tufts' lawyers and President Bacow as main sources of support.
Maccoby said that there are many problems he must solve before enacting the hoodie campaign, explaining that finding willing vendors could be a difficult mission.
"The difficulty is getting a hold of vendors that will do this ... There's no downside for the school, we just need to find the vendors," he said.
He added that in order to convince vendors to carry Tufts gear, there must be a viable market for the merchandise so that vendors can expect to profit.
"All the basic groundwork has been done; it's just a matter of negotiating and encouraging vendors to take to our idea," Pryor added.
"The idea hopefully was ... to put things in parts of Boston where the Tufts name isn't out there as much," Maccoby said. He is considering finding vendors in places like Faneuil Hall or Logan Airport.
According to Maccoby, finding willing vendors also means creating a demand and a market for the merchandise. "We would need to drive up a lot of interest," Maccoby said.
Theoretically, the merchandise being sold by outside vendors would be cheaper than that sold by the Tufts bookstore.
Maccoby stressed that the purpose of the campaign is to give Tufts "more representation in the Boston" area, and is meant to boost Tufts' exposure more than to make a profit. "We're not trying to make money off of it," he said.
Maccoby said that the TCU Senate would most likely provide the money for starting the campaign, but this is not yet definite. In any case, the situation would be financially "no-risk," he added, because "we would have a commitment from the vendors before we purchase the product."
For this reason, he proposes that Tufts sell merchandise to vendors at about the same price as it costs to make the clothing. He hopes that this will make the sale of Tufts gear profitable for outside vendors.
