In roughly four years, senior Sabina Marroquin has collected more than 30 Midwestern State University T-shirts. She credits her collection to her range of activities on campus.

Marroquin, a history student also pursuing a certification in secondary education, drum major for the marching band, resident assistant at Killingsworth Hall, Relay for Life member, and the list goes on.

“I have two full drawers of just t-shirts,” Marroquin said. “I have a tub full of the T-shirts I don’t wear underneath my bed, yea but I probably have enough to fill up the whole closet with just T-shirts. I counted the other day, and I have enough maroon shirts to be able to wear a different one every Maroon Friday.”

“It’s cool to display, especially since I feel like a lot of people may not know about MSU,” Marroquin said. “I really love this school a lot and I’ve had a great four years here. And when I get home I’m definitely wearing my MSU T-shirts and telling my friends ‘Oh yeah I’m involved in this and that’ and just having pride for my school.”

Marroquin said her T-shirts gave her the opportunity to advertise for MSU when she went on an internship this summer.  According to her, everyone at the internship knew how to “Stangs Up” by the first week because Marroquin said that’s her go-to pose.

“I had an internship in New Jersey this summer, and by the first week I realized that I was the only person from Texas,” Marroquin said. “By the second week everyone knew where I was from and introduced me like, ‘This is Sabina, she goes to MSU, home of the Mustangs.’ They could go through the whole nine yards.  It’s cool to feel like wherever I go, it’s a part of my identity, and wearing my MSU T-shirts makes it even more obvious.”

Of all the shirts in her extensive collection, Marroquin said her favorites are the ones she didn’t have to buy, like the shirt she got for attending a basketball tournament in Allen, Texas.

“If you see people wearing MSU stuff all the time, it starts making our own little culture,” Marroquin said. “It also promotes school spirit. Also everyone’s broke so who wouldn’t want free T-shirts?”

Mario Ramirez, activities coordinator for student development, said one way his department draws students to campus events is by giving away free incentives such as ink pens, wristbands, flash drives, sunglasses, Frisbees, food, hats, and of course—T-shirts.

“Sometimes we are known as the office of giveaways because we give away a little bit of everything,” Ramirez said. “We’re student development but we are also in charge of student organizations and student activities.  A lot of our purpose is to encourage students to get involved and get out there. I think a good way to definitely get the students out there is giving out incentives. So we have worked a lot of stuff into our budget for that.”

Students have an opportunity next week to get a free MSU T-shirt at the bonfire T-shirt exchange. Starting Oct. 20, students can bring a T-shirt from another university to the student development office and exchange it for an MSU shirt, dooming their old shirt to a fiery fate come next Thursday’s bonfire. For those who don’t want to incinerate their wardrobe, homecoming shirts are also on sale for $10 in the student development office.

“We want shirts mostly from our division and especially people that we play,” Ramirez said. “Mostly just to build that atmosphere of rivalry and school spirit.”

The shirts obtained from the T-shirt exchange are burned during the homecoming bonfire. Ramirez said although rival school shirts are burned, only a small portion of the T-shirts collected actually make it to the fire.

“We don’t burn all the T-shirts, we pick a few out that are shirts of people we play, who are in our division for sports,” Ramirez said. “The rest of them are donated to Goodwill or any shelter that will take them. So we also do some good with that. I would say less than a quarter of them are burned.”

Students will have more chances to get free MSU T-shirts at the torchlight parade leading to the bonfire. Ramirez said T-shirts from past events will be thrown out into the crowd.

“A lot of t-shirts that we throw out into the stands are T-shirts either from Family Day and other past events we’ve had,” Ramirez said. “So we do give away a lot of other T-shirts because we have a lot leftover from other events. We actually have a pile or stock of T-shirts that we keep just for the cheerleaders. Our office is also in charge of the cheerleaders, and they always want to throw something out to the crowd.”

Even student-led organizations have turned to T-shirts to advertise to students and draw them to events.

Just recently, members of the Caribbean Students Organization ordered 350 shirts for Caribfest according to senior Rhea Durand, organizing chair. CSO gave away approximately 10-15, Durand said, selling most of the rest.

“I think any type of giveaway is a type of marketing strategy,” Durand said.  “When you give away shirts other people will see them and ask ‘Where did you get that?’ and then people come over and buy because at that point they’re not thinking that they got that as a giveaway, they’re thinking ‘Well I want that shirt too’. Also it’s to get people excited about our event and raise awareness for CaribFest because I know it’s one of the biggest events on campus but a lot of students don’t know about it.”

Ramirez said giving away T-shirts on campus is not only about marketing and advertising for the university. He said that it’s more of a combination of that and wanting to unify students.

“Sometimes when we sponsor events, we give out T-shirts and we say ‘the first 1,000 people to get here get a free T-shirt’,” Ramirez said. “That makes students want to come to that event. Especially for events that we want to promote the most and we feel like students would get more out of it.”

So while the giveaways are a time-tested marketing tool, Ramirez said his mission as activities coordinator is accomplished as long as students make it to the events where, Ramirez said, greater rewards than a free shirt or flash drive await.

“Even if it’s just a football game or basketball game, we want students to be there and get involved. When they go to these events they’re not just getting a T-shirt out of it, they’re socializing, networking, and having school spirit,” Ramirez said. “And who doesn’t like a free T-shirt?”