National
Clothesline
In April, the baseball season began, and,
for two drycleaners out West, that meant performing a little
extra cleanup work for a couple of Major League Baseball
franchises.
Dave Silliman and his Uptowne Drycleaning business in Phoenix, AZ, was officially chosen
as the “Preferred Drycleaner of the Arizona
Diamondbacks.”
Over in California, Gordon Shaw of
Hangers Cleaners also enjoys some endorsement perks for
providing cleaning services to many employees and players of
the San Diego Padres.
Both drycleaners are big baseball fans,
so it’s no surprise that they didn’t balk at the
chance to do some major league cleaning.
Silliman has been cleaning clothes for
many high-ranking members of the Arizona Diamondbacks and
Phoenix Suns organizations for decades, but it wasn’t
until one of them noticed his IFI Award of Excellence logo on
the wall that he landed a big contract.
“The bottom line is that somebody
saw the Award of Excellence logo, and we had a good reputation
with them already,” Silliman explained. “They just
called me and asked if I wanted to be their preferred
drycleaner. I think the thing that they really like is that I
have the Award of Excellence, and, in their eyes and in the
public’s eyes, it just puts me a step ahead of everybody
else.”
After agreeing to a contract with the
Diamondbacks that runs through December 1, he received a few
signing bonuses.
“I have 162 30-second commercials
that Greg Shulte [the play-by-play radio man for the
Diamondbacks] does for me on the radio, KTAR 860 AM,”
Silliman noted. “I have a full page ad in the game day
program and in Diamondbacks magazine. Then I have the right to
use their logo, and I get season tickets with a parking pass in
Chase Field garage.”
The contract does not include the
cleaning of the team’s uniforms, however. Silliman
believes that there are laundry facilities on site at
Arizona’s ballpark.
“Their uniforms are all polyester
anyway,” he laughed. “You can run them over with a
truck and you wouldn’t hurt them.”
Silliman is a long-time baseball fan. He
was even present at Game Seven of the World Series in 2001 at
Bank One Ballpark as the Diamondbacks came back in the bottom
of the ninth after trailing the New York Yankees 2-1.
When Luis Gonzalez’s bloop single
scored the winning run, it gave the state of Arizona its first
professional sports championship, so it’s no wonder that
Silliman is excited about being allowed to use the team’s
logo at his plants.
“I have the logos slapped on
everything I have now,” he said. “I have them on
all of my hangers and the covers that go on the first garment
in every order. I have them on my truck. That’s probably
the neatest aspect of the whole contract. To get to say that
I’m the ‘Preferred Drycleaner of the Arizona
Diamondbacks,’ well, that’s pretty neat.”
Of course, that doesn’t mean it has
been easy. In recent months, Uptowne’s business has shot
up faster than a struggling pitcher’s ERA. It is
difficult to quantify from where all of the new business comes.
“Be careful what you wish
for,” Silliman laughed. “We’ve been up like
18 to 22 percent for four months in a row over last year. So,
is it the Diamondback affiliation? Is it the Award of
Excellence? I don’t know. I just know that I have new
faces here and more work than we’ve had in a long, long
time.”
In San Diego, Shaw does not enjoy the
same “Preferred Drycleaner” status as Silliman, but
he has certainly capitalized on his business’s proximity
to the local sports teams’ home stadiums.
“My plant is right next to Qualcomm
Stadium,” he said. “A lot of the younger players
for the Chargers and Padres live in these real upscale
apartments right near the stadium. Then, when the Padres built
a new ballpark downtown, I also have a store right next to
that.”
Thanks to the convenient location, Shaw
has provided a lot of cleaning for Padres’ front office
personnel over the years. Four years ago, the assistant general
manager approached him and asked if he’d be interested in
doing some pickup and delivery work for the team.
“I don’t really do pickup and
delivery, but it was one of those things where it might be
convenient,” Shaw said. “The deal I have worked out
is the clubhouse manager has a bunch of our VIP bags and every
April he tells a lot of the players about the service and he or
one of his assistants drop it off. I give them a discount
— not that they need it — but they feel more
important if they get a discount.”
Shaw extended the discount and service
for the office staff, as well, and then TV broadcasters Matt
Vasgersian and Matt Grant asked him if he could clean their
clothes in exchange for a liner credit at the end of each game
broadcast.
“It works out to about $3,000 worth
of cleaning and laundry per season,” Shaw noted.
“But, right before the copyright, it says
‘Drycleaning services provided by Hangers Cleaners’
with the logo. I figured it out. It’s costing me about
$12 per game, which is quite a bargain.”
The extra publicity doesn’t hurt,
but Shaw prefers the other advantages of working with the
Padres — the same team that brought back his love for the
game after he had given up on the sport back in 1964.
During that year, he had rooted heartily
for the Philadelphia Phillies, who had a pennant race all
wrapped up, then inexplicably lost their final ten games of the
season. Shaw was so heartbroken that he didn’t watch
another game for 14 years.
In the late 1970s, however, he rekindled
his passion for the game and has been a season ticket holder
for the Padres since 1982.
Nowadays, he often pops up to the
broadcast booth where he meets many famous baseball
personalities, including Tommy Lasorda and Fernando Valenzuela.
He also has met several current players in his plant and has
gotten to know their habits.
“Baseball players are better
dressers than football players,” he said. “They go
on the road for a week, week and a half, and eat out at
restaurants every night. They all have tons of Tommy Bahama
stuff. When the Chargers go out of town though, they fly out
and then fly right back. They tend to wear a lot of baggy jeans
and Sean John shirts. Some of them do actually get them
drycleaned and pressed. They maintain them, but they
don’t dress up like baseball players.”
Even though baseball players tend to be
better customers, the ups and downs of their lifestyle often
makes them inconsistent as customers.
“I remember one pitcher the Padres
had. He wasn’t very good, but he was a good
customer,” Shaw recalled. “He brought in a ton of
clothes and was a good dresser. He had a whole bunch of stuff
in here and he asked, ‘How do I get to be a
VIP?’.”
Unfortunately, getting a better discount
was the least of his problems.
“I had just watched the game the
previous night,” Shaw added. “He had given up like
seven runs in two-thirds of an inning. I was thinking,
‘You don’t need the bags. We better start doing
rush service on your clothes because you’re going
down.’ He got sent down to the minors the next day.
That’s one of the funny things that you have to deal
with.”
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