26 T-shirts to celebrate the $2 million donation mark

BUFFALO, N.Y. — “I remember being so excited that we hit $10,000, it’s just, we’re in uncharted territory here,” 26 Shirts founder Del Reid told 2 On Your Side as it was announced that his company had surpassed $2 million in donations to local families and charities.

“When we started the Bills Mafia movement in 2011, it continued to grow very quickly. People were asking us to share and retweet all these different fundraisers and different things that were happening,” Reid explained.

He and his Bible study friends came up with the idea of ​​selling a new shirt every two weeks for a year, to raise money for certain causes.

“Ten and a half years later, after a year-long project, we’re producing two or three T-shirts a week and we’re selling more T-shirts than T-shirts. So the name doesn’t mean anything anymore,” Reid said with a laugh.

He’s right. These days, 26 Shirts sells T-shirts, hats, mugs, flags, aprons – anything Reid says they can use to raise money.

This month, they’re also expanding into the event space by hosting Mafia Con, raising money for PUNT Pediatric Cancer Collaborative and Western New York Heroes on July 20.

“We’re going to have player appearances, podcasters and vendors. So we’re really excited about that. It’s a whole new world that we can enter in terms of hosting events,” Reid said.

Reid says it’s just the latest way his company is continuing its mission: to continue helping as many Western New Yorkers as possible.

“We are always grateful to the community that supports us in our efforts. Without our customers, no money would be raised,” he said. “We will continue to celebrate Western New York and support Western New York in the years to come.”