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TTC Transit Stuff Reaches the End of the Line

By Stephen Michalowicz

20100530ttctransitstuff.jpg
This past Friday, after four years of operating in Union Station, TTC Transit Stuff—the poorly located, perpetually closed, and universally disdained TTC swag store—closed its metal shutters for what might be the last time.


Transit Stuff was opened in 2006 by Legacy Sportswear, a Woodbridge-based apparel outfit, to better make use of the company’s TTC merchandising contract, which it was first granted in 2000.
Since then, it’s received mostly negative attention over the years (if it’s received any attention at all). After it opened, Eye called the shop “a sort of CNE-grade t-shirt store”; BlogTO referred to the merchandise as “ugly, boring, bland and painfully unfashionable”; and former Torontoist contributor Kevin Bracken wrote that “you wouldn’t be caught dead wearing it.”
In four years, nothing changed. In its dying days, Transit Stuff’s shelves were still stuffed with cheap apparel with designs that looked like they were stolen from the 1980s (not in the good way), with knick-knacks, and sweaters for the Leafs, Raptors, and Blue Jays. Perhaps the most authentic part of the store was its grimy interior and utilitarian layout, which managed to perfectly capture the worst of the TTC’s aesthetic.

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TTC Transit Stuff t-shirts.


While Transit Stuff is gone for now, its future remains a mystery.
We tried contacting Rick Ferri, Legacy’s owner, but he didn’t respond to our requests for an interview. In fact, the only person at Legacy that we were able to reach was the former salesperson who operated Transit Stuff. She told us that her boss said that the store was closing because of the upcoming renovations to Union Station, but she wasn’t sure about the store’s future, or Legacy’s. At the moment, the company’s website is down, and nobody’s answering their phones. Not a good sign.
We also contacted Danny Nicholson, the TTC’s corporate communications supervisor. He confirmed that Transit Stuff was closing at the end of May, but wasn’t able to shed any light on Legacy’s plans.

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TTC Transit Stuff buttons.


As it stands, the TTC’s current licensing contract with Legacy is set to expire at the end of 2011. Instead of renewing it again, the TTC should find a company with a little more imagination and set them up with some nicer digs. (Perhaps a place where you won’t have to pay a fare to enter?)
TTC merchandise is never going to be a cash cow—according to Nicholson, the TTC only made six thousand dollars from its deal with Legacy in 2009—but it still has value as a means to help resuscitate the the TTC’s weakened brand. The commission’s recent support for independent entrepreneurial projects, like Spacing‘s station buttons or Torontoist’s custom tees, is a welcome change from its old cease and desist tactics. But it’s simply not enough. The TTC needs a centralized location, like a store, or at the very least a page on its website, where transit enthusiasts can buy TTC-branded goods. The TTC has its fans, so why not make it easier for them to show their love?
TTC Transit Stuff photo by Stephen Michalowicz/Torontoist. All TTC merchandise images are from Legacy Sportswear’s now defunct website. Hat tip to Ed Drass for the discovery.

Comments

  • http://undefined Curtis

    Oh man, those buttons are gross. Is that even supposed to be the CN Tower on the Union Station one?
    Also, they somehow managed to even make Helvetica look bad.

  • http://undefined Robsonian

    i like the button for Bloor station. People, moving in a direction. Good one.

  • Julian

    They really should have taken a cue from Spacing’s buttons & TTC streetcar shirt; they actually look good with a very simplistic aesthetic.
    I like what they tried to do with the images on the buttons (except for the Downsview farting airplane), but the execution is offensively bad.

  • http://undefined Nick

    Yay, finally! Maybe the TTC will take this opportunity to rethink their branding strategy. Dale Duncan also wrote about the TTC’s crappy marketing efforts and about Legacy in her Spring 2006 article in Spacing, “Beware the Ides of Merch?” (issue 06).
    As an aside, I found a list of improvements I put together for making the TTC a “Better Way” as part of Spacing’s call for such ideas in 2006. Three of twelve have been implemented, which I guess is not bad. I noticed too this week that the SMS service for next streetcars, while not yet functional, is active and will send you a text message telling you that the service is coming soon. Slowly but surely!
    Now, if we could just get Presto (or open payment) cards working that would bring our system in line with other well-run systems. Whatever the TTC decides to do, they should scrap the shitty swipe card system they’ve hacked together for fare collection and counterfeit detection, which seems sure to cause boarding delays because of the physical contact required.

  • http://bit.ly/accozzaglia accozzaglia

    So, uh, recap from last week, but TTC marketing originally (and enthusiastically) green-lighted this apparel line, then without a reason given withdrew their support for licensing them for sale. To this moment, no reason has been given for the balking of approval.
    It may not be the end of the story, but things right now are kinda, well, suspended in a terrible coma. I would love nothing more (obviously) to see them brought to life — legitimately. Like Spacing does with its buttons, these shirts would have been sold entirely online at first.

  • http://undefined Gloria

    Probably because that isn’t Helvetica. Doesn’t look right. The proportions are garbage.

  • http://undefined Marc Lostracco

    Back in 2006, when we created some examples of stuff I’d rather see (and subsequently sold a limited run of two designs), I kept an eye on the Transit Stuff store. At the time, nothing they designed even remotely resembled our suggestions.
    A month or two later, they had a whole shitload of new shirts that maddeningly ripped off my designs (mind you, much of these are standard subway wayfinding imagery), yet they also added their own minor special touches to completely uglify them (like not even using an appropriate typeface). Good riddance.

  • http://bit.ly/accozzaglia accozzaglia

    Having worked with them and knowing the branding style guidelines they enforce for their own marketing and communications collateral, I can sort of understand why the Torontoist designs you linked to might not sit well with their visual image strategy. Some of those designs, as is, should be OK to sell without licensing since they have not really been trademarked (similar to the Spacing buttons, as TTC never trademarked the wall patterns). Examples from that lot might include the “Mind the Gap”, “Please do not block doorway”, and “DWA” as not needing their legal permission.
    By contrast, anything signifying the badge, the Pantone colour call-outs, the maps, the resemblance to existing trademarked materials, etc., would have to be licensed with approval from their marketing and procurement departments first. They also have to clear stuff with their legal department. Even after all that, they also have to really like the designs before they’ll give it a go-ahead. They’re really tough in that sense.
    I’ve gone through all this. They already gave their approval. for the “Where are you/I am here, Toronto” series. I still hold the licensing agreement draft. Then they flaked/balked/etc. Maybe they won’t but then again, maybe they might reconsider the idea now that I sort of went public last week with the series, as approved — assuming, of course, they start to hear from people who really want their own station on a shirt.
    It would be a win-win-win for everyone (citizens/visitors, TTC and, uh, me*). G to the R to the R to the R, I do say.
    * That was hard enough to say without sounding all selfish. I’m more interested to see people take visible pride and ownership in their local digs. Each time I see someone with a Spacing button, I smile — even all these years later.

  • http://undefined Miroslav

    I talked to the guy that was at the Mt. Dennis Bus Garage for Doors Open Toronto.
    The store is moving due to renovations at Union Station and the website will be up in about 6 weeks.
    Not sure where they will relocate. Transit Stuff will not be closing for good.

  • http://bit.ly/accozzaglia accozzaglia

    It’s an Arial Narrow or similar knock-off-of-a-knock-off. It’s poorly-eyed design. It’s more busy than it really needs to be. I’m also speaking with a disclosed bias, so it’s best to interpret this with a grain of salt.

  • http://undefined Nick

    Cool designs, accozzaglia! Too bad you got the run-around, but at least you got further than we did in 2006. Hopefully the TTC will reconsider. Our proposal landed in Procurement and we never heard from them again.

  • http://undefined Marc Lostracco

    The problem is that the Legacy Sportswear stuff doesn’t even remotely follow the TTC’s branding guide either. It’s all a random mishmash of bad, stretched typefaces, clip-art–like drawings, and a logo slapped on here and there. Then again, who doesn’t want a lame-ass teddy bear with a tiny “Property of the Toronto Transit Commission” t-shirt on it?!
    As mentioned above, the Union Station CN Tower button pretty much sums up the severe crapidtude. That green swash is supposed to be the Rogers Centre, BTW. Not to scale.

  • http://bit.ly/accozzaglia accozzaglia

    Indeed. That’s actually the perplexing bit. When we had our series of meetings a couple of years ago, there was a sense of hesitance from them pertaining to Legacy’s line of TTC stuff. I think they made some comment about the TTC badge peppered all over a pair of boxer shorts (I cannot remember whether they ultimately approved that for sale or not, but there was a sort of grimace or groan reaction when it was brought up).
    To be perfectly blunt, I thought for Legacy’s Union button above, that was a green crescent moon rising under the CN! I never thought to think, “Oh, that’s the Skydome.” Ick. Their entire line leaves something slightly to be desired, and as Gloria said above, bad forethought on type treatment. But again, I must disclose my own bias here. I don’t want to be a Meanie Melanie about it.
    Anyway, I had planned on making this comment a few hours earlier, but there was this mayoral debate and stuff, and stuff, etc. Then there was beering, birthdaying for a friend, and just being really glad to be alive and back home for a bit.

  • http://bit.ly/accozzaglia accozzaglia

    Cheers, Nick. I’ve come too, too far to let this one go or give up with it. There seems to be something good going for it — in that in three years, virtually every single person to whom I can remember showing these (there might’ve been moments — like tonight — where beers clouded things hither and thither) has responded enthusiastically and sort of impatiently wondered when (not if) they’d be up for sale.
    Following the very recent balking, someone suggested I should just start selling them and set up an escrow for all royalty and just wait for them to green light it again. Then they’d get a lump sum. I will not do that, as it would be jeopardizing, again, something way too dear to my heart. So it’s time to find a public relations maven and a trademark agent and just plough through to some kind of TTC binding agreement to pick up where the last agreement draft left off.
    Even though they would be sold online only at first, I’d hope they do well enough to work out something with a local shirt maker, ideally with organic cotton, to produce them as inventory to sell in stores.
    The beer is talking. I should get that rest before work tomorrow morning. :)

  • http://bit.ly/accozzaglia accozzaglia

    Postscript: All the hard work of designing all 69 stations (actually, there are 72 designs — two for Spadina, two for Kennedy, and two for Old Mill) is done, vetted, and was cleared by them. Now it’s just the formalities and legalities of authorizing sales. -A

  • thelemur

    It’s an oddly newel-post-like CN Tower at that.

  • http://theintrepid.blogspot.com/ Stephen Michalowicz

    It looks like a minaret.

  • http://undefined Rachel Lissner

    I feel strongly represented by the Bloor button.

  • http://undefined EricSmith

    The Union one especially looks like they scrawled something on a napkin and then handed the job off to someone who didn’t even know what it was supposed to be.

    And what the hell is Kennedy supposed to represent? It looks like a badly drawn semaphore signal mixed with something that’s almost, but not quite, entirely unlike the TTC’s subway map.

  • http://undefined thelemur

    It represents travel in directions … away from Kennedy. Let’s see, the green is the BD line, the blue is the RT and the red is … nope. Aw, I give up.

  • http://undefined thelemur

    What about Queen’s Quay, the only non-subway station on the system?

  • http://bit.ly/accozzaglia accozzaglia

    It’s a valid question. Part of it is because it is not on a TTC subway-class line. That is to say that each of the lines use internally by TTC staff their own number designations, from 1 to 4 — or maybe 5, as one of the numbers might have been phased from use after the switch from the 1966 wye scheme to the modern scheme. It’s best not to quote me on this and instead find a rail historian.
    Part of it is that it is not a subway or LRT built in the traditional, dedicated sense of a separate, dedicated infrastructure completely unrelated to existing street morphology. While the station walls for the Spacing buttons offer a conducive vehicle for showcasing the Queens Quay wall, this apparel line focusses more on the lines themselves much the way other apparel lines in other major cities — London, NYC, Tokyo, etc. — do the same.
    What I really wanted to do was also have a “vintage” series based on the 1966 lines and official colours used back then. But that’s more a far-flung fancy than practicality. Obviously, the York extension would introduce more to the series.

  • thelemur

    Those are good arguments; thanks.

  • http://theintrepid.blogspot.com/ Stephen Michalowicz

    I think the red is supposed to represent the bus routes that connect to Kennedy Station. That said, the button is still ugly as sin.