BROOKLYN — A former postman is looking for a stamp of approval from the U.S. Postal Service when it comes to updating the agency’s uniforms.
Marty Grace, who worked as a mail carrier at a Bedford-Stuyvesant post office and other locations for 22 years, creates his own USPS gear and sells the merchandise to postal workers around the country, he said.
“I got involved because of the need,” Grace said. “The light blue shirts we were wearing were always getting dirty, and everybody wanted something fresh-looking.”
Grace, 48, has been selling his shirts since 2002 and recently launched an online petition asking the federal agency to approve the designs. Read more
In 2008, Grace claimed that USPS banned him from all 52 post offices in Brooklyn after selling his self-designed brand of postal apparel to former colleagues. The USPS styled T-shirts, hoodies and polos were a big hit with Brooklyn letter carriers, but postal officials refused to accept his brand of postal apparel.
These look SO generic. And I don’t know if his shoes are comfortable or not (anything is more comfortable than postal-issued shoes), but while some postmasters might not care what carriers wear as long as they are black, official postal-approved shoes do not have manufacturers names or logos on them except where they can’t be seen, e.g., insole inserts, bottom of the shoe, etc. Plus, I’m pretty sure the Eagle head he’s using is trademarked.
https://about.usps.com/doing-business/rights-permissions/administrative-and-royalty.htm
I don’t mind the current crop of shirts; I just wish they’d find a way to bring back the red and blue pinstripes–and maybe make them with more UV protection.
If I sold t-shirts with NBA team names, adding http://www.NBA.com URL addresses on the back will not stop the NBA from suing me. (At the very least, a cease-and-desist letter will be sent.)
Grumpy is right. The stylized eagle and “USPS” are most likely trademarked or copyrighted and Gray should not be using them without authorizations.
That said. I just don;t think I like his designs. It is probably time to give the light blue shirts the heave-ho and go with a different color. Dark colors would not show the dirt, but would be hot in the summer. Also – keep the logo patch. It is iconic and recognized world-wide. I think there is something to be said for postal workers in uniform looking professional, rather than some schmuck who works at Best Buy.
makes too much sense so they wont go for it
There are trademark laws to consider, and while this fellow certainly has his heart in the right place, the USPS does have the legal right to not allow his custom wear to be worn as official gear.
Otherwise, it would be nice to have cotton tees with a pocket for summer. I don’t really care about the pants and shorts except they’re always scratchy and could be a lot softer. I wear the blue polo shirts which are an improvement over the button up shirts for me personally, although most still prefer those styles over the polo shirts.
The NFL has shirts for its team apparel called something like quick dry or something to that effect. I have two and they’re wonderful in summer heat, and when they do get a little wet with sweat or rain they dry out fast, like the name suggests. Whether they would be durable enough for postal use is another story, and on park and loops I imagine you could wear them out at the shoulders fairly quickly, but to offset that likelihood they could be somewhat lower in price.
But before we worry about new updated uniform styles, we have got to get rid of those damn LLV’s before more carriers get severely injured or killed. I’ve taken several other LLV’s while my piece of shit truck was being worked on, and every last one of them including mine are in terrible condition. None of them run right, some die all day long, the steering tries to give out and just about every other problem you can imagine. Plus they look like hell, and embarrass us drivers who have to drive these ugly bastards. We could have replaced the fleet with the savings from tires that would not have had to be purchased if the Grumman idiots and postal management hadn’t approved the chassis that had misaligned front and rear axles. But when management knows it all, you can’t tell them much of anything.