Chicago & the Great Lakes

Hometown designs for the part of the map we ship to

Chicago in collegiate arches, script, skyline, stars and a boarding pass; Illinois wordmarks; Detroit in script and as an Est. 1701 map; Cleveland script for the neighbours. City designs with no team marks in them, which is the only reason they can be printed and resold at all.

Where these actually sell

All year, in three places: market tables, boutiques that carry a small local shelf, and the merch table at a brewery or a venue. The pattern is consistent — a visitor buys the skyline, a resident buys the script. Pressed on heather grey or black they read as bought-downtown rather than bought-online, which is the whole point of the category.

The shipping argument is strongest here

These are designs for this region, printed in this region. An order placed on a business day prints that day and goes out the same afternoon, and a city address is the shortest ground leg we run. A national supplier prints the identical file and then puts it on a five-to-eight day economy tier, which is the difference between restocking a table before the weekend and restocking it after.

Wisconsin addresses sit one leg north of the press, and the current carrier bands by region are published.