After its beloved Cubs ended a 108-year drought, winning their first World Series since 1908, the city of Chicago was ready to celebrate. Hundreds of thousands of fans showed up for the November 4th victory parade, where 278 light pole banners lined the route, proclaiming “#FlytheW.”
The parade took place just over 30 hours after a groundout sealed the Cubs victory in Cleveland. But the banners didn’t appear out of thin air.
Ken Sitkowski of Bannerville USA shares the stringent schedule his shop followed in the days surrounding the final game of the series:
“The Cubs provided us with artwork for the light pole banners on Friday, October 28th. However, they did not give us permission to begin printing any of the banners until 3:30 p.m. on Wednesday, November 2nd. The deciding game of the World Series was that evening, and we were cleared to print up until the game ended. If the Cubs lost, we were to stop printing; if the Cubs won, we were given the clearance to print and install up to 400 banners for the victory parade, which was scheduled for Friday, November 4th, at 10 a.m.”
With the help of six shop printers – three Mimaki JV33’s, two HP Latex 360’s, and a Mimaki JV300 – and an 18-ounce outdoor vinyl, Bannerville output more than 11,200 square feet by 2:30 p.m. on Thursday, November 3. Three in-house seamstresses and contractor Quick Stitch Banners stitched each piece before six installers took to the Chicago streets throughout the day on Thursday. Installation was complete by 6 p.m.
It sounds like a hectic couple of days, but Sitkowski says it wasn’t their first trip around the bases: “Our company has quite a bit of experience in handling rush jobs of this nature. We printed and installed all of the Super Bowl championship banners for the Chicago Bears in 1986, and also made all of the championship light pole banners for the Chicago Bulls as they won six NBA championships in the 1990s.”
Check out another Cubs-inspired rush job from Retail First.