Surveys
At Custom Ink, we talk to a lot of people who order custom apparel and merch — which means we’re sitting on a lot of opinions. This is where we put them to work. Each survey here pulls from real responses across the teams, businesses, and organizers we serve, turning firsthand data into insights you can actually use. What’s trending in swag. What employees really want. What makes branded merch land (and what makes it land in a drawer). The numbers are ours. The takeaways are yours.
America 250 vs. a Regular July 4th: What Americans Actually Want
We asked 1,690 Americans one question: what would make your community’s America 250 celebration feel truly memorable and different from a regular July 4th? Of the 1,450 people who gave us a substantive answer, the results were not what you might expect. The most common response had nothing to do with fireworks. The ideas that [...]
How American Companies Are Marking America 250 — And What the Data Says About What Works
Nine in ten companies whose event planners are organizing an America 250 celebration say branded gear will be part of it. That number — 94.1%, with 55.9% saying it is already in their plan — comes from our 2026 Community Pride Survey of 1,690 Americans, which included a dedicated corporate track for employed respondents who plan events. [...]
USA 250: The Surprising Thing the Most Civically Engaged Americans Have in Common
When we surveyed 1,690 Americans about their America 250 plans this spring, we expected to find correlations between planning and the obvious things — awareness levels, excitement, how long someone had lived in their community. Those correlations exist. But the strongest single predictor of whether someone is actively planning a specific [...]
The Americans Who Crave Community the Most — And What America 250 Means to Them
There is a particular kind of loneliness that arrives not from isolation but from proximity. You live near people. You share a neighborhood, a zip code, a street. But you don’t quite belong yet — and you’re not sure how long “yet” lasts. That feeling turns out to be one of the defining social experiences of [...]
What Your State Is Most Proud Of — And How It’s Celebrating America 250
When we asked 1,690 Americans to choose between their local community and the nation as a whole as their primary source of pride, local won — 41.7% to 30.6%. That’s a meaningful finding on its own. But the state-level data is where the story gets genuinely interesting. The gap between the most locally rooted state (Vermont, at +47 [...]
77% of Americans Are Excited About America 250. Here’s Why Most Haven’t Made a Plan Yet.
Most of the country already knows America 250 is coming. According to our 2026 Community Pride Survey of 1,690 Americans, 76.9% are aware that 2026 marks the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, and 43.7% say they’re highly excited about it. Yet only 28.8% are actively planning something specific. That gap — [...]
New Survey Reveals How Americans Are Celebrating 250 Years Together
America’s 250th anniversary is almost here – and according to our new research, Americans don’t have to choose between pride in their country and pride in their community. Most feel both, and they want this summer’s celebrations to reflect both. Our 2026 Community Pride Report, a nationally representative survey [...]
The School Spirit Gap Survey: Is Your School Paying the Turnout Tax?
School spirit doesn’t happen by accident — and neither does the gap between schools that have it and schools that don’t. Our School Spirit Gap Survey — a 2026 survey of 447 PTA coordinators, booster club leads, athletic directors, teachers, and school administrators across the country — puts a number on what we call the [...]