Discription: Historic Raptors’ championship win is a slam-dunk victory for Canadian print Keywords: basketball, Canadian printing industry, Drake, large-format printing, large-format signs, printing companies, printing industry, Toronto Raptors, vehicle wraps, Victoria Gaitskell, victory parade

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2. 12 PRINTACTION · July/August 2019 PRINTACTION.COM
Historic Raptors’ win is a slam-
dunk victory for Canadian print
By Victoria Gaitskell
T
he Toronto Raptors’ suc-
cess in the National
Basketball Association
(NBA) June Finals over
two-time defending
champions, the Golden
State Warriors, marked
the team’s first NBA
championship as well as
the first time the series was won outside
the United States. The Raptors’ historic
playoff run and ensuing championship
parade became national front-page news,
as Canadians from coast to coast united
in support of their country’s sole NBA
team.
But those wins were not just triumphs
in the world of sports;they also amounted
to a victory for Canadian print. The PR
and omnichannel marketing genius of the
team’s corporate owner Maple Leaf
Sports & Entertainment Ltd. (MLSE)
was instrumental in arousing widespread
interest in the Raptors brand, and print
was a major driving force in MLSE’s
strategies.
So effective were these strategies that
even Canadians who do not typically
follow the sport found themselves track-
ing the Raptors’ progress. Even the July
free-agency decision of Finals MVP
Kawhi Leonard to leave the Raptors in
favour of a four-year US$142-million
deal with the Los Angeles Clippers cap-
tured the general public’s attention.
Using social media as a measure of mar-
keting success, sports management firm
Deportes & Finanzas reported the Rap-
tors became the world’s most popular
basketball team after its NBA victory —
garnering a world-leading 28.9 million
Instagram interactions in the month of
June. Data from Internet analytics plat-
form SEMrush found the number of
Raptors-related tweets grew by a stagger-
ing 4,400 percent in Canada after its
Game 6 championship victory against the
Warriors on June 13, while Raptors web
searches grew in Canada by 2,490 per-
cent in the days following the win.
MLSE is jointly owned by Bell Canada
Enterprises, Rogers Communications,
and Kilmer Sports. In addition to the
Toronto Raptors, MLSE also owns the
Toronto Maple Leafs and Toronto
Marlies hockey teams, the Toronto Argo-
nauts football team and the Toronto FC
soccer team, as well as all the venues its
teams play and train in, and three spe-
cialty sports TV channels. This article
brings you a behind-the-scenes look at
PRINT
CHAMPIONS
COVER STORY
three diverse print suppliers that pro-
duced a select portion of the spectacular
media MLSE used in recent months to
promote the Raptors brand and its jour-
ney to a historic championship win.
Planning and experience
ICON of Markham, Ont., is MLSE’s of-
ficial supplier of graphics and signage.
For the NBA playoffs, ICON printed
banners with the Raptors’ slogan, “We
The North,” which festooned the CN
Tower, the Princes’ Gates at Exhibition
Place, the Toronto Eaton Centre, and
other Toronto landmarks. ICON also
produced signage to decorate the Maple
Leaf Square, the public square adjoining
Scotiabank Arena where the games are
played and the street running into it,
Bremner Boulevard. This area, nick-
named “Jurassic Park,” transformed into
a lively,outdoor game-viewing venue and
was the site of tailgate events organized by
MLSE.
For the championship parade on June
17, ICON produced float graphics, ban-
ners,mesh scrims and flags for barricades
along the parade route, and much of the
gigantic signage for the stage, media
tower and surrounding area at the pa-
rade’s end point, Nathan Phillips Square,
which also served as the site of the cele-
bration rally. The company printed all
Raptors-related graphics on its five-
metre-wide Durst RHO 500 and three-
PHOTOS
COURTESY
ENTRIPY
CUSTOM
CLOTHING,
ICON
AND
MOTIVE
MEDIA

3. PRINTACTION.COM July/August 2019 · PRINTACTION 13
Opposite page and
above: Vehicle
wraps produced by
Motive Media for
the championship
parade on June 17.
Right: “We The
North” flags
produced by ICON
on display at the
Toronto Eaton
Centre, as the city
cheered on the
Raptors during the
NBA Finals.
metre-wide Durst 312R UV inkjet print-
ers, and Mimaki dye-sublimation fabric
printer.
“The Raptors panorama was an un-
precedented experience for us in its scope
and magnitude, but we were able to exe-
cute it through careful planning in close
collaboration with MLSE,” ICON Presi-
dent and CEO Juan Lau says. “Our 18-
year business relationship with MLSE
and experiences with other sports event
management clients have taught us the
mechanics of sitting down with organiz-
ers in advance to map out a detailed
strategy.”
Past sporting events that ICON has
been a supplier for include the NBA All-
Star Game,theWorld Cup of Hockey,the
International Ice Hockey Federation
(IIHF) World Junior Championship, the
Major League Soccer (MLS) Cup, the
RBC Canadian Open, and the Honda
Indy.
In planning the Raptors’ victory cele-
bration, Lau says graphic files were ready
several weeks before the outcome of the
playoff run had played out, and plans
included several different scenarios and
parade dates, dependent on whether the
Raptors won in Game 5, 6 or 7. ICON
also contacted suppliers in advance to
make sure enough of the various sub-
strates would be available to complete the
necessary printing, if required.
Co-founded by Lau with two partners
in 1995, ICON has grown to occupy a
120,000-square-foot production facility
in Markham with additional offices in
Toronto and New York. It employs a staff
of 240 and serves clients through four
divisions: ICON Visual for large-format
and display graphics; ICON Media for
customized digital signage; ICON Mo-
tion for content creation, video produc-
tion and event management; and ICON
Print for offset and commercial printing,
including marketing collateral and direct
mail.
Lau says one of the biggest challenges
of its recent Raptors work was co-ordin-
ating multiple projects and production
schedules,not only for MLSE but also for
MLSE’s 50-some corporate partners,
while also completing other client jobs
already in progress. The company relied
on its seasoned project managers to per-
form site checks and deliver precise specs
and graphic files to the production team
as quickly and efficiently as possible.
“Our experience in event marketing really
pulled us through,” Lau says.
An extra special challenge arose when
ICON received notice at 5 p.m. on the
Friday before the parade, when much of
the staff were preparing to go home, that
Drake – rapper and Raptors global am-
bassador – had decided to enter a float in
the parade set for Monday morning.The
staff waited until late Friday evening to
receive the files and specs needed to
produce all the graphics for the float, and
a team of installers worked around the
clock to mount the parade and street
graphics in time for the parade’s sched-
uled 10 a.m.start.Until then,all the floats
were hidden in the OVO Athletic Centre,
the team’s practice facility.
Creative flair and flexibility
Based in Bolton,Ont.,Motive Media was
responsible for wrapping a number of
vehicles in the championship parade, in-
cluding five double-decker buses,19 Ford
vehicles, a 54-foot merchandising trailer,
and a vintage Toronto Transit Commis-
sion (TTC) bus and trolley, all used to
transport the players and their families,
team management and dignitaries. The
company produced the graphics on both
an HP Latex 370 and an HP Latex 570
printer on 3M IJ180MC-10UR (Ultra
Removable) substrate. Once printed, the
vehicle graphics were laminated with 3M
8519 Lustre Overlaminate using a 65-inch
Kala 1650. As well, Motive supplied ban-
ners for theToronto City Hall stage which
were printed by a longtime trade partner.
Motive started preparing design files
and ordering materials after the Game 3
win on June 5.With MLSE having been a
client for over six years, this helped ex-
pedite preparations as Motive already
had MLSE’s colour profiles saved, but
production did not start until more than
a week later.
“We got the go-ahead from MLSE on
the night of June 13, the minute Game 6
stopped in Oakland, California,” Kate
Glassow, National Account Manager,
says.“I was nervous because there was so
much at stake for us.We had all hands on
deck and people working in production
around the clock.”
Over the course of 72 hours, the Mo-
tive team printed and installed 8,000
square feet of vinyl, completing the job
just before 1 a.m. on parade day. By 6
a.m., the vehicles they had wrapped in
Bolton were on the road toToronto.
Because the double-decker buses were
in regular use for Hop-On Hop-Off Bus
Tours by Toronto City Sightseeing, Mo-
tive could only begin wrapping them
Saturday night.The wraps also required
taking lots of meticulous measurements
in advance to pinpoint the locations of
windows, doors and vents, so that during
the installation, no important parts of the
graphics would be cut off. Additionally,
the buses had to be wrapped in theToron-
to tour company’s bus bay instead of
Motive’s much larger bay in Bolton.
“When we use our own facilities, if the
need arises, you can just go inside and
have the graphics reprinted,” Glassow
says. “But luckily, the bus installations
were fairly trouble-free.We sent our best
team, led by Installation Manager Randy
Shepherd, to work on them, and none of
the graphics needed to be reprinted be-
cause they all fit.You can have the best
printing equipment and best graphics in
the world, but if you don’t have a highly
skilled installation team backing you up,

4. 14 PRINTACTION · July/August 2019 PRINTACTION.COM
it doesn’t matter. They’re the ones who
actually bring the job to life.”
Glassow says a further complication
was maintaining secrecy because the To-
ronto bay could only hold 2.5 buses at a
time, so during installation, at least half
of a bus was always sticking out in plain
sight. When passersby started noticing,
Glassow called MLSE to report the possi-
bility that someone might leak cellphone
photos of the buses before the parade.
Although numerous members of the
public, and even at one point a CityTV
news crew, showed up, Glassow was im-
pressed by how respectful they all were of
her request to keep the bus graphics a
surprise for fans and parade spectators on
Monday.
Founded in 2003 by President and
Creative Director Kathy Cartan (who is
Glassow’s mother), Motive Media is a
boutique creative solutions agency that
helps clients promote their brand,usually
through large-format digital graphics. It
employs 11 staff in its 10,000-square-foot
production facility. The company began
as a specialist in the design, manufacture,
and installation of transportation graph-
ics,but after a close call in 2008,when the
closure of a major client almost drove the
company under,it downsized to a smaller
location and started using its equipment
to produce more diverse products, in-
cluding wall murals and wayfinding sys-
tem for interior decor.
“I didn’t realize it at the time, but what
we went through actually saved us by
forcing us to expand our market,” Cartan
recounts. “Now we’ll often do a fleet of
trucks for a client, and then they’ll ask us
to decorate their lobby with a mural.”
Cartan began her career as a graphic
artist, painting signs and scenery manu-
ally for Canada’s Wonderland. Although
she has since moved into computer-aided
design, her company’s products are still
distinguished by a high degree of artistic
creativity. Canada’sWonderland remains
a client and hired her nearly eight years
ago to wrap the Leviathan – the tallest
and fastest roller coaster in the country –
which posed a unique challenge because
of its peculiar shape and the fact that it
could not be taken off the track during
the wrapping process.
About the Raptors’ parade vehicles,
Glassow says:“We have wrapped fleets of
50 trailers before, but not on such a tight
timeline. This is definitely the biggest,
quickest,most high-profile job we’ve ever
done. It was only once I saw the actual
players on the buses, and the crowds on
the streets [estimated as large as 2 mil-
lion], and heard the media saying how
cool the buses were that I realized, ‘This
is huge.’ Before that time, I had been so
busy getting the job done that I didn’t
realize how immense it was.”
“We are small, but we have a can-do
attitude and the flexibility to pivot when
needed,” Cartan adds. “We are so proud
to have been a part of that special mo-
ment for the Raptors and for Canada.We
feel grateful for the opportunity to be part
of something so big and to have our work
on display for millions of people across
the country.”
Control and agility
For each Raptors Finals home game,
Entripy Custom Clothing, MLSE’s pre-
ferred custom apparel and promotional
products partner, printed 23,000 custom
t-shirts as a free giveaway to each atten-
dee, which was placed on every seat in
Scotiabank Arena.
“The shirts are a fantastic part of the
fan experience.There’s always a sense of
anticipation because people want to know
what the next design will look like,” Jas
Brar, Founder and CEO of Oakville,
Ontario-based Entripy, says. MLSE’s
creative team generates a unique design
for each shirt which is kept secret until
game time. The shirts add to the fans’
experience and provide each person with
a coveted collectible souvenir and conver-
sation piece that cannot be obtained
anywhere else.
Brar says his company’s ability to
control all aspects of production, from
sourcing blank garments to production,
packaging and delivery without outsourc-
ing any part of the process was critical to
producing the t-shirts on time. “Tons of
other people sell the same thing I do, but
their operations are very fragmented. For
MLSE, we need to control service times
and lead times,and you can’t rely on third
parties to do that,” he explains. “The
playoffs are intense because turnaround
times are very short and there is a lot of
uncertainty.We have to make sure we have
enough staff and material to get through
the entire playoffs,yet we also have to take
things game by game where we can’t
predict the outcomes.”
For instance, until the end of Game 6
in Oakland, the team didn’t know wheth-
er there would be a Game 7 in Toronto.
Under these conditions, the time avail-
able for Entripy to produce and deliver an
entire run of 23,000 t-shirts would
amount to less than 48 hours.
“Fortunately, we are used to staying
agile because our business is seasonal,”
Brar continues, explaining that in the
summer,they sell more t-shirts and in the
fall and winter, more jackets, sweatshirts
and hoodies. “One way we stay agile is to
add a third eight-hour rotating shift from
11 p.m. to 7 a.m. when we need it, and
eliminate the third shift when we don’t.
For the Raptors Finals, we also worked
weekends – even long weekends if neces-
sary – and called in our office staff and
management team for extra help.”
Brar started the company in 1999
while he was still a student at the Univer-
sity of Toronto. After identifying a gap in
the market for custom t-shirts for campus
events and organizations, he started
buying t-shirts wholesale, embellishing
them through a third party, and selling
them back to other students. When he
found the third party was unreliable at
meeting tight deadlines, Brar purchased
a manual press and started screen print-
ing custom clothing himself out of his
parents’ basement. From day one, he set
up his company to transact Internet
business only and now has the techno-
logical solutions in place to satisfy online
orders as small as one to as large as
100,000 pieces. Over time he hired more
people, and added software and equip-
ment for screen and digital printing and
embroidery to the business. Today, En-
tripy employs 170 people and occupies
60,000 square feet in an industrial park.
The company printed the Raptors t-shirts
on their entire arsenal of seven screen
printers, including the M&R Sportsman
and Roq International Roqprint auto-
formated presses. The screens were pre-
pared with the latest M&R i-image STE
Computer-To-Screen Imaging and Ex-
posure System, which can burn the
screens in seconds flat.
Touted as the biggest party in Toron-
to’s history,the Raptors’dramatic playoff
run and monumental win is an unforget-
table moment in Canada’s printing hist-
ory.
Top left: Production
of the black
championship
t-shirts printed by
Entripy Custom
Clothing.
Above and top
right: Within one
week, ICON
produced hundreds
of fence graphics,
tens of thousands
of large and
handheld flags, and
vinyl murals as
Toronto hosted the
largest champion-
ship parade in
North American
sports history.