Imagine T-shirts emblazoned with Boston’s city seal. Parks and Recreation Department coffee mugs. Boston police-branded sweat shirts, or Boston Public Library tote bags.
Ever wanted to don apparel representing your favorite city department? The opportunity could be close at hand.
City Hall officials are exploring the possibility of launching a city-branded merchandise licensing program — not only to sell official Boston swag to residents, tourists, and local government enthusiasts, but also to potentially trademark historic city symbols and department logos.
Proponents of the idea say it would boost civic pride and tourism, allow the city to protect and profit off its brand, and offer an opportunity for the city to collaborate with local designers and small businesses.
A merch program could also be a revenue stream for Boston and help pad the city’s coffers at a time when municipalities across Massachusetts are grappling with strained budgets, federal funding cuts, and state restrictions on imposing most new municipal taxes. Trademarking city symbols, for example, could also allow the city to sell licenses for their use to third parties.
Still, even the most ardent supporters of the pitch caution that it might not be a cash cow, at least not initially. Similar programs in New York City and Pittsburgh have seen a range of results, bringing in anywhere from tens of millions of dollars a year to just enough to break even.
Launching a program in Boston is ”really about the city owning its brand,” said City Councilor Sharon Durkan.
“Right now, if I go online, I can buy a city of Boston seal on a hoodie, and the city of Boston makes zero dollars on my purchase and really has no say in whether that can be reproduced or replicated in a way that we like or don’t like,” said Durkan. “I think that needs to change.”
Durkan formally asked the administration to look into merchandise licensing in early 2024 after seeing a friend, and city of Boston employee, wearing a New York City Department of Parks and Recreation sweat shirt. Earlier this year, Durkan secured $100,000 for a merchandise pilot program in the city’s $4.8 billion budget.
City officials updated councilors on the effort in a hearing last month, saying they plan to use the money to make limited edition clothing and souvenirs for Boston 250. The yearlong celebration of the 250th anniversary of Paul Revere’s historic midnight ride is effectively the city’s test case.
“What we know is that the cities who do have programs like this typically have had a catalyst,” said Ellen Foord, chief creative officer for the city of Boston.
The pilot will also focus on assessing consumer interest in city merchandise and researching the approaches the city could take to establish a permanent program, Foord said.
Big questions remain. Would City Hall want to outsource the whole operation or hire full-time employees to run it in-house? Is using union labor to produce the shirts a priority? What about only collaborating with local artists and small businesses to design and sell the products?
Foord said the city has partnered with Boston University to get answers, and students at its Questrom School of Business are researching vendors and marketing strategies, among other options. Foord said the city intends to analyze that research and produce a suite of recommendations by next fall.
The city will also have to decide which, if any, of the city’s department names, logos, and other related symbols it wants to formally trademark. Boston does not currently own any copyright or trademark protection for its brand elements, including the city seal and its modern logo — a bold “B” underlined in red.
Filing for those rights, and investing in the legal capacity to enforce it, could be expensive, Foord said. It could also pay off in the long run.
New York’s police and fire departments began selling licensing rights to their brands in the 1980s, though neither consistently cracked down on counterfeiters, meaning the city lost out on a significant amount of revenue, according to a 2010 report.
Officials launched a citywide merchandise licensing program in 2003, and later began aggressively enforcing its trademark rights. Despite legal fees outweighing revenue for several years, by 2010, merchandise and licensing sales brought in more than $24 million annually, the report found.
It wasn’t immediately clear how much New York City brings in now. City officials declined to comment for this story.
Still, tens of millions of dollars in additional revenue could make a meaningful difference for Boston, which, like cities and towns across Massachusetts, is facing significant budget constraints.
State law already largely restricts municipalities from imposing new taxes, leaving cities and towns overwhelmingly dependent on property taxes; in Boston, they fund about 72 percent of the budget. The state, through a statute known as Prop 2½, also allows municipalities to increase the total amount of property taxes they collect each year by only 2.5 percent, with exceptions for new developments or if voters approve a one-time override.
Simultaneously battered by inflation, many cities have effectively cut costs while trying to maintain a consistent level of services for residents.
Those restraints have produced significant financial pressure for Massachusetts cities, forcing some to make deep cuts to school budgets, the largest area of spending for most municipalities, according to an October report from the Massachusetts Municipal Association. Mayor Michelle Wu has also advocated for the state to get rid of the Prop 2 1/2 statute.
Last fall, the Boston Municipal Research Bureau put out a report recommending that the city diversify its revenue sources to reduce its reliance on property taxes. Among the options: implementing a merchandise licensing program.
“I don’t think anyone thinks it’s the silver bullet for all of our fiscal challenges, but it’s certainly material and worth exploring,” said Steve Poftak, chief executive of the Boston Municipal Research Bureau.
The city of Pittsburgh first started the process of implementing an official merchandise program in 2021 and ultimately signed a contract with a local business to design, produce, and sell all the products. The city did not trademark any of its logos or designs, or invest money upfront in the partnership, but agreed to take a percentage of the profits left over after the vendor, Commonwealth Press, breaks even.
The city has not made any money in the two years since the initiative launched. Patrick Cornell, Pittsburgh’s chief financial officer who also oversees the program, said he still considers it a success.
“It’s really, for us, less about a revenue stream and more about just having something that’s unique and innovative and interesting,” Cornell said.
While he hopes the program continues to grow, and potentially makes the city money down the line, Cornell said it was important the city partner with a local, unionized business to design and sell the products.
“That means a lot,” said Dan Rugh, the owner and art director for Commonwealth Press. “It makes you even more proud to be from the place that you’re from and working with.”
Durkan said she hopes Boston takes a similar approach as Pittsburgh to ensure “that the story of Boston is told by people who live here,” and that, eventually, any profits go directly back into city programs.
“When you fall in love with a city,” Durkan said, “you want to wear it on your chest, you want to put it on a hoodie, a cap. And carry it on your water bottle.”
Niki Griswold can be reached at niki.griswold@globe.com. Follow her @nikigriswold.