Kevin Iole of Yahoo! Sports writes about Dan Henderson’s latest walkout shirt he will wear on March 23rd. It’s not because of a new sponsor but of a creative contest he ran to come up with his gear.

Henderson held a contest to let fans design his walkout shirt for his fight against Shogun Rua in Natal, Brazil. Using his Facebook page in which he would sell the shirt, fans submitted designs to be judged by Henderson.

Henderson liked the idea as he told Iole:

“The sponsorship money that was being offered wasn’t great anyway, but this seemed like a pretty good idea and a way to get the fans involved,” he said. “When I looked at the other deals and the amount of money that was there, I said, ‘You know what, I’d rather have the fans do this and have some fun with it. I don’t need to make a lot of money off of it.’ We’ll sell it, but as I said, the point isn’t money.

Henderson requested that the theme of the shirt be Patriotic USA. The winner would receive signed replica fight shorts and a walkout shirt signed by Henderson.

The winner of the design contest was Robert Davis, a Marine from Oklahoma. Henderson also liked fan designs from two other contestants and those are on sale at his online store.

Payout Perspective:

Henderson’s t-shirt contest is an interesting way in getting fan interaction as well as turning the lack of sponsorship dollars into an opportunity. Also, fans had the chance to design a t-shirt for a fighter. The one question that was not explained from the piece was whether the fans received a benefit (i.e., part of the sales), aside from “replica” shorts and t-shirt from winning the design contest. Hendo indicated the shirts are selling well (at $30 a piece). It’s not clear if the profits from the sales are being donated to a charity. So, while sponsors are not offering enough money to Henderson, he’s gaining some revenue back from the t-shirt sales.