In the months leading up to the Catholic Church’s World Youth Day 2016, preparations were as globe-spanning as the millions of expected attendees. First instituted in 1986 by Pope Saint John Paul II, World Youth Days (WYD) are hosted every three years by the Vatican and the incumbent Pope, and welcome droves of young people to a week-long faith celebration in a different city. The July 2016 event was held in Krakow, Poland.

Vatican representatives had a good idea of what they wanted for the attendees, known as “pilgrims,” who would eventually converge on Krakow from all over the world. For example, organizers wanted to include ponchos that could also double as ground blankets. So the organizers teamed up with their distributor partner and came up with an item made of a special fabric that not only protected wearers from the rain, but was both soft and durable enough to sit on. In addition, a dye-sublimated scarf was constructed of absorbent microfiber so that it doubled as a towel. 


Each item was color-matched, and the items came in red, blue and yellow. In addition to the ponchos and scarves, other WYD-branded items included backpacks, neck gaiters and silicone bracelets. The finished items were flown to the Polish port city of Gdansk, then trucked more than 350 miles to a warehouse in the Krakow area specially built for WYD, which also housed food and water for 2.5 million pilgrims that attended the successful event.