If we are convinced that few ties will be purchased no matter what the design, it seems to me that a custom order is foolish.

Just a suggestion, but: don't buy a stock of ties at all. Select a tie made and stocked by someone else and then declare that one to be the XMarks tie. As for the decision on which that will be, we have a raft of opinions posted so get one member to do the work, sort through that lot and research sources and prices and put forth three designs and costs for each. No choices other than those; put up a poll with the result being the decision. We had a member a year or two ago who offered to do all of that for us.

Edit. John and I are on the same wave-length apparently.