Get Beyond Team When Selling the School Market

Decorators share their secrets for generating new revenue from decorated garments associated with social events and clubs.
Aug 1, 2008

Hoodiewear in Richardson, Texas, is a surf-themed T-shirt shop that has a "design center" comprised of a surfboard table at which customers can play with shirt designs.

Some embroiderers automatically think "team sports" when they think of school embroidery. From football, to basketball and cheerleaders, the embroidery related to team sports draws us in like a magnet. Varsity jackets, travel shirts and cheer regalia are certainly worthwhile to pursue, but let's dig a little deeper to look beyond the obvious to see some other profitable markets in your local schools.

Old School Remains — Cool Reigns
The school market definitely involves a certain amount of traditional items and embroidery styles. But today's school market also calls for unique items, designs and decorating methods. Ginger Griggs and Martha Kinney of Dallas-based CC and Me understand this very well. "We take designs apart and add some bling; we always make it our own," Griggs says. Among hot sellers are jackets from industry trendsetter Kavio. "We put 'VARSITY' in large letters low — near the waist — so it's different," Griggs adds. "Then on the front, we might put Eagles or RHS appliquéd in a fun fabric and scatter some rhinestones around. The girls love it."

The pair is known for unusual items and they attribute their success in part to having students wear their creations to school. "We have students work for us, trimming embroidery and other small jobs, and then we let them design their own creation. When they wear it to school, the orders follow," Griggs explains.

Kinney and Griggs say hoodies are another favorite among the high school crowd, a point reinforced by M.J. Schockley, owner of Hoodiewear in Richardson, Texas. "Kids wear hoodies all year," Shockley says. "They even wear them in the summer with shorts."

Having the garments that are popular with kids has been an important component of Shockley's success. Her store features a fun surf theme and includes prestigious lines of surfwear.

"It took a year to convince the surf vendors to allow us to carry their brands," she says. "Now we have Roxy, Hurley, Quiksilver, RVCA, Billabong, Paul Frank and Reef sandals. I believe we are the first and only T-shirt shop that is allowed to carry the lines in a store that is not a surf shop."

How does that help her school business? The ultra-cool surf brands attract kids to her shop. The result is plenty of requests for custom work, including school-related orders.

In fact, her shop has a table that looks like a surfboard called the "Design Center," where students can design their own shirts.

One popular trend in schools is going to the prom in groups. Several couples pool their money to rent a limousine and share the evening. In the days approaching prom, these groups like to wear shirts that identify the members of their particular group.

"The kids like designing their prom shirts here because I help them come up with something edgy," Shockley says. In fact, having some kind of in-house, instant printing ability makes this type of work more practical and affordable. Standard heat transfer prints and a heat press work well, she says.

Most prom groups like to have one common design on the front, with a list of the couples' names on the back. Printing the designs on inkjet transfer paper and applying them with a commercial heat press can easily accomplish this. Investing in some kind of printing method or working with a screen printer can be important to your success in the school market.

Campus Fashion Today
Baggy is on the way out, and fitted is on the way in. Shockley's store racks contain samples of fitted ladies' shirts and looser-fitting men's counterparts. In addition to the fitted cut, the fabrics have moisture-management characteristics.

"I get most of my performance fabric shirts from Holloway and Pro Celebrity. They're used a lot by the cheer and dance teams, or other groups that are outside a lot. I even sell a lot of it to administrators who are traveling from campus to campus," says Shockley.

Long identified with private institutions, the school uniform has blossomed to include the public school segment in many communities. According to industry sources, school uniform sales reached $1.1 billion per year. In addition, many schools are adopting standardized dress codes, which specify the color of shirt and pants or skirts.

According to the U.S. Department of Education, more than 12% of public schools required uniforms in 2000. In a 2006 report, The NDP Group Inc., Port Washington, N.Y., a market research organization, stated that the number of schools today requiring school uniforms continues to increase. NDP estimates the $835 million in items purchased for school uniforms represents about 5% of the $17.6 billion total apparel market for ages 5 to 14.

Suppliers like French Toast School Uniforms, Martinsville, Va., have been joined in the school uniforms market by branded apparel companies that have traditionally supplied service uniforms, such as Williamson-Dickie Manufacturing Co., Fort Worth, Texas, makers of Dickies workwear.

Get a Slice of Uniform Pie
Providing uniforms can be profitable because of volume, but it requires organization, research and patience. Even a great proposal might not be immediately adopted. Be polite but persistent and show samples, not photographs.

Industry suppliers such as SanMar Corp., Seattle, have added items that make top-selling uniform staples available in a variety of colors. SanMar can even help you set up a Web site for fulfillment of a particular school's uniform items. By defining parameters, you can show only certain colors and size ranges, and you can even add items not sold by SanMar.

Embroiderers with a retail setting can offer convenience to schools and parents. Do your homework about the garments the school is using. Some schools simply require that students follow a dress code, rather than requiring a specific brand of clothing. For example, be prepared to present quality durable garments embroidered with a simple school insignia.

Fundamentals
Hoodiewear's Shockley has shown several schools how to have highly successful fundraising programs. Pam Purdom, director of activities at Prestonwood Christian Academy, Dallas, worked with Hoodiewear on a very successful fundraiser. "Our cheerleaders earned $5,000 toward a trip to Orlando by selling embroidered hoodies at our school," says Purdom. "M.J.'s creative input was really appreciated."

"We try to teach [our customers] that they shouldn't always put the words 'Band' or 'Cheerleaders' in a design," says Shockley. The merchandise sells better when decorated with a design that features just the school name and/or mascot.

Shockley believes school registration is the best time to sell fundraising merchandise. "All of the organizations have tables set up, so it's easy to display the shirts," she says.

Karen Sandlin, vice president of fundraising for the Richardson, Texas High School Band, followed Shockley's advice to sell shirts in a variety of hot colors during school registration. "The profit margin on our T-shirt sales was the best of items sold," she says. "And kids and parents alike loved them. M.J. also suggested we sell hoodies in four different colors with our mascot on the front. Surprisingly, our biggest sales of hoodies happened during the back-to-school registration in the heat of summer!"

It's sometimes difficult to get organization leaders to order enough merchandise initially. "One school group turned in an order for 200 based on the 10 or 15 that we did originally," Shockley says. "They had no idea how well they would sell."

Become familiar with faculty members who oversee groups such as the Latin, Spanish and Drama clubs. School-supported extracurricular organizations, such as Chess club, Student Council and Thespian Society, are all potential customers as well.

Show Them the Money
Prepare a price list that allows the group about a 25% to 30% margin. If you can, create a simple spreadsheet to show the group profit scenarios at various levels of sales volume.

Be open-minded to apparel and accessory ideas that the group would like to have embroidered and be willing to locate items they request. After just one season of providing items for fundraising in your area, you will have excellent historical data for the best-selling items.

Naturally, fundraising items tend to be embroidered with spirit themes. For example, let's say you would like to create some spirit items for a school that has a tiger mascot.

Before creating any freelance designs, check with school administrators to ensure there are no restrictions on use of the school artwork for embroidery purposes. This is a good opportunity to let people at the top know you are offering embroidery services, and it will build respect for your business ethics.

The school may restrict the use of its official tiger logo. Some schools sell decorated items in their school bookstore. In this situation, be creative. For example, it may be possible to embroider paw prints and the words "Tiger Pride."

Jerri Dyke, owner of Windmill Apparel, Springfield, Ohio, introduced a new cougar that she digitized from royalty-free clipart. "The cougar has become rather dimensional and is very popular with the kids," Dyke says. She also has found hoodies to be one of the favorite items that the kids like to purchase.

How to Get Involved
Dyke says she advertised in the school's athletic programs, but also worked as a volunteer at the school. "I was at the school a lot doing other things, so they approached me about putting items on consignment in their store called The Spirit Shack," Dyke says.

"I started embroidering for adults to help them show their enthusiasm as a supporter of the school. I made sure that I put a heat-applied label in every garment so they could track me down. That resulted in orders for soccer, tennis and other projects," Dyke says.

Deborah Jones is a commercial and home embroiderer with more than 30 years experience in the computerized embroidery field. For more information or to comment on this article, e-mail Deborah at djones@ greatnotions.com.

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