School spirit stores

My kids went to a private school that is K-12 so our experience may be different. The store offered car decals and license plates with the school logo. It is also a uniform school but Fridays are spirit days so the students can wear a school t-shirt.

The school has had some great seasons in sports so they offer championship t-shirts as well. They have baseball caps and at one time even sold beanies with the school logo. They offer "bling" shirts for the moms that have football mom or volleyball mom written on them.

One thing that they did in the past was a program called Scrip. They sold gift cards to places that people usually went to anyway and earned a portion off of each card sold.

Do you think that you would have many parents participate in scrip if they had to order online? It was always easier for me when we did it because they had a parent out on Fridays who would sell it. I was more apt to purchase when I saw someone standing there.

Another thing that is/was sold are stadium seats. One year they sold the nice ones that had a back with the school logo printed on it. Another year they sold the plastic kind that didn't have a back. They have also had blankets at one time or another.

Is this like a Tuck Shop at the school? If so, I remember that there were basic supplies for sale (pens, pencils, notebooks, etc) and snacks (we all bought the corn nuts). I know the tuck shop at the private school I did some work at also sold basic gym stuff like tennis balls, swim googles, shuttle cocks, etc. This was on top of the branded clothing like hoodies, sweats, gym shorts, t-shirts, water bottles, etc.

Hats and Mittens
Baseball Hats
Socks with the school logo embroidered or woven into sock
Blankets
Stadium Seats
Car Decals
Jackets and pullover windbreakers

Could you do polo shirts embroidered with the school logo? Something that matches your uniform requirements?

Ours (PK-5 only) does a booming business in smencils, hamster-shaped erasers and bracelet USB drives. They also sell some basic school supplies, replacement agendas for 4th and 5th graders, and the recorders we use in my music classroom.

My son went to a parochial high school and we found a place that would make car flags. The sports teams were really not very good but the parents and students bought up those flags as fast as they were available. They cost about $10 each to be made and we sold them for about $17.

Last year, our school started selling Spirit Sticks. They are these little tags, kind of like a Scout patch, about three inches long and an inch or so wide, that come in about any theme you can think of. They have a little hole on one end and the kids hang them on their backbacks, lunchboxes, zipper pulls, etc. They can trade them, and the teachers buy them as well to hand out to kids as incentives. Sometimes room parents buy them for the whole class for parties and holidays. My little guy went to town on the Minecraft and Harry Potter themed ones that they sold last year. We have a school with about 600 kids, and about any time they sell them, they usually rake in about 750 dollars a day. They set up a little table in the morning before school starts and sell them to the hoards of kids who line up early looking for the newest theme. They send home a preview pic of the ones they will have available about a week ahead, and they sell for a dollar each. What's nice is that kids can come in and buy just one for a dollar, or 5 or 10, whatever. They often sell out, as they did with the Minecraft ones, and they ordered them twice more throughout the year. They are always a hit. They sell the leftovers at open house nights, carnivals, and in the office. They only cost the school 35 cents each, so we're making 65% profit and there is no work involved at all. Here's the link: spiritmonkey.com/Default.aspx

Wrongway, that's a great deal. Our teachers have something like that for incentives, maybe we should sell the extras, like you mentioned Harry Potter.

We have the little stuff bags that are worn like a backpack, and every few years canvas totes. The totes are more of a Mom thing. We also have key chain sized stuffed animal mascot, kids wear it on backpacks. Every few years a plushie of the mascot too.

Bling tshirts in girls and mom sizes always sell out. And until Miley foam fingers sod well.

For middle school and highschool we seem to sell any and everything, lanyards, key chains, can cozies, stadium seats,noise makers, if it can be branded they sell it!

My church does this to raise money for our high school choir trip every summer.  I buy scrip for gifts to my volunteers and I used scrip as a "layaway" plan to purchase something from Amazon that I couldn't pay for all at once - bought an Amazon gift card once a month until I had accumulated enough.  Some church members have purchased Lowe's and Home Depot cards in preparation for a home project - several thousand $$ of scrip adds up.  Even though the % income on each card is quite small, when you have people purchasing regularly and get them used to the idea, it can generate a pretty good income.

I had to go and google it too, I've never heard of this before.

Ours wore uniforms too. And the shop sold a special hoodie that the 7th and 8th only could wear as part of uniform. Of course every kid bought one of those.

My kids' schools sell many of the above. Some logo items I didn't see mentioned that do well:
Gym bags
Nylon wallets (bi-fold with velcro - kids use them for their subway/bus passes)
Carabiner clips
Cheap digital watches
Travel mugs for coffee (many parents bought these for teacher gifts)