Our roster is huge. Does that change the approach?

It changes it in your favor. Reach is the hard part of school fundraising and you already have it, so the effort goes into making sure every athlete's family actually hears about the store rather than into finding an audience.

Do cross country and track need separate stores?

No. The roster overlaps heavily and the seasons sit at opposite ends of the year, so one store running across both keeps everything in one place and carries momentum forward.

Is a roster shirt worth doing?

In this program specifically, yes. It rarely works where a roster is twenty, and it works well where it is a hundred and fifty, because every name on it represents a family with a reason to buy.

Program

Spirit wear fundraising for track and cross country programs

Team stores for high school track and cross country programs. No inventory and no setup cost, with 20% of every order remitted to the club.

Track and cross country carry the largest rosters in the athletic department and the smallest equipment budgets. A program can have a hundred and fifty athletes and need very little beyond uniforms, timing and transport, which inverts the usual fundraising picture: the audience is enormous and the target is modest.

That makes these programs unusually well suited to a store. The limiting factor in most school fundraising is how many people you can reach, and here the roster alone is bigger than the entire audience of several other sports combined. A low participation rate across a very large group still produces a good number.

Meets are also all-day events at neutral sites, frequently in cold early mornings, with families waiting through long gaps between events. That drives comfort and warmth items far more than it drives anything decorative.

When the demand actually arrives

Cross country in the fall and track in the spring, with a large shared roster. All-day meets at neutral venues mean families spend more time waiting than watching.

Timing is the part clubs get wrong most often, and it costs more than the range does. The full argument is in when to launch a spirit wear store.

What sells for a track or cross country program

Not a general list of spirit wear. These are the items that move for this program specifically, and the reason each one does.

Hooded sweatshirts and joggers. Long days standing at a meet in the cold. The volume leader by a wide margin, and the roster size means volume is genuinely large.
Team tees listing the roster or the season. Works here specifically because the roster is enormous, and everyone named on a shirt is a family that wants one.
Blankets and folding chairs. Meets are long and seating is rarely provided. An item almost no other program benefits from carrying.
Drawstring and gear bags. Athletes carry spikes, warmups and a change of clothes to every meet.

What the money usually goes toward

Worth naming explicitly when you launch. Families give more readily to a specific cost than to program funds in the abstract.

Buses to meets, which is the dominant cost given roster size
Timing systems and meet operations for home events
Uniforms and spikes for athletes who need support with the cost
Entry fees for invitationals

What we handle, and what you do

1. You send colors, marks and rosters
Along with written confirmation from the district that the club may use the school name and logo. That is the entire job on your side.
2. We build and you approve
We design the range and the storefront around what sells for a track or cross country program, and the range you approve is the range that sells for the rest of the season.
3. We print, ship and support
Each order is produced after it is bought and shipped direct to that buyer. No sorting, no distribution day, no leftover sizes.
4. We promote it
Text and email campaigns to your opted-in families, timed to the points in this program’s season when people actually buy.
5. You get paid
20% of total order value, remitted on a set schedule. A share of what the store sells, not a share of margin after costs.

Questions from track and cross country clubs

Our roster is huge. Does that change the approach?: It changes it in your favor. Reach is the hard part of school fundraising and you already have it, so the effort goes into making sure every athlete's family actually hears about the store rather than into finding an audience.
Do cross country and track need separate stores?: No. The roster overlaps heavily and the seasons sit at opposite ends of the year, so one store running across both keeps everything in one place and carries momentum forward.
Is a roster shirt worth doing?: In this program specifically, yes. It rarely works where a roster is twenty, and it works well where it is a hundred and fifty, because every name on it represents a family with a reason to buy.

Other programs at the same school

Most clubs we work with run more than one. Each of these has its own season and its own range.

When the demand actually arrives

What sells for a track or cross country program

What the money usually goes toward

What we handle, and what you do

1. You send colors, marks and rosters

2. We build and you approve

3. We print, ship and support

4. We promote it

5. You get paid

Questions from track and cross country clubs

Other programs at the same school

Worth reading next