Football Jersey's, Staff Apparel and Everything In-between

To those of us in the athletic uniform business this is a very challenging time of the year. In some years, upwards of 25% of our annual business can be due for delivery within this 30 day time period. While the rest of world is seemingly throttling back in anticipation of the long Labor Day weekend the employees of our company are scrambling in the impossible task of trying to keep all of our customers happy.

With back to school comes football, men’s and women’s soccer, field hockey, men’s and women’s volleyball and other sports that I’m probably forgetting. In addition to that we also have physical education uniforms for the students, coach’s gear for the coaching staffs and a variety of imprinted sportswear that the school stores offer for sale. Many of the schools now even order embroidered garments for the entire staff of the school.

The problem with all of this business is that schools (including colleges) all basically start at about the same time each fall. Years ago, that date was almost always after Labor Day but as our business has expanded nationally we find opening dates as early as mid-August. In addition, many of the athletic teams now start much earlier as well. As an example, ESPN now televises a high profile high school football game each August. To compound the problem the schools seem to order later and later each year as budget cuts force them to delay until they are sure that they will have sufficient funds. We are no different then any other business; when a loyal, repeat customer calls us in mid-summer with a sudden need for fall uniforms we take the order. In our particular case the uniforms are custom-made and this puts us in a difficult position but we do it anyway. As I write this the phones are ringing off of the hook and we are doing what all of us have been told over the years is impossible – trying to keep everyone happy. We find ourselves asking questions like “what is the actual date of your first game?” and “do you need your home set or away set first?”. I’m not really complaining. We have a nice, stable business with a great reputation for quality and service. It’s just that every year we make plans to avoid the August “panic” and every year we suffer through it anyway. I guess I should be thankful that we have this problem given the current economic situation.