We went local and I have to say it's been a blessing. Our middle school hadn't had any spirit wear since.....hmmmm....I don't think they ever did. Anyway, since we had a very small budget to work with and we weren't sure how well the items would be received, we were apprehensive about how many to order.
Another gal and I went and set up the designs (which we've gotten quite a few great comments on)and then chatted with the local lady who was helping us. First, we didn't have to invest in a whole ton of clothes. We ordered 10 of each size in t-shirts and sweatshirts, and 15 pairs of sweatpants. The order came was done the day of our open house and since we went local, they even held out check until the next day, so we could have our deposit in first. Not that we would have been left without funds, but it really would have dropped the total.
We also, had order forms available for the parents to take home and send back to school and oh my gosh. I was swamped with orders for 3 weeks. Since we had gone local, we were able to purchase only what we needed, and if the kids wanted to add on their name or sport number, all they had to do was take their item to the shop and they got a discount on that, too. Also, when an order got bungled, we were able to get a replacement within two days. OH, also the gal at the sports shop was willing to come to our school for $10 (yes, that's ten dollars) and be available to print shirts as needed if we ran out of sizes. We figured we weren't going to be having a good turnout, so we declined, we ran out of all, but one sweatshirt, two sweatpants and a handful of tees.
So, in case it's not obvious already, I'm a big fan of local.
DJ