Elementary School T-Shirt Sales Ideas
If you are an apparel decorator, you know that custom elementary school t-shirts have many opportunities.
Elementary schools can vary in size, but most have several hundred students. In fact, according to the National Center for Education Statistics, the average size of an elementary school in the U.S. is 473 students.
Get your foot in the door with the school, and that is a lot of t-shirts to print.
Elementary School T-Shirts for Students and Staff
There are a few school shirts right off the bat that you can print for most elementary schools.
This would include:
- Spirit wear
- School uniforms
- Gym uniforms
- Elementary school staff shirts
The first and probably most obvious shirts to print for elementary schools are the school spirit wear shirts. Just like high schools, elementary schools get shirts for the students to wear that represent the school itself.
This would be designs that include the school name, any mascots, or fun designs that are more general for the school. We would categorize this as spirit wear.
Schools like spirit wear because it brings the students together and promotes unity and teamwork. It lets them know they belong there.
Spirit wear can also boost morale and pride in the school.
Spirit wear is an easy fundraiser for schools. When doing elementary school spirit wear, it may be a good idea to work with the school and help them use it as a fundraiser.
Using Stahls’ Spirit Sale makes fundraisers easy. It makes organization simple with no paper orders or cash floating around. It takes the responsibility out of the students and teachers hands.
Since Stahls’ Spirit Sale is an online ecommerce solution, parents, and family members like grandparents, are able to buy online and pay online.
This makes the ordering process super easy and limits the amount of work the school staff has to do for the fundraiser. They’ll hop on that opportunity fast.
In regards to school uniforms, not all elementary schools will have them. However, most private schools will.
School uniforms could include a custom printed polo shirt, long sleeve button down shirts, sweaters, and skirts. This is a great opportunity, because these are required for the students.
Gym uniforms are more common within the schools. This could include a t-shirt, shorts, or even sweats for colder weather seasons.
Stahls’ Spirit Sale also makes uniform purchases easier for students/parents.
Tip: For gym uniforms, once you print the apparel, students can write their names with permanent marker right on top of the transfer prints.
And lastly, don’t forget the school staff! A nice staff shirt or polo shirt goes a long way. Having a specific shirt for teachers and administration can give a clean, professional and uniform look. You can even print work uniform shirts for custodial and maintenance staff as well. Don’t forget the bus drivers, too.
School T-Shirt Design Ideas
Besides the “normal” elementary school spirit wear shirts and uniforms, there are many more activities that take place throughout the school year that are also t-shirt worthy.
Such activities and events include:
- field day
- class of/class lists
- 100 days of school
- field trips
- science fairs
- kindergarten graduation
- 5th grade graduation
- father/daughter dances
- reading events
- walk-a-thons
- “grow with me” shirts
[Related Content: “Grow With Me – Class Of” Shirts]
Students get excited for shirts for events that are happening at school. Shirts for events are like spirit wear, but are specific for the event.
These make great commemorative items and add to the collection of school apparel for students.
For some events, there’s even a practical reason for these shirts, too. For off-site events, like field trips, group shirts help teachers and chaperones identify students quickly and keep the group together.
This is especially true of bright colors, which help to spot students in crowds.
Group shirts also help divide students into “teams” for events like field day. Each grade or classroom can be separated with a different color shirt.
Using a Color Change for ink colors can help save money on transfer printing costs.
For example, when you order the same design in white ink and also in black ink, you get the price for the total quantity of transfers as one order instead of two separate orders. A Color Change only comes with a $15 charge, which saves you money overall.
If you keep the design the same, you can get transfers for an entire school, but print them on different colored shirts.
[Related Content: 5 Ways to Make Custom Field Day Shirts More Profitable]
Design Custom School T-Shirts
Once you have an order for elementary shirts, you’ll need artwork.
Sometimes the school will supply you with artwork or their mascot or logo.
In those cases, you can upload the artwork if it’s ready to order via the upload wizard on the Transfer Express website. If you want to add a mascot into a design or add text, you can always upload it into Easy View online design center.
Easy View has thousands of layout templates that you can customize in minutes for your exact needs. Find the best elementary school t-shirt designs and substitute in the school name, their colors, and mascot.
It’s free to use Easy View and it is browser based, so you can design anywhere on any device. You don’t have to download any software or ever need updates.
Whether you’re a designer or not, Easy View makes creating elementary school t-shirt art easy and fast.