piritwear never goes out of style, since hoodies, shirts and hats are a staple at almost every school store. People love to show they belong to—and support—a school community or sports team. Your school clients will love you for putting together the ultimate school spiritwear capsule collection, with must-wear items for fans of all ages.
It’s not too early to start showing your school and team clients the must-have spiritwear looks for the 2022-2023 school year. This four-piece kit, including shirts, a hoodie and a laid-back dad cap in lots of versatile colors, appeals to students and fans of all ages. We’ve got product recommendations from brands you know and love, along with how to custom-decorate these products with your favorite mascots.
Ring In a New Season With a New Tee
Always a fan favorite, the Varsity Ringer or Football Jersey Tee (the name varies by apparel brand) kicks it with a retro-inspired, preppy varsity look that appeals to all age groups within the K-12 and collegiate markets. If your client wants a different t-shirt style for their spiritwear collection, adding a colorful ringer is a great way to change things up. You can create a vintage look and feel by adding a distressed design or team mascot on the front of the shirt with screen printing or a heat transfer.
We like LAT’s short-sleeve Football Fine Jersey Tee (6937), made of soft combed ringspun cotton/polyester, with two contrast stripes on each sleeve. This ringer style comes in a variety of colors combos, including Vintage Burgundy/White, Vintage Green/White, Vintage Hot Pink/White, Vintage Purple/White, Vintage Royal/White and more. LAT is a great brand to turn to for coordinating companion and unisex sizes for infants, toddlers, children, women—to build the ultimate sideline family fan gear grouping for your clients.
Raglans Are All the Rage
This varsity-inspired retro baseball shirt with raglan sleeves appeals to all students within the K-12 and collegiate markets. A raglan shirt’s unique look and versatility make it one of the most popular activewear styles around. The sleeve design offers full range of motion for wearers, making it a comfortable shirt to wear. The baseball shirt can also be used as a layering piece, and offers multiple color options for schools and events because of the two-tone sleeve/body look.
One of our favorite baseball raglans is Next Level’s Unisex Triblend Three-Quarter Sleeve Raglan (6051). The side seams, curved hem and soft triblend fabric offers a retail look and feel—and makes this spiritwear style an easy cross-functional option for most organizations. Next Level’s raglan style comes in lots of color combos, like Vintage Red Sleeves/ Heather White Body, Vintage Pink Sleeves/Heather White Body, Purple Rush Sleeves/Heather White Body, Heather White Sleeves/Vintage Black Body and more.
We like this shirt’s relaxed unisex fit, which makes it gender- and size-inclusive, as well as multi-generational to fit the whole family of fans. Plus, due to the shirt’s contrast coloring and raglan shoulders, you’ve got multiple design options, making it a popular spiritwear choice for fans who want to stand out. There are lots of decorating techniques like screen printing, sublimation, DTG, heat transfer vinyl and direct-to-film transfers you can use to create both retro looks or crisp, full-color graphics on the front and back of the shirt.
Holler for the Hoodie!
From what we’re seeing in the marketplace, fleece hoodies continue to be the top-selling style in spiritwear apparel. It’s no surprise, since hoodies are the most versatile style for all types of schools, teams and clubs—from K-12 and colleges, student organizations to booster clubs, fanwear and off-the-field wear, and fraternities and sororities. Hands-down, lightweight hoodies are a great layering piece that you can wear year-round, no matter where you live, coast to coast.
We love Independent Trading Co.’s Unisex Midweight Pigment-Dyed Hooded Sweatshirt (PRM4500). When you present a pigment-dyed hoodie style, you immediately appeal to Greek organizations, sports teams and clubs who enjoy the fashion-forward retail vibe, which continues to be popular. You’ve got lots of real estate on hoodies for text and mascot graphics, on the front, back, sleeves and even inside the hood.
Even better, you can present coordinating companion styles from Independent Trading Co., for an on-trend pigmented look head to toe: Unisex Midweight Pigment-Dyed Crewneck Sweatshirt (PRM3500), Youth Midweight Pigment-Dyed Hooded Sweatshirt (PRM1500Y), Pigment-Dyed Fleece Pants (PRM50PTPD) and Pigment-Dyed Fleece Shorts (PRM50STPD). Independent Trading is a great brand for complementary styles at great price points in extensive color offerings. Plus, this company stocks a healthy inventory of styles, so you can always get your clients what they need, when they need it.
See the Independent PRM1500Y decorated below, in our Decoration Myths YouTube series.
Dad Cap’s Aren't Just for Dads
Arguably, the easiest spiritwear add-on and the most essential accessory is a hat. The wholesale market offers a plethora of options, depending on the organization and demographic you’re outfitting. The dad cap style appeals to kids, teenagers and adults for a few reasons beyond the fact that it’s been around since the ‘70s and we see a lot of our favorite celebs and music artists like Kanye West and Beyoncé wearing them.
Dad hats are more structured, so they fit your head better. They also have a curved brim that frames your face well and protects your eyes from sun glare. All around, dad caps are stylish, comfortable, and come in lots of colors and patterns to match any spiritwear program.
Show your clients ValuCap’s Adult Bio-Washed Classic Dad’s Cap (VC300A), an unstructured, six-panel, low-profile style made from 100% bio-washed chino twill. We think this dad cap is one of the most versatile headwear options out there, as it appeals to all ages and genders. You might even venture to say this is the spiritwear style for anyone and everyone, especially since it comes in a variety of colors, tricolors and patterns. It features colorways like Baby Blue, Light Pink, Cardinal, Neon Green, Texas Orange, White/Red/Navy, Gray/Royal/Charcoal, Pink Camo, Tan Camo, and more. You can even get caps with contrast stitching in Brown/Stone Stitch, Navy/Stone Stitch and Olive/Stone Stitch.
Many other silhouettes are equally popular for spiritwear options-beanie, snapback trucker, fitted, visor and bucket hats. No matter what cap style you choose, you can add an eye-catching logo or mascot to the front panel, with embroidery, 3-D puff stitching or a patch.
Get Ready for Back to School Now
As you start reaching out to your clients for the fall back-to-school season, we hope this ultimate spiritwear capsule collection for fans of all ages gives you great ideas for your presentations. The products we’ve chosen have a wide variety of colorways and plenty of room for standout decoration (which is super-important for spiritwear!). Showing your clients on-trend apparel and accessories that appeal to everyone sets you apart from your competitors, so don’t wait to show them these exciting product ideas. Share and tag your final products with us at @ssactivewear on Instagram!