6 Platforms Apparel Chairs NEED When Designing Merch
Making merch is EFFIN’ HARD. There, I said it.
How do you make the entire chapter love your designs while ensuring you’re not making outdated stuff AND still complying with whatever theme you have for each event? Just thinking about that is draining!
Here’s a secret: the best apparel chairs work smart. They can ask the right questions to get an idea for the theme, assert their voices, and source Greek merch ideas from specific places.
With so many places online where you can find fraternity and sorority merch design inspo, how do you narrow down where to look so you’re not fumbling the bag? Here are the top 5 places we recommend:
When we asked current apparel chairs where they usually first go for design, they mentioned Pinterest a lot. There are a lot of merch designs there, along with pics from frats and sororities wearing their merch as part of a whole fit. You can also find fit inspo, brand logos in case your chapter wants to mimic your fav companies and more.
One caveat with Pinterest is you can’t immediately see your chapter name on designs you like. You’ll either have to recreate it from scratch or wait for your custom apparel company to finish your proof before you gauge whether it’s what you want.
TikTok
Fit inspo, merch haul unboxing, and shirt design showcases are super common on TikTok! Even merch ideas are super common on TikTok, with many sorority girls showing off what they got for major events like Bid Day, Big-Little, etc.
You’ll also know if certain looks or aesthetics are popular based on how many likes and comments the videos have. And there are so many creative shirt designers on TikTok, not just for Greek merch, so you can get inspo that isn’t typical collegiate stuff.
Again, the caveat is that you can’t immediately create your dream design by doomscrolling on TikTok. You’ll have to screenshot or save lots of videos just to come up with a mood board of ideas and THEN wait until your proof is done.
IG is the place to be if you’re looking for an entire outfit for your theme. You can find other chapters and see what they do for merch design, what fit their members come up with, and even the type of garments they pair with their designs. The sorority or fraternity event pics you see on Pinterest came from Instagram, too.
Like Pinterest and TikTok, you won’t be able to create your designs just by being there, and IG is really just more about inspo than anything. Apart from that, the saving function is nonexistent and you’ll have to scroll through your old likes just to find that one design that’s giving you a brainrot. And, unless you follow shirt design pages, you won’t really see the design fully or properly because they’re on shirts and not uploaded as designs only.
Canva
When it comes to free graphic designing and editing, Canva is THE number one. You don’t need a monthly Adobe license, you have access to hundreds of stuff in their Elements gallery, their font library is MASSIVE, and they have a few blank garment mockups you can use. Canva also has stuff like logo templates you can edit as well as a background remover if you have art or designs you like that you need to make transparent.
Most apparel chairs use Canva to create or edit merch designs, but the big problem with Canva is the paywall. Not all universities provide free Canva Pro to students, so unless you’re willing to pay the monthly fee (not as expensive as Adobe, but still), a huge chunk of their graphics and functionalities won’t be available to you. Plus, their templates aren’t designed or made with Greek chapters in mind.
Custom Apparel Company Lookbooks
What if you take Pinterest, Instagram, and TikTok design and merch inspo, make them fit a certain aesthetic/theme, and compile them all into one viewable page? That’s what lookbooks do, especially the ones we do here at Fresh Prints. They showcase designs the company can do, the garments available at their store, and even how to style those based on the lookbook’s overall theme.
When we interviewed apparel or merch chairs of our client chapters, they mentioned how our lookbook helps them pick out designs they like and garments we have, both exclusive and from their fav brands we carry. Of course, not all custom apparel companies have lookbooks, but it helps to look around!
Design Tool
What if Canva had the fraternity or sorority merch designs you see on Pinterest, had 1000+ blank garment bases accurate to what you’re ordering, and you weren’t locked behind a paywall? That’s where our design tool comes in.
It marries what you all love with the platforms above and makes it super accessible for you to design your fraternity or sorority apparel from scratch. If you’re still into asking our Art team to make designs for you, our design tool still allows you to make quick edits from the proofs you got without waiting for 24 hours.
The caveat? It’s super addicting to use. We warned you.
By focusing on these platforms, you aren’t wasting your time designing your next fraternity or sorority event merch. Happy designing!