Common Mistakes Sororities Make With Custom Apparel & How To Avoid Them

You know what a decade of experience in making custom apparel for college students gets you? We can list 5 things:

• Ridiculous amount of knowledge on how to make great customizable designs
• Tight relationship with Greek Nationals
• People go ‘How do you know that?’ when you can name the exact style code of a shirt a stranger is wearing
• Using the above skill to impress a crush with a 50% success rate
• Deep understanding of Greek organizations and what goes into getting them great merch

That last bullet is exactly why we’re writing this article and why you’re here. This information will definitely help you, an Apparel Chair or a Director of Merch or just a cool T-Shirt gal on campus, design great apparel everyone will love.

Let’s do it: here are common mistakes we see sororities make when designing custom apparel and how you can avoid them.

Don’t Hesitate When Mocking Up Art

Maybe it’s the trauma in all of us but when requesting design revisions, we find that people sometimes green-light designs they aren’t really happy with.

You can request as many mockups and revisions as you like! It’s your merch and you want your sisters to love it so go ahead and do as many as you need until you look at a design and go ‘That’s the one!’ Yes, this is a rom-com and yes, you deserve your happy ending.

We do unlimited free mockups and revisions. Take that to your advantage.

Don’t Forget To Talk To Your Campus Manager

Campus Managers at Fresh Prints are college students on your campus who have been given all the training and resources needed to get you custom apparel you’ll love. We’re also constantly in touch with them so if they ever don’t know something, they can figure it out pretty quickly by reaching out to us.

This means you can ask them any question you have:

• Cost difference between two shirts
• How to place rush orders when you need merch fast
• The exact date you should start working on merch for an upcoming event
• Nationals’ rules on what you can and cannot print
• And more!

If you don’t know who your Campus Manager is, follow these steps:

• Go to https://www.freshprints.com/about
• Scroll down to the ‘Our Campus Managers’ section
• Search your university’s name
• Click the picture of the CM to get in touch

If you don’t have a Campus Manager at your school yet, hit us up directly.

Don’t Forget To Use Forms To Your Advantage

Can’t decide between 2 art styles for an upcoming event? Do a quick poll with your sisters. You can use Google Forms – it’s free. (Not sponsored! Imagine if Google sponsored us though lol. THE Google sponsoring a custom apparel company. Hilarious.)

Need to figure out who wants the merch and then collect their sizes and addresses for an order? Take a few minutes to create a survey and send it out with a deadline. Periodically remind your members about it in group chats and then close it on the day you said was the last day. This will encourage people to take responsibility to fill it out on time so it’s not all on you!

Don’t Waste The Apparel Budget

Let’s say you have some extra budget for apparel. Instead of doing another custom shirt for everyone, try customizing other things!

We can customize drinkware, sweatpants, pens, hats, stickers, and so many more items. It’s a great way to spice it up and surprise your sisters with something unique.

Don’t Forget About Nationals

Nothing sucks more than thinking of a sick design only to have it get rejected by the Nationals. When customizing apparel, it is very important that you don’t forget your org’s rules so you don’t waste any of your time.

Our art gallery features original designs that Nationals will approve. You can make our designs your own without worrying about approvals.

Another thing you can do is ask your Campus Manager for your sorority's rules so you know exactly what you can and cannot do before you get started. If you ever feel really strongly about a design that you think won’t get approved, tell us about your vision and our artists will come up with designs that make what you want happen while also meeting Nationals’ requirements.

Don’t Start Without Inspiration

If you have to design apparel for an event and you have absolutely no idea what the design should look like, it’s very easy to throw your hands in the air shake em like you just don’t care, and make a basic design.

Instead, you can do a few things:

• Go on Instagram and Pinterest! Look up what popular chapters are doing. If you have a theme, look for what other orgs with that theme have done in the past.
• Ask your Campus Manager what other orgs are doing now.
• Tell us your theme and have our art team come up with something for you.
• Browse our design gallery. You can search your theme for related designs as well.

Overall, you can still get somewhere really impressive despite not having any idea what you want to do immediately. Just need a lil bit of research!

Don’t Forget To Ask For Sample When You Need One

Maybe you’re thinking of customizing products from a brand you’ve never heard of. Maybe you can’t figure out the sizing of an item, or maybe you want to see what something looks like in real life. The answer is simple: ask for a sample.

We do plenty of samples for free. So it costs you nothing and can save you time and money!

Don’t Complicate Fundraising Via Apparel

Instead of buying a big bulk of custom shirts and selling them yourself for your philanthropy event, consider setting up a group order link.

Group order links are small online shops that display your merch until the link expires. You can set them up with your Campus Manager’s help and share the link with as many people as you can. On the link, people can buy the merch they like in their size and enter their addresses. When the link closes, an order is placed with us and we send everyone their merch.

Aside from simplifying address and size collection, you can use group order links to fundraise. Simply ask your Campus Manager to upcharge the merch. After the link closes and the orders are placed, Fresh Prints will donate the extra profit earned to your fundraiser.

Don’t Put The Final Decision To A Group-Wide Vote

We can’t tell you how important this is. Most of the time, your merch is on a timeline and you need it by a specific date. If you keep getting swayed by every opinion you hear, you are going to struggle with meeting that timeline.

Don’t get us wrong! It’s important to make what people like, that’s why we suggest surveying your members every now and then. But it is also important to know when to stand your ground.

Think of it this way: Opinions should guide you, not hold you back. At the end of the day, you are ordering the apparel using your understanding of what everyone wants. Make that call when you need to!

There you have it! You'll never make these mistakes again. Happy customizing! :)