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What differentiates Abigail James Spirit Wear from traditional spirit wear shops?
AJ Spirit Wear is reimagining spirit wear as a service focused on adding value to nonprofit organization specializing in youth sports organizations and K-12 education. Traditional spirit wear shops work on a wholesale/retail model usually focusing on one or two traditional embellishment disciplines like silk screening or embroidery work. AJ Spirit Ware sees spirit wear as a tool used to add new value to nonprofit organizations so that they can better market themselves, interact with existing members and recruit new members. Structuring AJ Spirit Wear with a service model means our success is directly proportionate to the health and success of our customers. AJ Spirt Wear finds success when we collaborate with our customers and use spirit wear to think outside the box for them.
How does a traditional spirit wear shop work?
Traditional “mom & pop” shops historically focus on one or two disciplines within the garment embellishment industry. For customers this means that these “mom & pop” shops often push for a generic online store front with a limited number of designs on a limited number of garment types.
Nonprofit youth sports organizations don’t typically have the size or sales to justify that traditional “mom & pop” shops make substantial investments in their online storefronts. This lack of investment often leads to a stagnant online presence that add very little value other then providing families/members with generic, “every-one-has-the-same-shirt” spirit wear.
What does Abigail James Spirit Wear do differently?
Like most traditional “mom & pop” spirit wear shops, AJ Spirit Wear provides traditional generic, “every-
one-has-the-same” spirit wear to fill those needs. It fills a basic need that will always exist, those
needs are fulfilled by AJ Spirt Wear’s “Classic Spirit Wear” products.
Unlike most traditional “mom & pop” spirit wear shops, AJ Spirit Wear also focuses on the emerging
Print on Demand or POD market to deliver a premium line of spirit ware to families and members of an
organization at the same, or lower, price point as traditional “mom & pop” spirit wear shops. Print on
demand Is fulfilled with AJ Spirit Wear’s Premium Spirit Wear products.
What is Print on Demand or POD?
Print on Demand is outsourcing the embellishment and fulfillment of a blank wholesale garment
or product to a 3rd party printer. The Print on Demand market size was 4.9 billion in 2021, 6.17 billion
in 2022 and is expected to reach 39.4 billion by 2030. As the Print on Demand market continues to grow
it will continue to place pressure on antiquated “mom & pop” spirit wear shops. As those pressures
grow traditional spirit wear shops will struggle to provide the same services they do today at
competitive prices.
Doesn't out sourcing add cost?
Not to our customers or the end user. POD companies are global so their buying power and the lack of AJ Spirit Wear's operation costs for POD items means we can offer premium spirit wear items to your customers at the same price that our competition offers their spirit ware.
What does Print on Demand allow AJ Spirit Wear to do that traditional “mom & pop” shops can’t?
Print on Demand allows AJ Spirit Wear to move production and embellishment to global manufacturers
that specialize in producing all types of spirit wear, promotional items and custom products. This shift in
production allows AJ Spirit Wear to dramatically reduce its operating costs which, in turn, allows AJ
Spirit Wear to create profit sharing and donation models with its customers while providing more spirit
wear options at lower costs.
Profit sharing and donations models create new revenue streams for nonprofit organizations
allowing those organizations to keep their costs lower while providing additional services to its
members. At the same time, lower cost spirit wear allows members to keep more money in their
pockets while at the same time offering additional spirit wear products and designs to purchase.
Are there additional benefits that Print on Demand allows AJ Spirit Wear to provide?
Since POD products are created only when there is demand, AJ Spirit Wear can provide substantially
more designs and products than traditional “mom & pop” shops. This allows organizations to have
richer online store fronts but more importantly it creates an additional engagement with existing
and potential members as designs are added and removed.
How do these additional engagements benefit an organization?
The ability to quickly add and update products provides organizations the opportunity to offer new
products based on particular teams, special events or timing. Every new product creates a new
opportunity which allows the organization to interact with its members and families in a fun way that
everyone looks forward to.
Example: Team Shirts and/or Fundraiser Opportunities
Today most spirit wear products have generic designs and logos. POD could allow a team the opportunity to create their own custom design with player names, numbers or even pictures on the product. This design could be offered on an entire line of products from traditional t-shirts and hoodies to computer mouse pad, cell phone cases and back packs. The proceeds from that design could create a new fundraising opportunity for that team.
Example: Organizational Engagement Paths
As the weather shifts from summer to fall a softball/baseball organization might want to offer a fleece
blanket with the organization’s logo on it. This new product, targeted at being comfortable in the cooler
weather, provides the organization an opportunity to interact with its membership by announcing the
availability of the new product. Along with announcing the availability of the new product the
organization is provided the opportunity to also include any other marketing or organizational
information they deem important.
Example: Recruiting
A travel/club organization can offer spirit ware to parents, players and families of recreational park district youth sports teams. Not only would offering “park district” spirit wear enable an organization to get in front of prospective players and help build relationships but it would also create a recruiting database of players and families that visited your online store and purchase spirit wear.