Cheer and dance orders are different from every other sport we print for. More pieces per athlete, more personalization, tighter fits, and a parent audience that wants to match. Coaches call it the spirit pack — the set every athlete gets at the start of the season. Here's what goes in one, item by item, and the decisions that keep it from turning into a clipboard nightmare.
The pack, top to bottom
- Practice tees (two or three). Fitted performance or cotton-poly tees in program colors. Competition teams often order a set by day — Monday gray, Wednesday black, Friday school color — so the coach can see at a glance who's dressed. One-color chest print; glitter or metallic transfer if the program wants the sparkle.
- Tank or long sleeve. A racerback tank for summer camp and stunt clinics, or a fitted long sleeve for the winter gym. Same print as the tees.
- Warm-up hoodie or jacket. The podium-walk piece. Cropped or full-length fleece hoodie, or a lightweight team jacket — embroidered left chest, athlete's name down the sleeve or across the shoulders. This is the piece worth personalizing; it lasts four years.
- Joggers or shorts. Fleece joggers for the winter sideline; fitted shorts for camp. Printed hip logo.
- Bag. A printed drawstring or a duffel with an embroidered logo. The bag is what carries the rest of the pack, and it's the item parents notice at pickup.
- Bow. Bows come from your bow vendor — we don't make them — but tell us the colors and we'll match the pack to them.
Sizing for fitted cuts: the conversation to have before the store opens
Cheer is the sport where "medium" means three different things. Fitted tees run a full size smaller than a standard-cut tee; cropped hoodies run shorter than the mockup suggests on a tall athlete; youth sizes stop where they stop. Before a store opens we send a size chart for every piece in the pack, and we recommend the coach hold one sizing session with samples if the program is new to fitted cuts. Nobody guesses, nobody exchanges.
Names on sleeves, and where they go
Personalization is what makes a spirit pack feel like it belongs to the athlete. Where it works:
- Sleeve of the hoodie or jacket — name running down the arm. The classic look.
- Across the shoulders — name and a number or graduation year on the back.
- Not on the tees. Practice tees get replaced every season; put the names on the pieces that last.
Names are collected through the team store at checkout, so the roster comes to us spelled the way the family spells it — not transcribed from a sign-up sheet.
Parent matching: the part that grows the order
Cheer parents buy more per family than any other sport's. Siblings, grandparents, the carpool mom — they all want the hoodie. Put a parent tee, a parent hoodie and a hat in the same team store as the athlete pack and let each family add what they want at checkout. Run the store at your quoted pricing, or as a fundraiser with $5 from every item — standard — back to the program; for a competition team paying its own travel, that adds up fast.
Glitter, metallic and specialty prints
Yes to glitter on tees and hoodies; yes to metallic foil on the right garment; no to anything that won't survive a wash. We'll tell you plainly which effects hold up on which fabric before you approve the artwork — that's the point of talking to a real shop.
Timing
Winter sideline cheer runs with basketball and competition season peaks December through February. To have packs before the first game or competition, artwork and rough roster numbers need to be in by mid-October; the store opens then and runs about two weeks; production is kitted by athlete and delivered late October to mid-November. Sport-by-sport dates are in the winter sports ordering timeline.
If this is your squad: cheer & dance team apparel has the sample pack and the quote link. One email, one person, one answer.