The Complete Team Store Guide

This is the long-form companion to every short piece we've written about team stores. It's designed to be read once by a first-time coordinator, kept as a reference, and consulted again the next time a question comes up.

Part 1: What a team store actually is

A team store is a time-limited, team-specific storefront where families order custom team apparel that gets produced individually and shipped directly to each family. It's typically open for 10–14 days. Parents order through the link; production happens after the store closes; gear arrives 2–3 weeks later.

Unlike traditional team apparel ordering — where a coordinator collects sizes on a spreadsheet, calls a vendor, orders in bulk, sorts the box in a garage, and distributes at practice — a team store eliminates every one of those steps for the coordinator. Payment is handled by the platform. Inventory is handled by the production partner. Customer service for shipping and sizing is handled by the platform. Refunds, when they happen, are platform-mediated.

The coordinator's actual job reduces to: picking products, configuring pricing, setting the open/close window, and communicating with families.

Part 2: When a team store is right (and when it isn't)

Team stores work well for:

• Teams of 10–40 athletes with engaged parent communities
• Programs that want customized, team-branded apparel beyond the basic game uniform
• Fundraising situations where the goal is $500–$5,000 per team per season
• Coordinators with limited time who want automation

Team stores work less well for:

• Groups under 8 active participants (the fundraising math gets thin)
• Communities with very low income where even modest apparel pricing creates barriers
• Situations where the goal is $10,000+ per cycle (you'd need to combine with other fundraising)
• Teams with no digital communication channel to reach families

If your team is in the first group, keep reading. If you're in the second group, consider pairing a team store with other approaches (sponsorships, events).

Part 3: The seven decisions before launch

Every team store launch comes down to seven decisions. Getting them right up front eliminates 90% of the problems that appear later.

Decision 1: Team name and branding. What does the store header say? What logo is used? What are the primary team colors? For programs with central branding standards, this should be fixed — use the approved files. For independent teams, decide once and commit.

Decision 2: Product mix. What's in the store? The answer depends on your team's specific needs (see sport-specific guides for detailed lists), but the rule of thumb is 4–8 items. Fewer than 4 feels thin; more than 8 confuses parents and dilutes each item's visibility.

Start with a performance piece (jersey, racing suit, etc.), a hoodie, a tee, and one backpack/bag. That's the default skeleton. Add beyond that when there's specific demand.

Decision 3: Pricing and markup. For each item, the platform will show you the production cost. Your markup on top is the fundraising margin. 30% markup is the sweet spot — high enough to raise meaningful money, low enough that families don't push back. Some programs go 25% for cost-conscious communities or 40% for high-engagement programs where families will pay more.

Decision 4: Variants and personalization. Will names go on jerseys? Will numbers? Will you allow custom text on anything? If yes, put validation on the configurator (length limits, character restrictions, league-allowed number ranges). If no, be clear about that in the product description.

Decision 5: Store window. Most stores run 10–14 days. Shorter windows miss procrastinators; longer ones lose momentum in the middle. Announce the close date publicly and hold to it.

Decision 6: Optional enhancements. Some platforms support extra features — early-bird discounts, bundle discounts, milestone rewards ("50% of families have ordered — everyone gets a free hat"), group-buy thresholds. Use these sparingly; one or two at most. Too many incentives make the store feel complicated.

Decision 7: Communication channels. Where will you post the launch link? Where will reminders go? For most teams, the group text is the strongest channel. Email is a decent backup. Social media posts are usually not sufficient on their own.

Part 4: Launch day

The single most underrated coordinator behavior is checking the store from a parent's perspective before going live. Open the store in a private browsing window (so your own admin state doesn't show), and walk through the entire flow:

1. Can you see each product clearly?
2. Do the sizing guides render correctly?
3. Can you add an item to cart without errors?
4. Does checkout work end-to-end? (You can use a test card if the platform supports it.)
5. Does the confirmation email arrive?
6. Does the confirmation email look professional?

This takes 10 minutes and catches the most common day-one problems.

Once you're satisfied, send the launch message through your primary channel. Keep it short: what it is, what's in it (briefly), when it closes, the link. Do not pad it with context.

Part 5: The in-flight window

Once the store is live, your role is responsive rather than active. The three things you'll do:

Answer questions fast. Sizing questions are 80% of what comes in. Having written product descriptions with good sizing guidance up front eliminates most of these. The ones that remain should get responses within an hour during the daytime.

Send the mid-window reminder. On roughly day 5 or 6 of a 14-day window, send a casual nudge to the group. "Halfway through the store. Most ordered items so far: [X], [Y], [Z]. Closes [date]." This breaks the silence in the middle stretch and reliably lifts total orders 15–20%.

Send the close reminder. Two days before close, then again 24 hours before close. This is the single most important coordinator behavior. It drives 30% of total orders on its own. Do not skip it, no matter how weird it feels to "pester."

Part 6: The personal nudge

For teams under 40 athletes, the highest-leverage close-window behavior is personal outreach to families who haven't yet ordered. 48 hours before the close deadline, identify everyone who hasn't placed an order and send each an individual text:

"Hey — store closes Friday. Wanted to make sure you saw it. Let me know if you have any questions."

That single message converts at 60–70%. It works because the obstacle is almost never "they don't want the gear." It's "they forgot, or they had a question they didn't want to ask in the group chat." The personal text clears both.

Coordinators sometimes worry this feels pushy. It doesn't. Parents routinely thank the coordinator for the reminder. Every coordinator who tries it reports the same pattern.

Part 7: Close-out and post-store

When the close date arrives, let the store close automatically (if your platform supports it) or close it manually at the announced time. Do not extend the deadline — every time a coordinator extends a store, they train their parents not to trust the next deadline.

Once closed, send a thank-you message with aggregate numbers. "Thanks everyone — we had 27 orders from 24 families, raising roughly $720 for the team." Do not share individual names or amounts.

In the following two weeks, you'll get questions about delivery timing. Have a canned response ready: "Production is 10 business days, shipping is 5–7, so most orders arrive around [date]. The platform will email tracking info when your order ships."

As gear arrives and families start wearing it, try to post a few photos to the group. This is the single best piece of infrastructure for your next store — families remember that the gear actually showed up and looked good, and participation in the next store will reflect that.

Part 8: The multi-season rhythm

A team that runs a store once and never again is leaving most of the value on the table. The compounding happens across seasons.

Store 1 (first season): Expect 50–70% participation. Every coordinator is learning their team's specific patterns, and every team has some parents who need to see a successful first run before they'll trust the second.

Store 2 (second season): Participation jumps to 75–90%. Families know how this works, they know the gear is real, and the social proof from season 1 is doing heavy lifting.

Store 3+ (ongoing): Steady state. Families anticipate the store. Some families order both an in-season piece and a "refresh" piece for themselves. Average basket size trends up.

This trajectory isn't automatic — it depends on the coordinator maintaining quality — but when it happens, a team store stops feeling like an event and starts feeling like a reliable part of the season.

Part 9: Handing off

The final consideration: team stores should outlive individual coordinators. Every store you run should be documented enough that a new coordinator could pick it up next season cold.

A simple handoff note covers: the vendor/platform the team uses, the login or access arrangement, the brand standards file, the product list from the last store, the communications templates, and the typical timeline. One page is plenty.

Teams that rely on a single super-coordinator who "knows how it works" lose years of progress when that person moves. Write it down.

The one-line rule

A team store that works well is boring. The families get the gear, the coordinator doesn't burn out, and the fundraising shows up. If any of those three is off, something in the process needs adjustment. That's the full framework.