Issue link: https://nbm.uberflip.com/i/1490460
4 4 G R A P H I C S P R O • F E B R U A R Y 2 0 2 3 G R A P H I C S - P R O. C O M T E A M S P O R T S a week. is is perfect, because now we have breathing room. en I realize I am yet to see a shipping notification. I called my rep and he looked into it, only to find out the order was so large, it put me over my credit limit, so they put my order on hold. All they needed to do was call and get payment. My rep was not very happy about this, of course. I then paid to get them moving again. At this point, my rep is not 100% confident they can be delivered in time. He then took it upon himself to send me 850 blank per- formance shirts in all the colors and sizes we ordered for the league. He did this just in case they did not get there in time. At least they would have something to wear for this first week. At the end of the day, 90% of the jerseys were delivered on Friday, and the rest arrived on Saturday morning. I was able to get them off the plane and deliver them to the soccer fields. is is a huge thing for me. He did not have to do any of those things. Many companies would have said, "Sorry, but you were over your credit limit — not our fault," but he took full responsi- bility and took very good care of me. I will say this again, you're only as good as your rep. Another suggestion I have is to build relationships with more than one company. We work with uni- forms for athletes from Biddy Ball, all the way up to colleges. We do not use the same company for T-ball as we do for a col- lege team. Each company I use is based on how it fits the situation. Obviously, I cannot sell a T-ball team a $75 jersey, but I have a company that makes a nice uniform for $25. I cannot sell that jersey to the college baseball team. ey will never hold up to the abuse, so make sure you find companies that are a great fit for the customer. Lastly, I would like to talk about things you can do in addi- tion to uniforms to really service your coaches. For many of the teams we work with, we provide them with everything they wear on and off the field. For instance, our local community college baseball team wears all our garb, including hats, uniforms, pants, socks, beanies, etc. We also supply their team jackets, travel gear (hooded sweatshirts and joggers) and workout shirts and shorts as well as team bags. It is a great way to build loyalty all in one place. Most coaches appreciate only having to go to one place to out- fit their team. We also offer an online store for them. We mark the items up a few bucks, and then donate the profit back to the teams. e fans love this because it makes it an easy way to sup- port them by buying fan wear. e coaches love this because they can put a few extra bucks into their budget to help out the players. I am a stickler for service. You can do all the things mentioned above, but if you don't do it with top-notch customer service, then you will not succeed. I do my best to make every coach I work with a true friend. It's the only way I know how to do my job efficiently and successfully. GP Production Method Quantity Screen Printing 24 or more Heat Transfer 1 or more Sublimation No minimum unless set by vendor The Cougars uniform is for the local community college softball team. This has applique on the front. The middle is a sublimated football jersey, and the Blaze uniform is a sublimated baseball jersey. (Image courtesy Ty Wilson) We used to screen print these, believe it or not, but moved to sublimation on this material. (Image courtesy Ty Wilson) A sublimated wrestling singlet.