team school, but we also offer other gifts and non-Nike souvenirs,” he explained.

The University Store uses a number of different local and national vendors to supply it with school spirit merchandise, and buys these items directly from distributors.

In addition, the store handles athletic concession sales at all athletic events. The assortment is no different than can be found in the store. “It is just a smaller assortment of what we carry at retail,” Craig said. This merchandise is directed at all attendees to these events, he added.

One of the most popular school spirit items is face paint, and Prus-sian Blue, also known as “Duke Blue,” and white are the school’s official colors. Users color their faces and bodies to make them stand out from the rest of the crowd.

“The paint comes on a stick for easy application — you dampen the sticks and the paint comes off the stick and onto your face or body — and decals are used too,” Craig said.

Next to being on campus or at the big game, the best way for students to show everyone that they stand behind their college of choice is by having,

wearing, displaying and using school spirit items. These products — everything from towels and ban-

ners to hats and other softlines, including apparel — are a creative way for current students, alumni, parents and fans to show their college allegiance.

College bookstores are something of a portal to the ultimate school spirit assortment. Not only do these venues — servicing both large universities and smaller educational institutions — stock the standard school spirit items, but they also often include unique prod-ucts as part of this selection, items that cannot be found anywhere else.

Following a TrendThomas Craig, merchandise manager at Duke Univer-

sity’s The University Store, Durham, N.C., said the venue has a “nice” assortment of school spirit merchandise representing the Blue Devils sports teams, including face and body paint, wigs, foam heads, pom poms, foam fingers, beads, buttons and megaphones. The most popular items are face paint, body paint and wigs.

“The majority of our school spirit customers are students and children of season ticket holders,” he noted. This group represents those who have the keenest interest in such merchandise. “Since Duke’s alumni base is global, most Duke alumni live outside of North Carolina and cannot make it to many sporting events.”

Craig said the current popularity of school spirit items is something of a trend, and this popularity is encouraged, to a certain degree, by the university itself.

“It’s the current trend, especially here,” he said, alluding to the suc-cess of the school’s sports teams, including the basketball team, the 2010 NCAA men’s basketball champion. “No one piece of apparel is solely worn or marketed to be worn at sporting events. As a matter of fact, Duke encourages each student to show their individuality and not wear the same things as others.”

School spirit merchandise can be found at numerous retail venues throughout the campus. In addition to The University Store, these items can be found at the Duke Team Store, the East Campus Store and the Medical Center Bookstore.

Craig said the Duke Team Store, a joint venture between Duke Athlet-ics and Duke University Stores, is located adjacent to Cameron Indoor Stadium, the basketball team’s home court, on the university’s West Campus. “We only offer Nike clothing, since we are an all-Nike athletic

Pledging Allegiance

“The majority of our school spirit customers are students and children of season ticket holders,” he noted. This group represents those who

Duke University’s The University Store carries an assortment of school spirit mer-chandise representing the Blue Devils sports teams, including face paint and body paint, wigs, foam heads, pom poms, foam fingers, beads, buttons and megaphones.

(PHOTO COURTESY OF THE UNIVERSITY STORE, DUKE UNIVERSITY)

To Your SchoolPHOTO BY

R BRENT SMITH

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gated, and by bringing it together on one floor, it will hopefully increase our sales on our novelty and gift items.”

HEIGHTENED ACTIVITYShe said that the busiest times for emblematic merchandise are

when the football team, known as the Pirates, plays at home. “Over the years our store has become a tailgating tradition,” Perry

said. “Generations of alumni and current students visit us before the game to get their T-shirt, ECU poncho in case of rain, ECU car flag, etc. We have everything an alumnus or student could need or want.”

Other very busy times, said Perry, are orientation, the beginning of each semester, Christmas and graduation.

THE ASSORTMENTCar flags, T-shirts, decals, hoods “and basically anything purple and

gold with ECU on it” are the most popular items in the assortment,” she said, adding that for girls, “pink and anything with an animal print still seems to be in.”

In additional to these traditional items, Perry said UBE created a new logo this year that “has helped our sales tremendously.” The logo, called “The Pirate Nation,” is an outline of North Carolina “with our most popular Jolly Roger encased in it.”

According to the operations manager, the Jolly Roger has become so popular that “every item with this logo on it has been reordered several times, including T-shirts, decals, etc.”

Another new item that recently became part of the UBE assortment embraces the green movement. “We carry Alternative Earth products, including tees, sweatshirts and hoods,” Perry said. “In this line, we also carry a crew and a full zip, which has the skull and crossbones on it. We have a local screen printer, Mojo Sportswear, that orders this product and imprints the Jolly Roger on it for us. Even Pirates can be green!”

Lots of face paint — and many other items — were sold during “March Madness,” as the Blue Devils marched through the opposition and eventually topped Butler University for this year’s college basketball national championship.

The Blue Devils’ basketball triumph was something of a national phe-nomenon, as games were broadcast coast-to-coast on national television and radio and drew huge ratings. National exposure to the school, and to school merchandise, reached its zenith during the championship run.

However, the store uses other tools to market school spirit merchan-dise to its clientele — students and children of season ticket holders — during much of the calendar year.

“We use in-store displays and the student newspaper to market these items,” Craig said. “We offer all school spirit items online, except for face paint, which we have never thought of selling online.”

University Book Exchange,Greenville, N.C.: Pirates’ ‘Booty’Appeals to Customers

The University Book Exchange (UBE), a family owned and operated business founded in 1968 in Greenville, N.C., to serve the needs of stu-dents, faculty and alumni of East Carolina University (ECU), offers a wide array of emblematic apparel in its 3,000-square-foot sportswear store.

According to UBE Operations Manager Yvonne B. Perry, the store is on the facility’s ground level surrounded by the art supply store and the school supplies store.

“We made a decision to have our sportswear store on one level for easier handicap accessibility and better merchandising opportunities,” she noted. “Previously, we had our tailgating and apparel section segre-

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TOUCHDOWN!Perry said the success of the football team is paramount to the

success of the emblematic assortment. “The success of our team does play a large role in sales of emblem-

atic merchandise,” Perry said. “If your team is winning, you are more apt to buy. Win or lose, we have a very devoted fan base; probably some of the most devoted fans in the nation are Pirates fans!”

And the team has been successful. In 2009, the Pirates were the Conference USA champions, and sported a 9-5 record. For the second year in a row, the team played in the Liberty Bowl, and the contest went into overtime in a game the Pirates eventually lost, 20-17, to Arkansas.

THE FUTUREThe future looks bright for school spirit at ECU, the Pirates and UBE.

“We are in the process of expanding and remodeling our sportswear store to be about 7,000 square feet,” Perry said. “Our ‘Stairs of Fame’ will be the focal point in our remodel. This visual icon has been a tradition at UBE, highlighting outstanding Pirates with their Pirate

number and year of accomplishment.”All told, Perry said UBE prides itself in giving back to the community

that it serves, “and that, in turn, has helped us to become as successful as we are. University Book Exchange has always been at the forefront of market trends, and continues to look for new and exciting ideas and products to better serve our customers.” —CSE

For more on School Spirit, visit www.collegestoreexecutive.com.

A selection of apparel at the University Book Exchange, which is contained in its 3,000-square-foot sportswear store. (PHOTO BY WILL ELSEN)

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