After much ado, and a few rounds of trial and error, our Club Store is finally open. Thanks for your patience. A little backstory for those who are curious and have a few minutes...
More than one of you has voiced a desire in recent years to buy Club gear. That's great — we love that you want to rep our University, our program, and our group. And, are willing to spend a some dough to do so. The things you bought in the early 2000s had become a little worn out, a little faded, and perhaps a little tight...
We set about researching a dozen+ options to find the right fit. We also put out a call to action within the group thinking, "... surely one of our 1,500+ alums has some experience in this area..." and "... self-driving cars and private space travel are a thing; surely we can figure this out..."
We launched our first attempt and... we learned a lot. A handful of you took advantage of that offering and are able to rock some pieces with our new-ish logo. But we quickly came to realize that it wasn't an ideal solution.
In a halfway perfect world, here's what we needed to find:
ON-DEMAND
When you place the order, you expect to get the product within a reasonable timeframe.
Unlike our first attempt, this would mean No Order Minimums, and No Order Windows.
Placing an order in August, hoping enough others would want to purchase the same item, and then waiting until November for it to arrive, wasn't going to cut it.
HANDS-OFF
We also knew that we needed to find someone else to take care of all of the payment processing, picking, packing, shipping, and customer service.
There was neither the capacity nor the desire to turn a person's basement into a fulfillment center, or having said person's elementary schoolers stuff packages between dinner and bedtime a few nights a week.
And, importantly, spending the Club's money to purchase an assortment of inventory in the hopes that we'd eventually sell it all wasn't a good bet. We literally still have a box of sweater vests from 20 years ago in our closet at the stadium.
FLEXIBLE
While this is a step in the right direction, it's not perfect. But this setup affords us room to grow.
Meaning, finding other vendors with a deeper catalog who can offer a better option or a different brand of [polo shirt]. Or, tinkering with new designs that include more than just our logo. Or, sourcing and plugging in a new product if there's a strong demand from you guys.
It also means not locking ourselves into any burdensome subscription fees to host the store if we discover that there's a better way to do this.
COST-EFFECTIVE
As we get this off the ground, we sought a high bang-for-buck vendor that carried good products at good prices. And prices that currently include no markup that benefits the Club.
The vendor's margins are baked in and the Club makes nothing, meaning you're getting these products at the best possible prices. A small token for your patience.
And again, we've configured this in such a way that we aren't spending the Club's money on a monthly or annual fee while we experiment to see how well the shoe actually fits. We genuinely strive to be good stewards of your dollars.
So that's that. We hope it's to your liking and we welcome your feedback.
