School spirit looks great on a t-shirt. Tracking 47 T-shirts, six sizes, three colors and a stack of checks? A little less fun.
Whether you’re selling school shirts, team hoodies, club hats or other spirit wear, a SignUpGenius sign up can help you keep orders, payments, and important details organized in one place. Families can choose what they want, pay online and provide information like a student’s name or homeroom when they order.
The key is setting up your sign up so it does the organizing for you.
This guide walks you through how to create a spirit wear sign up, collect payments, manage your available inventory and gather the details you’ll need when it’s time to distribute orders.
Step 1: Plan your spirit wear sale before building the sign up
Before you start adding shirts and hoodies, map out exactly what you’re selling.
Make a list of each product, its price, and every option available. For example:
- School logo T-shirt: $20
- School logo sweatshirt: $35
- Baseball cap: $18
For apparel, also note which sizes and colors you actually have available. If you have limited inventory, write down the quantity of each variation before building your sign up.
For example, your T-shirt inventory might look like:
- Navy T-shirt, Youth Medium: 10 available
- Navy T-shirt, Youth Large: 12 available
- Gray T-shirt, Youth Medium: 8 available
- Gray T-shirt, Youth Large: 10 available
This may feel a little detailed now, but it will save you from sorting through orders later to figure out whether you sold more Youth Medium navy shirts than you actually have.
You’ll also want to decide how families will receive their orders. Add an estimated pickup or delivery date, the pickup location and any important ordering deadlines to your plan. If orders will be sent home with students, decide what information you’ll need to make sure each bag finds the right classroom.
A student name, grade, and homeroom teacher can go a long way toward preventing a sweatshirt from taking an unexpected tour of the school.
Step 2: Create your spirit wear sign up
Log in to your SignUpGenius account and select Create a Sign Up to begin. Our guide to creating a sign up walks through the complete setup process if you need a refresher.
Give your sign up a clear title that immediately tells families what it is, such as "Lincoln Elementary Fall Spirit Wear Sale."
Next, choose an appropriate theme and add a description with the most important information parents need before ordering. You can even add your school's logo image to the sign up.
Include details such as:
- The final date to place an order
- When orders are expected to be ready
- Where or how orders will be distributed
- Who parents should contact with questions
- Any exchange, refund or sizing policies
- Whether quantities are limited
If you're taking preorders rather than selling merchandise you already have, say that clearly. For example, let families know that sizes shown on the sign up are ordering options rather than merchandise currently on hand.
The clearer you are upfront, the fewer “When will my hoodie be ready?” emails you'll need to answer later.
Step 3: Set up online payments
Next, turn your sign up into a one-stop shop by allowing families to pay when they order.
If you haven't collected money through SignUpGenius before, you'll first need to activate the payment feature on your account. Follow the steps in our guide to collecting money on a sign up to get started.
During payment setup, you'll provide information for the person or organization collecting the money and connect the bank account where funds will be transferred. Completing your payment setup before opening your sale will help make sure everything is ready when orders start rolling in.
Participants do not need their own payment account to purchase spirit wear. They can submit payment as part of the sign-up process using the available payment methods.
Once payments are activated, return to the Slots tab of your spirit wear sign up.
When adding a merchandise slot:
- Enter the name of the item.
- Enter the Number Wanted.
- Assign the slot to the appropriate date or dates.
- Select the option to Collect Money.
- Enter the payment details and price for that item.
- Save the slot.
You can repeat these steps for each item you're selling. See our full instructions for how to create a payment sign up.
Be specific with your slot names. Instead of simply adding a slot called “T-Shirt,” use names that tell families exactly what they’re ordering, especially when you need to track inventory.
For example, "School Logo T-Shirt — Navy — Youth Medium — $20."
Clear labels help parents make the right selection and make your final order report much easier to understand.
Step 4: Add inventory for each item
If you already have a limited supply of spirit wear, your Number Wanted is one of the most important parts of the setup.
On a standard sign up, the Number Wanted controls how many sign-up spots are available for that slot. For merchandise, you can use those available spots to represent the quantity you have available for that particular item or variation. Learn more about entering slot quantities.
For example, if you have 10 Youth Medium navy shirts available, create a slot specifically for that variation and set the available quantity accordingly.
This is especially helpful when the quantities vary by size.
Instead of creating, "Navy School T-Shirt" and asking everyone to type their size into a question, consider creating individual merchandise options such as:
- Navy School T-Shirt — Youth Small
- Navy School T-Shirt — Youth Medium
- Navy School T-Shirt — Youth Large
- Navy School T-Shirt — Adult Small
- Navy School T-Shirt — Adult Medium
Why?
Because if you have 30 shirts total but only five Adult Medium shirts, a single 30-shirt slot won't help you prevent the Adult Medium option from being over-ordered. Separating inventory by variation gives you much better control.
The same rule applies to color. If you have different quantities of blue and gray sweatshirts, treat those as separate merchandise options.
Genius Tip: Use custom questions for information you need to collect. Use separate slots for choices you need to count. If you only have eight pink Youth Medium shirts, don't rely on a “What size and color would you like?” question to manage that inventory.
You can also add an image when creating a slot, which can be especially useful for spirit wear. Showing families what the shirt or sweatshirt looks like makes choosing easier and gives your sale a more polished feel. See our guide to adding slots to a sign up for more details.
If inventory changes during the sale, you can return to the Slots tab and update your quantities. Our guide to editing sign-up slot quantities explains how.
Step 5: Ask custom questions to collect order details
Choosing the right shirt is only part of the order.
You may also need to know whose shirt it is, where it should go, and how to get it into the right hands.
With a SignUpGenius subscription, you can add custom questions to your sign up and choose whether participants are required to answer them. The number of custom questions available depends on your subscription level.
To add a custom question:
- Open your sign up from the Created tab and select Edit.
- Go to Settings and select More.
- Choose Add a Custom Question.
- Enter your question.
- Select the question format.
- Choose whether an answer is required.
- Save your changes.
See the complete instructions for adding custom questions to a sign up.
For a school spirit wear sale, useful questions might include:
- Student name: Make this required if orders will be distributed directly to students.
- Grade level: This can make sorting easier, particularly for larger schools.
- Homeroom teacher: If orders will be delivered to classrooms, this is one of the most useful pieces of information you can collect.
- Parent or guardian phone number: Consider collecting this if you may need to contact families about pickup or an order problem.
- Size or color: These can be useful questions when inventory is not limited or when you are taking preorders. If your available inventory differs by size or color, however, create separate slots for those variations instead so you can track quantities accurately.
Turn on Required for any answer you absolutely need before an order can be fulfilled.
Nobody wants to reach distribution day with a bag labeled only “Will” and discover that there are seven Wills at the school.
There is one other important detail to consider when setting up your questions: custom questions are tied to the participant's sign-up submission.
If most families are ordering for one student at a time, questions like Student Name and Homeroom work well.
If families may place a single order containing merchandise for several children, make your instructions very clear. You may want families to submit separate orders for each student so the student and classroom information stays easy to match with the merchandise.
A little structure here can make distribution day much simpler.
Step 6: Preview the sign up like a parent
Before sending your spirit wear sale to the entire school, give it a test run.
Use the preview tools to look at both the sign up and the participant form. Then walk through the process as if you're a parent placing an order.
Check that:
- Product names are easy to understand.
- Size and color variations are clearly labeled.
- Prices are correct.
- Available quantities are correct.
- Required questions are actually required.
- Parents know the ordering deadline.
- Pickup or distribution instructions are easy to find.
- Your contact information is included.
- The sign up looks good on mobile as well as desktop.
It can also be helpful to ask another PTA member, teacher or volunteer to test it. Someone who didn't build the sign up may notice something that feels obvious to you but isn't obvious to a first-time shopper.
That's much easier to fix before 200 families receive the link.
Step 7: Publish and promote your spirit wear sale
Once everything looks right, publish your sign up and start spreading some school spirit.
Publishing does not automatically notify your group, so you'll need to share the sign up after it goes live. SignUpGenius gives you several options for inviting people to your sign up, including email invitations, a direct sign-up link and a QR code.
For a school spirit wear sale, consider sharing the link through several channels:
- Your school or PTA newsletter
- Parent emails
- Classroom newsletters
- Your PTA or booster club website
- School social media accounts
- Flyers sent home with students
- Posters at school events
A QR code can be especially handy on printed materials. Parents can scan it while they're at curriculum night, a football game or another school event and go directly to the sign up.
Don't assume one announcement will reach everyone. Send a reminder before the order deadline, especially if you're running the sale for several weeks.
Try language such as, "Last call for spirit wear! Place your order by Friday so you're ready to show your school spirit all year long."
A clear deadline gives families a reason to stop thinking, “I'll do that later.”
Step 8: Keep your orders organized
Once orders begin coming in, resist the urge to build a second tracking system unless you truly need one.
SignUpGenius reporting tools can help you pull your sign-up information together, including participants and custom-question responses.
You can create a report and export sign-up data to Excel. For the most complete view, use the List of Sign Ups for Export to Excel with All Fields report. See how to create reports and export sign-up data.
For a spirit wear sale, your final report can become your packing list.
Depending on how you've structured the sign up, you may be able to organize orders by:
- Merchandise item
- Size
- Color
- Student
- Grade
- Homeroom
If you're distributing orders through classrooms, sorting by teacher or homeroom can be particularly helpful. Put each student's merchandise into a labeled bag, group bags by classroom and send each teacher one organized batch.
If families will pick up orders instead, alphabetize the orders by last name and keep your report handy so volunteers can quickly locate each purchase.
Step 9: Close the sale and communicate what happens next
When the ordering deadline arrives, make sure families know the next step.
If merchandise still needs to be ordered from a vendor, send a brief update letting families know that the order has been submitted and remind them of the expected delivery timeline.
When the spirit wear arrives, use your sign-up information to sort everything before announcing pickup.
Then send families a message with the final details:
- Pickup date
- Pickup time
- Pickup location
- What name the order is listed under
- Who to contact if there's a problem
For classroom delivery, let parents know approximately when students should receive their items.
Clear communication at the end of the sale is just as important as clear instructions at the beginning. It reassures families that their order is accounted for and cuts down on individual questions.
Make school spirit easier to organize
Spirit wear should build community — not build a mountain of spreadsheets.
With a well-planned SignUpGenius sign up, you can collect orders and payments, keep tabs on available merchandise and gather the information you'll need to get every T-shirt, sweatshirt and hat to the right person.
Set up your products carefully, use inventory quantities to keep popular options from getting overbooked and require the questions you can't fulfill orders without.
Then all that's left is distributing the gear and watching your hallways get a little more spirited.
Genius Tip: Selling merchandise regularly or managing lots of product variations? SignUpGenius also offers an Online Store specifically designed for merchandise and spirit wear. Online Stores support items with variations, allowing you to set details such as size, color, price and quantity at the variation level.