Little did the ancient Greeks know that their alphabet today might be even more spread out in the pockets of comfort collar T-shirts than the texts of Homer or Sophocles.
Fraternities and sororities, each separated by two or three Greek letters, have long been mainstays of merchandise on college campuses and beyond. Logoed pocket T-shirts and branded crewnecks remain symbols of the outward image of Greek life, but some promotional goods sellers believe that the Greek merchandise market is closed to licensing walls and organizations. It is said that the decline of the world is intertwined and twisted.
The Graphic Cow (asi/213007) has spent 30 years in the Greek life market producing branded apparel for organizations such as Kappa Alpha fraternity.
Decades ago, it wasn't that difficult to break into the college market, distributors say. For example, Graphic Cow (asi/213007) was born about 30 years ago when two Clemson University graduates started selling T-shirts for fraternity events, said Andy, the company's vice president of sales.・Mr. Coyne said.
“They noticed in their college experience that people would come to them for T-shirts for their specific fraternity events,” Coyne said. “They come out of college and say, 'Hey, I think you can make some money doing this.'
As the market evolved from making party shirts to costumes for the more than 1,000 Greek chapters across the country, colleges, sororities and fraternities began to “really crack down” on licensing deals, Coyne said. .
About 15 years ago, The Graphic Cow was one of the first distributors to obtain these licenses, he says. Coyne said the South Carolina-based company currently has licenses from about 125 universities and nearly every Greek institution.
Today, the fraternity and sorority product market is “incredibly competitive,” Coyne said. He points out that there are a large number of distributors involved, giving licensing authorities an advantage.
“Universities and Greek organizations are now capping that,” Coyne said. “They basically said, 'There are plenty of licensed apparel providers out there.' We don't want that anymore.”
challenging market
The complexities and challenges of selling Greek goods have led some distributors to withdraw from the market altogether. That's the current situation at Illinois-based UpMerch (asi/247885), according to CEO Kevin Alstada. With an annual license for a single chapter reaching about $100 and annual fees increasing from about 8.5% to more than 10% in recent years, economics no longer makes sense – especially post-COVID-19. , he added.
“Once the campus returned to normal, we tried to return to the pre-COVID situation,” Alstada said. “What we've learned is that organizations are much smaller than they were pre-coronavirus, and the industry is experiencing crazy inflation. Compared to pre-coronavirus, the situation is increasing by 25%, 30%. And college students have very limited budgets.”
UpMerch (asi/247885) has created products for Greek organizations like Alpha Xi Delta in the past, but CEO Kevin Alsterda said the company recently made the decision to exit the market. Masu.
Alsterda points out, in part, that the size of individual chapters has shrunk. As fraternity and sorority membership declines nationwide in the wake of the Abolition of Greek Life movement, and as college students face financial pressures from inflation and rising tuition costs, Alsterda said the size of the order has increased. He said that it is decreasing.
In fact, for Tanner Zagrodnik, a Georgia Tech student and “T-shirt chairman” for his fraternity, Phi Kappa Theta, cost is the number one consideration when ordering merchandise. be. Despite the decline in the number of potential members across the school, the size of chapters has not decreased, but the fraternity's funding allocated to purchasing merchandise per member remains fixed, Zagrodnik said. To tell. “Spending money on merchandise is not a big part of the budget,” he added.
Alsterda estimates that chapters used to order more than five items per 250 members for the rush, with sales peaking around the time of fall recruitment, or “rush.” Order volumes are now about half what they used to be, he says.
“Maybe their organization hasn't shrunk that much,” Alsterda said. “But the number of members willing to pay the increased costs has declined.”
Before 2020, the campus division (mainly sororities and fraternities) accounted for about 80% of UpMerch's revenue, according to Alsterda. In 2023 he was 30%. This year it will be 15% to 20%. He says he hopes to reduce that percentage to zero next year.
“We are a small business, so we can only put our energy into so many things,” Alsterda says.
student study
Campus Inc., a leading distributor in this field, is based on a marketing and sales model centered around “student designer” ambassadors, said Hayley Allen, program coordinator. Allen, who joined the company as a student designer from the Alpha Gamma Delta chapter in Illinois, said the program takes advantage of students' physical and social proximity to the chapter, allowing them to design and market products. says.
The Illinois-based apparel decorator is also active in selling name, image and likeness products to student-athletes, with about 250 people on 50 campuses nationwide, Allen said. They say they have student designers. For Campus Ambassador orders he receives a 10% commission.
Campus Inc. representatives wear branded T-shirts at a promotional event at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
“They're really our best spokespeople because they're on campus and they're marketing to sororities and fraternities and different organizations on campus,” Allen said. “They are our best marketers, and much of our apparel is sold through them. They put in the work and build relationships with our customers.”
Madison Mitchell also joined the company while in college and serves as marketing manager for The Graphic Cow. Mitchell, his 2021 graduate of Clemson University and a member of Delta Delta Delta, said the distributor relies on current college students to keep up with trends. She cited the company's current marketing intern, a Clemson student, as an example.
As a “very in-person, personal company,” Graphic Cow also employs pop-up shops and giveaways to stay connected to students, Mitchell said. The company launched its “T-Shirt Hero” campaign this year, sending branch merchandising committee chairs sample T-shirt designs and superhero capes to make ordering fun.
“This will encourage them to reach for the sample box we send them to get this cool keepsake kit,” Mitchell says. “We're contacting them saying, 'Is this still your correct address? Is this person still the T-shirt chairperson?'
Given the high turnover of chapter leaders at four-year universities, distributors say they leverage existing relationships and marketing to maintain contact with T-shirt committee chairs each year. Allen said this makes it even more important for campus representatives to be on board with chapter movements.
In fact, distributors agree that a big key to success in the Greek field is working directly with students. The Graphic Cow's Coyne notes that his company's main challenge is understanding what college students are currently looking for.
“It's essential to have people on staff who know the market,” Coyne says. “The market changes so quickly that even hiring someone who was in the Greek system three years ago can become almost irrelevant to what young people want today. , a constant struggle to keep up with trends.”
This means that distributors often hire students in roles such as marketing experts, product designers, and trend identifyers, whether as interns or on-campus representatives.
“We really rely on our students to keep us informed and to plan for events that require planning,” Allen said.
The space remains profitable for Campus Inc., Allen added, except for the fact that inflation has made the products “a little more expensive.” “The Greek world is definitely changing, but our students haven't had much trouble staying open and continuing their activities,” she says.
