Need Economical Way to Add Lettering to Cheer Uniforms

I would check with a local shop - like others have said. The school may even know of a place that other sports are using for embroidery and screen printing and have the design of the school mascot (which sometimes has to be approved by the school and only released to certain places). We found it cheapest to also order the uniforms themselves from the embroidery place since they got a discount that we didn't get just ordering ourselves. Not only did we support our local business doing this, we saved alot of money on uniforms :)

Make sure that if you use an outside vendor for the embroidery (i.e., online or not in town), that you get both the lettering and any designs approved by the school first (usually you show it to the athletic director, but each school is different). Our school requires approval of ALL apparel worn to sporting events by any teams or clubs and only releases our "true" mascot print to local places in order to support local business.

Good luck - saving money is important to parents! Especially those of us who have multiple kids in multiple sports. My now two 20 yr olds played 3 sports a year, each year, for 6 years! Man I have ALOT of money invested in sports apparel now gathering dust upstairs . . .

ETA: for our cheer uniforms, we didn't put names on them and because of that they got turned in at the end of the year and reused the next year - the school defrayed the cost for this because they could be reused. The girls ordered windbreakers with their names on the back to keep (and wear on outdoor cold game days) and paid for them themselves. The girls were also required to order a certain pair of shoes - and then they kept them as well.

My schools kept costs down by not personalizing uniforms at all. Not just for cheer, but football and other uniforms/jerseys. The school owned the gear and kept a range of sizes. If something was needed in a size, the athletic department bought it. the kids borrowed it for the year and gave it back at the end. That took a ton of pressure off of the kids/families to come up with money to pay for their own uniform.

Personalizing was reserved for jackets, which could be optionally purchased and were owned by the individual.

In all of our years with cheer, the uniforms were never personalized.

The booster club bought a set or two each year with the school colors and emblems.

Cheerleaders were responsible for caring for the up to 8 uniforms they had and at the end of the year, they were returned to the school cleaned and ready for the next group of cheerleaders.

Each year, 1 uniform was retired and the seniors got to keep that uniform.

They did get Varsity jackets, other shirts and jackets that were personalized that they kept. These were paid for by the cheerleader (family).

There is a local company that specializes in the spirit wear, embroidery, varsity jackets, etc.

There are also many cheer outfitters to check pricing as well. Oh and the girls paid for and kept shoes.

at one school (as a cheerleader) we just had a patch sewn to the front of the top. when needed it could be removed.
at the second school i cheered for, we had all our uniforms made to order by a local seamstress. we paid tons less for this. we also gave the seamstress advertising space at games and the ad stated that our cheer uniforms were made by her. they were not personalized and only seniors got to keep their uniforms all others had to be turned back in at the end of the year

My father in law has an embroidery machine, it also sews and more. He has done some emblems for a local high school cheer team and they turned out nicely.

A screen print shop will do the stuff like ball uniforms do.

But, please listen, the cheer uniforms will look cheap and shabby next to the other squads when you go out in public. Please do some fundraisers or find corporate sponsors that will fund new uniforms.

Sell cookie dough, candles, take up donations at the doors of Walmart, perform at every event in town and always let people know you're trying to raise funds for competitions and new uniforms.

Then when someone outgrows their uniform buy it back at half price. By a parent who needs a new size up for their kiddo. Have someone in charge of this so that it's out of the coaches area and out of the other mother's areas. This way it's organized and everyone benefits.

Our girls went with shorts and a top. They pass down their stuff after a year unless it still fits modestly and appropriately. Having the shorts off the rack to match and the embroidered tops that cost a lot more they still saved money because the shorts are only $18.95 and can be ordered any time from the cheer company and then the tops last and always look nice.

I know what it's like to need new uniforms and not being able to afford them. But seriously, screen print won't look good and you're going to pay a lot for personalized embroidery done by an individual. It takes them at least a whole day to do one uniform. Then they're doing a whole squads and that takes weeks out of their life.

Find a local company that does embroidery. When I was coaching it was always cheaper to do it locally. Some t-shirt companies are even able to do cheaper tackle and twill that make the uniforms pop. Also check with GTM cheer uniforms. They do a lot of in stock unis and can do quick and cheap customization.

Call and ask a local embroidery shop. They can give you pricing over the phone. A full front or full back logo might be expensive. Then there are set up fees unless you want plain stock lettering. Google local places and call around