Picture this: It’s a Friday, and it’s a jeans day. You wake up, excited to wear something other than khaki or plaid, when you ask yourself, “What do I wear with my jeans?” You could wear a collared shirt, or you could wear one of the two t-shirts on the Herron website. In all reality, if you are not in an activity or club that provides t-shirts or sweatshirts, then those are your only options. This may not be the case for everyone, but some days I would rather wear plaid than jeans and the same top every Friday. If others have this thought too, then it unfortunately means less money for the clubs that are sponsored by jeans days. This is why I think that we should have more, or at least better, merch to choose from on the Herron website.
WHAT DO THE STUDENTS SAY?
Wanting to see if students felt the same way, I designed a new t-shirt and went around asking people I knew which was better, without telling them which I made: my new design or one of the ones already on the website. These were the results: 73.3% of the 16 or so students I asked picked design one, my design, over design two, Herron’s design. This gives the impression of student desire for a new t-shirt design.
BETTER SHIRTS=BETTER KEEPSAKES/MEMORIES
At another high school, Scecina, in Indy, each grade gets to design a shirt. It can be whatever that grade wants, as long as it has their graduation year and their school’s name. I’m not saying we have to do exactly this, but imagine that after you graduate you find your old shirts from each year and remember all of your fun experiences from high school. Another idea is to put a prize on wearing Herron t-shirts as well. For example, each time you wear your grades shirt on a jeans day you could get a point for your grade, and at the end of the year the grade with the most points gets a donut party. Competition makes the dress code more fun, and might encourage more students to participate and pay a dollar, which ultimately will give clubs more profit.
HERRON PRIDE
If we don’t have good merch, Herron students and families won’t want to rep their school outside of school-held events. Now, if we had a better selection of t-shirt/sweatshirt designs, people might want to show off their school, and be proud to wear something that represents them. For example, I do theatre, and I love to wear out my show shirts that I’ve collected over the years. It’s even an easy way to start a conversation!
We also want to show that we are rooting for Herron when going to games. I went to a volleyball game between Scecina and Herron recently, and could immediately see who was rooting for Scecina because of their flashy merch. Almost everyone there had a Scecina shirt on, but I saw at most two Herron shirts. There was a whole fan section for Herron, but none were wearing shirts repping Herron. This needs to change because it is important that we show more support for our hard-working athletic teams.
Overall, Herron can greatly benefit from new and improved shirts. Whether that be student made or staff made, it will result in more people buying jeans day passes, more memories for graduating students, and more Herron pride at events/in public.
