School apparel has a long history of only being sported by the jocks or maybe band members and those proudly involved in school clubs.
But this year a handful of Utah high schools are jumping on board with a company that allows schools to offer all kinds of school apparel to kids while offering students hands-on marketing experience.
Davis marketing teacher Jeff McCauley said E-commerce is a quickly growing industry that the marketing curriculum doesn't touch on. But with the project kids are getting a real-life glance at how e-commerce works.
"This is the here and now . . . but the reality is our curriculum doesn't hardly include any of it," said McCauley. "The internet is today where TV was in the '50s — we haven't even touched on its capabilities."
Starting this year a number of Utah high schools including, Davis, Bonneville, West and Kearns have partnered up with an online retail store to offer students hats, bags and apparel customized to how they want it. It can sport a number of their school's logo's or students can upload their own. And because of the store's special screen printing equipment, they don't have to order quantities to get logos put on.
The schools are able to mark the price up at their discretion making the goods more affordable than at normal retail stores.
Students in Davis' marketing class have stepped in and are working to launch marketing campaigns — design bill boards, write press releases, run e-mail campaigns and create ads.
The Davis e-store, born out of the e-store 24-7schools.com and named The Point, is available to everyone — community teams, businesses, and just anyone who likes the merchandise. So students are going well outside the school to market the site.
They are also working on a commercial to run at the Kaysville Theater before features.
"It's cute stuff. Usually in retail stores mark things up over 50 percent — we do it somewhere around 15," said Misty Anderson, Davis senior who is involved with the project. "Its really interesting because obviously one of the most important aspects of marketing now is the internet and it is hard to find a class that will teach you that."
The site offers over 1,000 different items from several brands including Adidas, Columbia Sportswear, Authentic Pigment, Champion, Fruit of the Loom, JERZEES, and Hanes.
Funds from the sales will go to the marketing class to fund educational trips and buy supplies and software.
"This works out well," said Kelly Moore CEO of the 24-7schoolstores.com. "This is basically a 24-hour a day fund-raiser that costs them virtually nothing and follows perfectly in-line with their marketing classes."
To visit The Point go to www.godarts.com.
E-mail: terickson@desnews.com