level up your team gear with our merch store platform!
Low minimums/lower fees
custom designs
Screen printed decoration
fast turnaround
wide range of products
fundraising features
Like most things we get ourselves involved with, our Merch Store platform was born out of frustration with the present offerings with programs.
If it wasn’t the price, it was the turnaround. If it wasn’t the turnaround, it was shock at the poor quality of decoration the artwork came in.
And the artwork, don’t even get us started… Okay, we got started… If your team is so unique, then why are you using a platform that essentially uses their own templates and just plugs in your logo? That’s crazy.
Forte Athletics doesn’t do that. We design everything from scratch! We want your Team Store to feel like a true program offering of products. We take pride in making Programs feel like they’re 1 of 1… even if we have to rack our brains to come up with something different, we’re going to do it.
Our prices live somewhere in the middle-of-the-road. And we’re fine with that. Don’t come to us because we’re the cheapest. Come to us because we provide the best value! With our Merch stores, there’s low risk with lower minimums and the opportunity to raise money for your program!
With fundraising, it’s not one-size-fits-all, you can actually choose how much per item you’d like to markup the product and we pay you out after all orders ship out!
If you’re local, you can actually have a pick-up option where your customers can come to our shop and snag their gear without having to pay shipping!
As for turnaround time, it’s anywhere from 5-10 business days after the store closes. Sometimes sooner, it really depends on the time of year!
How it works!
terms & setup fees
There is a $250 refundable setup fee to get the store started. This covers shop time to design, mockup, and populate a store for your program. This fee will be added to your payout after minimum is reached.
It typically takes 5-10 business days to fulfill Merch orders so keep that in mind when deciding on closing dates.
design approval
Let us know exactly what you’re looking for or if you have an existing design. Our design team will use those specs to both design and mock up your products so your customers’ expectations can be met.
Custom design services are available for an additional fee if things like logos/branding must be completed.
set mark-up
Our services include us separating your order, printing, folding, bagging, tagging, and fulfillment for each order. Based on the scope of your order, we will give you a price per piece, however, you can tell us exactly how much you’d like us to mark up the products so you have clear expectations on profit.
*There is a 1 time digitizing fee of $50 for embroidery.
spread the word
Success is in your hands. Once the store is ready, we send you the link and it’s up to you to spread the word and encourage your network to get their orders in.
Minimums must be met. There are no cancellations because at this point, hours of work have already been done. We must account for that.
meet minimums
Our minimums are typically 24 pieces per design for screen printing and 12 pieces for embroidery. Screen printing is very labor intensive so it’s important those minimums are met. If the minimum is failed to be met, we can either cancel and refund or you can supplement the order with the difference. If the orders are cancelled, a $250 service fee will be billed to cover the design and setup time from our team.
fulfill orders
After print day, all the customizations are made (where applicable), everything gets sorted, folded, bagged, and tagged. Depending on the order size, it could take a couple days before notifications go out.
When the order ships or is ready for pick up (for local customers), the customer will be notified via email. Then we calculate your compensation and get you paid!
FAQs
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We have a REFUNDABLE $250 setup fee reimbursed in tiers.
There is quite a bit of work that goes into setting up a store. We don’t use templates and we don’t just pop in your logo into our system. We design from scratch, mock up each item individually, and populate the store one-by-one. While there are modules out there that allow you to throw a design onto a myriad of designs, we feel this does a disservice to our customers. We’re not afraid of work and this is the best way to get everyone the apparel they want to represent their team!
Once the minimum is hit (24 pieces for screen printed items and 12 pieces for embroidered items), this triggers a $150 credit that will get added to your payout. When 50 total items are hit, your full $250 setup fee will be refunded along with your payout!
Honestly, we just want to make money on our hard work. Having a successful merch store will do that, so we’re happy to give you your setup fee back!
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It doesn’t hurt to ask! There’s always a chance we can accommodate a faster store or turnaround, but our print schedule is so dynamic and varies with the seasons so the best way to know for sure is to contact us and ask!
We won’t charge a rush fee, it’s really pass/fail… we either can or we can’t. If we can, we’ll make it happen!
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Sorry Grannie! Once the store is closed, there’s nothing we can do! We’re on a tight deadline and we gotta get the blanks ordered and scheduled for print and decoration right away! If we keep opening the store, it sets back the timeline and our order of operations.
At some point, we just have to cut off sales. We state that on the home page along with a fancy countdown timer. When that counter hits 0’s, that’s that!
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Man, been there. Too many times. Thought that summer bod was going to come to fruition but late night In-N-Out is undefeated.
Know your size and be real about it. lol. There are no refunds or exchanges on wrong sizes. We post the measurements along with the name of the product where you can Google the fits if you need to. I know it’s not cheap and I wish we could accommodate everyone, but we are ordering the exact number of products that was ordered. There will be no “extras in the back.” I’m sorry.
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(First of all, I made that typo on purpose.)
If there’s a mistake that we made like a misprint or we put the #3 upside down (happens more often than you’d think!), then the best we can do is offer a refund. We won’t be able to re-set up the screens and print one shirt. We’ll get you a check right away for the amount that was misprinted.
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Yup! We do that! In fact, that’s basically what we do all day long! Merch Stores are a service for programs that don’t want to risk hanging onto stock that nobody purchases.
Our prices are higher because we’re accounting for the time to print all the orders and then separating, customizing, folding individually, and bagging and tagging each product. That service takes extra time and therefore must be accounted for.
If you’re interested in just getting a bulk order in, absolutely, we’d love to!
You can email us at info@forteclothing.com and we’ll be in touch right away!
