If you shop at the bookstore, your money isn’t going directly to UH although it is as close it as it can be. The contract for the bookstore typically (I haven’t looked at one in years, so it could possibly have changed) has the school getting a guaranteed amount of revenue annually, and then there will be additional funds going back to the school if the revenue is higher than the set amount used for the guarantee. The operator of the bookstore (currently Follett) still keeps the profits and they do bookstores and colleges all across the US.
I don’t totally, disagree, there sure should be more $20 tshirts available but if you comparison shop around - the $30-40 range seems to be the going rate for tshirts these days when buying retail when talking about licensed merch.
Don’t know what data is out there, but any study is going to cost money, so I’m sure if you’re willing to sponsor it, someone will do it. Though if anyone has that data, it likely would be https://www.nacs.org/
While the licensing (I think a 10% royalty rate if it is only UH on it) does increase the retail price, you forget if you’re buying promotional/ad specialty products for your business, you’re generally getting it at the wholesale cost. If the bookstore orders the same type of stuff from the same vendor, they would still need to mark it up to retail to sell. When I was doing the management we generally have a 50% markup on that stuff. So a t-shirt selling for $40 was typically $20 cost and that $20 cost may not have included the shipping. Overall, in my experience, all the ad specialty places that sold the mugs, cups, pens, pencils, etc. were about the same - I would deal with several different ones generally based on what items they were pushing that caught my eye, the relationship with the sales person, the turn around time, and minimums.
I would especially lean on some vendors like Wincraft or Rico who might stock some of the items so that I didn’t have to buy a gross of coffee mugs at a time, and I would reorder more freqeuntly (though I may have been a bit more aggressive on regular reordering than most, because its a lot more work to watch your stock and reorder constantly). Sadly back then (late 90’s) Houston wasn’t typically a school that they would keep in stock, I know they do stock Houston more now but its still limited compared to others.
One thing you might notice these days, Follett, Fanatics, Rally House, Amazon, all have their own print on demand or ad specialty groups so they can be their own vendor as well which has some advantages and may allow for additional profit and/or some better price points.
Also, as Follet is national, they likely have some better deals worked out with many vendors or have preferred vendors who give the stores end column pricing - even if they are buying a smaller minimum, or other support. But really, they are going to buy what they can sell. I sold some Cutter & Buck and Antigua stuff when I was in Arizona, and that was probably the higher end of what we had (Nike was funny, would only sell my store in Arizona one cap and one sweatshirt - email me if you want to know why). I don’t remember if I could ever really offer that at UH back then, I think it might have been just a tad too high on price and minimums that it was harder for us to stock with the demand - or just some of those brands wouldn’t come calling. However, looking at the bookstore now, the store has been selling Peter Millar for like 15 years (so even before Follett had the contract, when Barnes & Noble did), and I thought that stuff was expensive then. These days they have Peter Milar, Johnnie-O, Horn Legend, & Tommy Bahama - all of which are in that high dollar items (Cutter & Buck and Antigua are there as well but have some items in a lower price tier too), and PEOPLE ARE BUYING IT! It blows my mind, but if people are willing to pay for it - great! Assuming the $100 polo is wholesale to the store at $50 aproximately, thats likely around a $4-5 royalty rate per shirt that goes back to the school after the licensing agency takes their cut. That’s not too snazzy.
By the way, I have several reasons that I encourage you to shop elsewhere besides the college bookstore:
- If people aren’t buying UH gear at other stores like Academy, Dick’s, or places like the Airport gift shop - then those stores will not stock UH
- Not all vendors can get in to the UH bookstore, some are a lot smaller and have great stuff, might be small businesses or even run by alumni - buy direct from them or through their etsy stores or whatever (as long as they are officially licensed) - this sends your money to small business and alumni who also support the school
- There’s a wide variety of merch that may or may not be available at the bookstore, why limit yourself to one shop when there’s some great stuff out there that may just not be in the bookstore
- Every purchase, from every source pushes UH out there and the school is getting royalties on all of them. many of those vendors, like an Academy, also are sponsors for UH so spending money at their store encourages them to continue sponsoring UH.
In other words, Chris, your support of UH in purchasing merch from other vednors can still make just as much of an impact as it does when you buy at the UH Bookstore.
In summary, as we might have talked this to death, yes there are a lot of high priced merchandise in the bookstore, yes they should have some more lower price tshirts and sweatshirts too, but there are other options for people who do want or need the lower priced merch, and there is a robust market for the high end merch (I pay attention at games to what people are wearing, and I see a lot wearing the Tommy Bahama and Johnnie-O type of stuff). What the bookstore is doing is working much to my amazement, and much to the pain I get in my gut seeing the higher priced stuff.
