Top 3 Football Spirit Items (and a rising star)

Top 3 Football Spirit ItemsEach year as school comes to a close, students and teachers are look forward to a few months of downtime. Plans are made for sleeping late, vacations, pool and beach time, and plenty of time to explore favorite hobbies.

However, for football coaches, there is no rest. It’s already time to plan the new football season that begins with summer training and the first game of the season near the first week or two of school. Good coaches know that efficient planning can make the difference between a winning and losing season.

As the new football season is planned, raising money for the team for new equipment, uniforms, and travel expenses is often at the top of the to-do list. One extremely effective way to raise funds is by selling school spirit items. Below you will find the top 3 selling football spirit items along with the honorable mention and a rising superstar with potential to take over a top 3 spot.

Top 3 Football Spirit Items

Mini FootballsMini Footballs

It’s unlikely that footballs will ever fall out of the top 3 since a football is a necessary component of a football game. Mini footballs come in plastic, soft vinyl, foam, rubber, or synthetic leather. No matter what type you get, these are sure to a hit. You’ll find kids and adults (big kids) throwing the mini footballs around the stadium. The fans love to catch mini footballs as the cheerleaders throw them into the crowd during halftime and after big scores. These are great items for schools to use to sell sponsorships to local businesses to help support the team. You can have your school mascot and team name printed on the balls along with the sponsoring business name or logo. Mini footballs are a great way to get the sponsor’s name in front of the fans. Be sure to check out the Buying Guide for Mini Footballs to learn about the different options.

Custom Thundersticks NoisemakersThundersticks

What would a football stadium be like without noise from cheering fans? We’ve all been to those boring games with fans who lack enthusiasm for their team? It’s a depressing site. However, if you offer the right stadium noisemakers, you can shift the whole mood of the stadium by promoting the fans to make some noise! Thundersticks are continually the biggest sellers when it comes to stadium noisemakers. These inflatable noise sticks are inflated and banged together to make a thundering noise. They are low cost and have a huge imprint area for the team name and sponsor logos. These are extremely easy to sell to fans due to their low price and fun nature. Thundersticks can actually be therapeutic. It’s not often you are encouraged to beat two objects together. My guess is men like these a little more than the ladies.

Foam Fingers - Custom School Spirit ItemsFoam Fingers

You can’t watch a football game on TV without the camera zooming in on a few crazy fans holding up foam fingers. These have become a staple when it comes to sports spirit items. While foam fingers started off with only the #1 hand available, now there are hundreds of hand shapes and gestures.  Most likely, you can find some sort of hand gesture to fit your team mascot or team name. Whether you want a Hook ’em Horns hand sign, an okay hand, or Trek hand, you can find them. The other great thing about foam fingers is we can create a custom hand shape specifically for your team if you can’t find the exact stock shape you want. A new and popular version of foam fingers is an EVA Foam Finger, which can be printed with a vivid, full color process. EVA foam is a denser, closed cell foam, which can hold a full color print; whereas, the standard open cell foam is best suited for large, bold graphics.

Honorable Mention

Promotional Pom PomsPom Poms

Pom poms have been around the stadium for many decades. There’s something about them that frees the cheering spirit from fans. Football fans who are hiding behind a pom pom while waiving it around cheer louder and more often than those who don’t have a pom. You can get pom poms in any school color, that is unless your school colors are Dingy Dungeon and Fuzz Wuzzy (yes, those are actual colors). Pom Poms can contain multiple streamer colors to best compliment your team. You can choose many different handle options, including mascot shaped handles. These classic football cheering items are still very popular and thriving, and for that, they receive the Honorable Mention after being considered for the top 3 spirit items.

Rising Star

Cow Bells NoisemakersCow Bells

As the top selling football spirit items were being analyzed, cow bells were identified as an item that has been growing in popularity each year. The origin of cow bells at sporting events may have began with baseball, since baseball games used to take place in pastures, before large baseball stadiums were built. At that time, it was easy to remove a cow bell from a nearby cow and ring the bell after an exciting play. Mississippi State University is most likely the first to introduce cow bells at football games in the late 1930’s with widespread popularity by the 1950’s. Since then, many other universities, colleges, and high schools have followed suit. Fans love to get their hands on stadium noisemakers that are unique and different from the standard noisemakers. Because these are different, they bring a new level of excitement for fans and they are willing to pull out their wallets to buy them from your booster club store.

As you plan your upcoming strategies for raising funds for your football team, be sure to have available the classic, top selling spirit items for your team. But, it’s also important to add a new and exciting spirit item to the mix each year. With advanced planning of your team merchandise, you will be ready to raise a record amount of sales for your team, allowing the purchase of the new equipment necessary for a successful and safe football season.

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