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Across our school and DOE client base, three things are already in motion: holiday and teacher gifts, school stores stocked with winter spirit wear, and graduation, which many schools are planning earlier this year.

If you’ve been meaning to get any of these started, now is the time. Here’s what schools are ordering, and how to get yours moving before the rush.

Holiday and Teacher Gifts

Personalized gifts are the biggest thing moving right now. Schools are ordering for teachers, staff, administrators and partners, and many want a different name on every piece.

What schools are choosing most:

• Glass tumblers printed in full color on equipment we run in-house
• Sublimated mugs with a name and school logo on each one
• Pillows and blankets, including hooded blankets, printed edge to edge
• Tote bags, screen printed or fully sublimated
• Water bottles, printed or etched, alone or as a set with a mug

Everything is produced in our Brooklyn shop. Personalized orders need time for name lists, proofs and production, so the earlier you send them, the smoother the holidays go.

Browse custom gifts

Winter Spirit Wear Stores

Cold weather is here, and schools are opening online stores so families can order spirit wear all winter long. Hoodies, quarter-zips, crewnecks and beanies are leading the way.

Here’s how a school store works:

1. Send us your logo. We apply your school’s official branding to every item.
2. Choose your items. Pick from our core apparel in the styles and colors that fit your school.
3. We build the store. Families, students and staff browse and order online.
4. We handle the rest. Printing, shipping and customer support are on us.

There’s no collecting money, no tracking sizes on a clipboard and no boxes to sort in the main office. Set it and forget it.

See how school stores work

Graduation, Planned Early

Graduation feels far off, but many of our schools are already locking it in. Starting now gives you room for custom colors, school logos, senior apparel and name lists without a spring scramble.

Graduation packages include a cap, gown and tassel, a graduation t-shirt, and a diploma cover or autograph book:

Class size	Package price
300+ graduates	$24.95 each
100 to 300 graduates	$27.95 each
41 to 100 graduates	$28.95 each

Beyond the essentials, schools are adding:

• Shiny or matte cap, gown and tassel sets, with custom colors and sleeve printing
• Single and double honor cords, intertwined in your school colors
• Stoles, sashes and custom tassels
• Senior varsity jackets with embroidery and names
• Diploma cases, autograph albums and custom printed towels
• Class rings, honors medals and custom teddy bears

We also have free graduation design templates to get your class shirts and keepsakes started.

See graduation packages or browse grad templates

Why Starting Now Matters

The schools that start early get the most out of every order. There’s time to review mockups, confirm name lists and sizes, and make changes without pushing a deadline.

Getting started is simple:

1. Tell us the plan. Gifts, a school store, graduation or all three.
2. Get a mockup and a quote. Our account managers and designers build it with you.
3. Approve it. Confirm names, sizes and colors.
4. We deliver. Your order is produced in Brooklyn and ready before you need it.

Everything in One Catalog

Our 2026 to 2027 catalog has gifts, spirit wear, graduation and more, page by page. Flip through it and circle what you want.

Open the 2026 to 2027 catalog

More Updates Coming

We’ll keep posting updates as the season goes on, with new items, key dates and what other schools are ordering.

Ready to get started? Tell us what you’re planning and we’ll put together a mockup and a quote.

Talk to our sales team

Walk into your building tomorrow morning and look at it the way a new family would. Not the way you see it every day. The way someone sees it for the first time.

Faded banners. A welcome sign that still lists last year’s theme. Hallway branding that got put up three principals ago and never came down. None of it feels urgent when you’re managing a hundred other things. But it’s one of the first things a prospective family, a new hire, or a visiting district official actually notices. Before anyone reads your mission statement, they read your walls.

Signage is the first impression, every single day

Apparel tells a story to the people already inside your building. Signage tells a story to everyone who walks in. It’s the difference between a school that feels cared for and a school that feels like it’s coasting, whether or not that’s actually true.

This matters most right now, heading into open house season and back-to-school nights. Families touring buildings this fall are forming opinions in the first thirty seconds, before a single conversation happens.

A quick walkthrough is worth doing this week

You don’t need a full audit. Just walk the building with fresh eyes and note:

• Faded, torn, or outdated banners in hallways and the gym
• Signage that still reflects an old mascot, colors, or leadership
• Missing or dated welcome signage for open house and back-to-school night
• Event space branding that needs to be in place before your next assembly or PTA kickoff

Most standard signage and banner orders run 2 to 3 weeks from approved design to delivery. That’s a tight but workable window if you start now, and a rushed one if you wait until the week before your open house.

Where this fits in the bigger picture

Signage is one part of a bigger question every school is answering differently right now: apparel, branding, promotional materials, graduation products, every school is at a different point across all four. If you’re not sure where your building stands, our Journey page breaks it down stage by stage so you can jump straight to what’s relevant.

See where your school is on the journey

If branding and signage is where you’re focused right now, take a look at what we’ve done for other buildings.

Explore branding and signage options

Ready to talk through what your building needs before open house season hits?

Get in touch

Embroidery is one of the oldest decoration methods in the promotional products world, and it is still one of the best. If you have ever wondered what makes an embroidered logo look sharp for years while a printed one starts to crack, this is the guide for you.

What is embroidery, exactly?

Embroidery is the process of stitching a design directly into fabric using colored thread. A digitized version of your logo or artwork is loaded into an embroidery machine, which then sews the design onto hats, polos, jackets, bags, and more, one stitch at a time. The result is a raised, textured logo that feels as good as it looks.

Unlike printed decoration, which sits on top of the fabric, embroidery becomes part of the fabric. That is why it holds up so well through repeated washing and daily wear, and why it is the go to choice for uniforms, staff apparel, and anything meant to last a full school year or longer.

Why schools and businesses choose embroidery

• Durability. Stitched thread does not crack, peel, or fade the way some printed designs can.
• Professional look. The raised, textured finish reads as higher end, which is why it is the standard for polos, outerwear, and staff uniforms.
• Great on structured items. Hats, bags, jackets, and thicker fabrics take embroidery better than they take most print methods.
• Long-term value. Because it holds up wash after wash, embroidery is often the more cost-effective choice over the life of the garment, even with a higher upfront setup.

Worth knowing: embroidery is one of several decoration methods we offer. If you are deciding between embroidery, screen print, or DTF for a specific item, our decoration methods overview breaks down when each one makes the most sense. For designs with a lot of fine detail or full color gradients, take a look at our DTF tools page to compare.

How to get access to embroidery for your school or business

Getting an embroidered order started is simpler than most people expect. Here is how it works with DirectPromos:

1. Share your logo or design. Send us your artwork in whatever format you have. If it needs to be digitized for stitching, our team handles that as part of the process.
2. Pick your items. Polos, hats, jackets, bags, or anything else you have in mind. We will let you know what works best for embroidery based on the fabric and shape.
3. Approve a digital proof. Before anything is stitched, you will see exactly how the design will look, stitch count and placement included.
4. We produce and deliver. Once approved, your order goes into production and ships or delivers on your timeline.

You can start this process directly on our embroidery service page, or reach out and we will walk you through it.

Idea concepts to get you started

Staff & Faculty Polos: A clean embroidered school logo on staff polos creates an instantly recognizable, professional look for open houses, events, and everyday wear.

Varsity & Team Jackets: Embroidered names and numbers on jackets hold up through an entire season and become keepsakes long after.

Branded Hats & Caps: Structured hats are a natural fit for embroidery. Great for spirit wear, staff gear, or a corporate giveaway that people actually keep using.

Graduation Sashes & Stoles: An embroidered class year or achievement adds a personal, lasting touch to graduation regalia.

Corporate Outerwear: Fleece, quarter-zips, and jackets with an embroidered company logo strike the professional tone corporate clients are looking for.

Tote Bags & Backpacks: An embroidered logo on a bag reads as premium and works well for parent coordinator gifts or welcome kits.

Ready to see your logo stitched?
Send us your design and we will put together a free mockup and quote.
Get Started → directpromos.com/contact-us/

School starts soon, and apparel is the most time-sensitive item on every school’s list. Spirit wear, staff shirts, faculty apparel, none of it happens overnight. Here’s the checklist to run through now, not the week before you need it.

Before you order

• Confirm current-year spirit wear designs. Colors, mascot, any grade-level variations. If last year’s design is being reused, confirm nothing needs updating before it goes to print.
• Set sizing deadlines with staff and parent coordinators. Give yourself 1-2 weeks just to collect sizing before the order can even go in.
• Reorder staff and faculty apparel separately from student spirit wear. Different sizing, often a different look, and mixing the two orders together tends to slow both down.
• Lock in quantities now if you need product in hand for the first week of school. Standard runs take 3-4 weeks from an approved design to delivery, so if school starts in early September, this is the week to place the order.

Deciding on the details

If you haven’t locked in colors yet, our colors page has the full palette to choose from, worth a look before you finalize a design, since some combinations print cleaner than others depending on decoration method.

Speaking of decoration, if you’re deciding between screen print, embroidery, or something else for your design, our decoration methods page breaks down what each one actually looks like on different garments, useful if this is your first order or you’re trying something new this year.

Browse what’s available

Our main apparel page has the full current lineup, tees, hoodies, polos, and everything in between. If you want the deeper dive, decoration options, industries we serve, sizing guidance, our Apparel & Branding Basics page covers it, and our colors page is worth a second look once you’re narrowing down a palette.

The one rule that matters most

Lead time compounds. A design decision that takes an extra week, a sizing collection that runs long, a district approval that sits in someone’s inbox, each one pushes your delivery date back further than it feels like it should. Start today, even if the order itself is still a few decisions away.

Ready to place an order, or just want a hand narrowing down a design? Get a quote and we’ll get started.

Every August, the same scramble happens. A school, a PTA, or a parent coordinator needs backpacks and supplies for a group of students, and instead of one order, it turns into five: one vendor for backpacks, another for notebooks, another for pencils, and a spreadsheet somewhere trying to keep it all straight.

We built the Back-to-School Essentials Kit to close that gap. One item, one price, everything a student actually needs to start the year.

What’s in the kit

Each kit pairs a Deluxe Backpack with a full 32-piece school supply kit, packed together in a poly bag for easy distribution. No assembly, no sorting, just hand it out.

The 32-piece supply kit includes:

• 1 twelve-inch ruler
• 4 pink wedge erasers
• 1 pair of pointed scissors
• 1 pencil sharpener with receptacle
• 2 blue pens, 2 black pens, 1 red pen
• 8 crayons
• 12 colored pencils
• 3 yellow highlighters
• 2 glue sticks
• 5 unsharpened pencils
• 1 pencil pouch, for keeping everything organized
• 1 composition wide-ruled notebook
• 2 one-subject wide-ruled notebooks (70 sheets each)
• 4 assorted-color two-pocket folders

The crayons and colored pencils are useful across multiple grade levels, so the kit works whether you’re outfitting a kindergarten class or a middle schooler.

The Deluxe Backpack comes in four color options, and can be embroidered with a school or organization logo for an additional $5 per bag, a nice touch if this is going out as part of a school-branded welcome package rather than just a supply drop.

What it costs

Bought separately, the School Supplies Kit runs $29.95 and the Deluxe Backpack runs $16.95. As a package, the whole kit is $39.95, a real savings when you’re ordering for a group.

There’s a 10-piece minimum on all products, so this is built for schools, PTAs, and organizations outfitting a class or a cohort, not a single-backpack order.

Where this fits in your school’s year

If backpacks and supplies are the thing on your mind right now, this kit is the fast, no-decisions-needed option. If you’re thinking about the rest of the year too, banners for back-to-school night, field day giveaways, graduation products down the line, we mapped out the full year by stage here, worth a look if you want to plan past just this one order.

More where this came from

This is one piece of a much bigger catalog. If you’re outfitting a school for more than just the first week, our full resource library has guides, product breakdowns, and everything else we’ve put together for schools planning their year.

Ready to order? Get a quote and we’ll get your kits moving.

Direct Promotions