Big little reveal week (sometimes called family reveals or new member family day) is the week when new members are paired with their Big in the chapter. The apparel typically includes:
The challenge is that every family is a separate ordering unit. Family A might be a G-Big, Big, and Little (three shirts). Family B might be a G-Big, Big, Twin, Twin, and Little (five shirts). Family C might be a Big and Twin Littles (three shirts). A single chapter-wide order has to account for every family configuration in advance, which is why families have historically run their own informal orders through local print shops.
The print-on-demand model fits reveal week better than chapter-wide ordering ever did. Each family treats the chapter Pro Shop as a self-serve menu:
This works for both the small-family case (just a Big and a Little) and the large-family case (multi-generation extended families with five or more matching shirts). The math works the same per shirt either way.
Bear Grips Pro Shops: Custom Apparel for Your Team. No Minimums. Free Shipping.Reveal week falls in fall for most chapters (sometimes spring for chapters with spring recruitment). The garment choice tracks the weather and the photo context.
Fall reveal apparel: long-sleeve tees, lightweight crewneck sweatshirts, or hoodies. The Long Sleeve Cotton Shirt, Bear Grips Perfect Soft Crewneck Sweatshirt, and Comfort Soft Hoodie are the three workhorses. Family photos taken indoors in late October look better in long-sleeve than short-sleeve.
Spring reveal apparel: short-sleeve tees and tanks. The Bear Grips Airlume Cotton Athletic Tee, Women's Favorite Tee, and Comfort Colors Oversized Boxy Crop Tee. The crop and oversized cuts especially photograph well in family group portraits.
For role wording, the standards:
Some chapters add a year or class designator to the back of each shirt as a permanent record of the family connection. That detail tends to age well because it locks the keepsake to the year of the pairing.
Most reveal week shirts are paid for by the individual family members, not the chapter treasury. That makes the math simple: the chapter sets a retail markup on the shop, and every family shirt sold generates revenue.
For a chapter with 40 new members and an average family size of 3 (Big, Little, and one G-Big), that is 40 x 3 = 120 family shirts per reveal week. At a $12 chapter markup per shirt, the chapter earns $1,440 across the event from reveal week alone.
Some chapters offer a discounted multi-shirt bundle through the shop, where ordering three family shirts in one transaction gets a $5 family discount. The math still works for the chapter (slightly lower per-shirt margin but higher overall volume) and feels fair to the families ordering. See chapter revenue math for how reveal week stacks with the rest of the year.
Reveal week shirts are some of the most-kept items in a sorority alumna's closet years after graduation. The family connection is one of the most meaningful relationships in chapter life, and the shirt that documented it is treated accordingly.
Design choices that respect the keepsake value:
Families that put thought into the design end up with apparel that genuinely gets worn for years. Families that rush the design end up with shirts the new member wears twice and then donates after graduation.
Each family orders its own set in its own sizes. No chapter-wide bulk order required. Set up a free chapter shop and we handle printing and free shipping.
Start FreeBig little reveal week shirts are the matching apparel worn by sorority family members during the week of pairings, with role designations like Big, Little, G-Big, and Twin. They are typically purchased by the individual family rather than the chapter as a whole.
Each family picks a design from a small approved set in the chapter shop and orders the role variants they need. Shirts ship directly to each family member with no group ordering or in-person pickup required.
Common role wording includes G-Big (grand-Big), Big, Twin (when two Littles share a Big), Little, and G-Little (when a Little also has a Little of her own). Some chapters use GG-Big for great-grand or other multi-generation designations.
Most chapters hold big little reveals in the first 6-10 weeks of new member education in the fall semester, with some chapters running spring reveals for spring recruitment cycles. The specific timing depends on the chapter's new member program calendar.
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