Custom Travel Soccer Tryout Shirts for Clubs

Travel soccer tryout shirts serve three audiences at once: the players going through tryouts, the returning roster supporting the process, and the evaluators and staff running it. A club-branded tryout tee is the first piece of apparel a new player owns, the most-worn piece in the family closet for the year that follows, and a marketing asset every time it shows up at a school, park, or grocery store. Bear Grips Pro Shops prints tryout tees with no minimum so the club can offer them at registration without a bulk order commitment.

What Tryout-Week Apparel Usually Covers

A typical tryout-week apparel drop includes:

• Tryout tee with year and club crest. Worn by players during the actual tryout sessions.
• Returning-player tee. Different color or text, signals seniority for players returning from prior rosters.
• Evaluator polo. Worn by tryout evaluators and assistant evaluators across all sessions.
• Staff polo or hoodie. Worn by club director, age group coordinators, and registrar.
• Parent club shirt. Often sold alongside as a registration-week bundle for new families.

The whole bundle lives in one shop. Each piece prints on demand as it sells. Sizes are not the club's problem because the parent of the player selects the size during checkout.

Why the Tryout Tee Is the Most-Worn Club Piece

A tryout tee that a U10 player receives in August gets worn:

• At every tryout session that week.
• To school as a casual tee for the rest of the fall.
• To practice during weeks when the official training tee is in the wash.
• To other family events, vacations, and weekend errands.
• By younger siblings the following year as a hand-me-down.

That is more hours of wear than any other piece of apparel the player owns from the club. The design has to age well. Heavyweight cotton, simple crest-forward design, and durable print survive that kind of cycle. The Airlume Cotton Athletic Tee (Bear Grips) at $19.88 VIP base is the standard pick. For girls' rosters, the Women's Favorite Tee (Bella+Canvas) at $19.88 VIP base. Youth Airlume Cotton Athletic Tee at $19.88 VIP base for younger players.

Bear Grips Pro Shops: Custom Apparel for Your Team. No Minimums. Free Shipping.

Tryout Tee Design Approaches That Work

Common tryout tee design directions:

• Year-marked crest tee. Club crest centered on chest with '2026 Tryouts' or 'Tryouts 2026' below. Simple and worn long after tryouts end.
• Crest plus location plus year. 'Riverside FC Tryouts 2026' wrapped around the crest. Adds geographic identity for travel weekends.
• 'Earn It' or 'Compete' theme. Single-word treatment under the crest. Used by competitive-program clubs to set tone for the week.
• Returning-player variant. Same design, different color, with 'Returning' or year-of-first-roster added.
• Evaluator polo. Crest on left chest plus 'Evaluator' on the back, often in a single neutral color across the staff.

Running the Tryout-Week Apparel Shop

Tryout-week mechanics:

1. Six to eight weeks before tryouts, design the tryout tee, returning-player variant, and evaluator polo. Upload to the club shop.
2. Four weeks before tryouts, open the apparel section of the registration page. Link to the club shop with the tryout bundle pinned at the top.
3. Two weeks before tryouts, email all families on the tryout list with the shop link and a recommended order-by date (about 8 to 10 days before tryouts to allow shipping).
4. One week into the tryout window, follow up with families that have not ordered. Late orders still arrive in about a week.
5. One week after tryouts close, archive the tryout-specific design and rotate in the returning-roster training tee for selected players.

Tryout-week orders typically come in waves. The first wave is the registration-email burst (about 40 percent of orders). The second wave is the week-of reminder (about 30 percent). The third is post-tryout, when selected players and proud families order the tee as a keepsake (about 30 percent).

Margin From a Tryout-Week Apparel Drop

A club with 200 tryout-week buyers (players, families, evaluators) selling tryout tees at $28 retail on a $19.88 VIP base earns $8.12 per tee. At 200 tees that is roughly $1,624 in club margin over a single tryout week. Add 30 evaluator polos at $52 retail on a $34.88 base ($17.12 each) and that is another $513 in margin. Tryout week alone clears more than $2,100 in club margin with no inventory cost, no fulfillment work, and no families chasing the club for refund on a piece that did not fit.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can the club add a tryout tee design that only sells for two weeks?

Yes. The club controls how long each design is active. A tryout tee can be loaded for the tryout window only, then archived afterward. The same shop can run tryout, training, sideline, and banquet designs across the year.

What is the standard tryout tee retail price?

Most clubs price tryout tees at $26 to $30. That gives $6 to $10 per-tee margin on the Airlume Cotton Athletic Tee VIP base. Higher-end clubs price up to $35 for a premium tryout tee in heavier cotton.

Can players who do not make the roster still order the tryout tee?

Yes. The shop is open to anyone with the link. Players who do not make the final roster often still order the tee as a keepsake of the tryout experience.

Does the tryout tee need a minimum order to print?

No. One tee, same per-unit pricing as 100 tees. Bear Grips has no minimum on any product.