Tiger Threads, partnered with Spreadshop, has announced that they will give out free shirts to both Hastings Senior High School students and staff during the month of November.
Spreadshop, an international digital platform that allows merchandise to be sold without the need of a personal inventory, has partnered with Tiger Threads, a student-run spirit-wear shop established by HHS Distributive Education Clubs of America (DECA).
“We have allowed (Spreadshop’s) team to revamp our website, so it is getting a total makeover so that it’s now going to be an educational style store,” DECA advisor Angelo Martinez said. “Lots of websites have template designs that you can use. (Spreadshop) does not have one for the education system yet, so they created an education template, so that way, all of the Spreadshops who are schools can look very similar.”
The partnership with Spreadshop became possible because one of the Spreadshop’s executives had attended the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL). Tiger Threads was referred to Spreadshop through a connection with a person who works at UNL.
“We were one of the first schools who were interested. We were working with somebody else out in Omaha to get something going for a digital store, and his name was JT,” Martinez said. “Because the (executive) went to school at UNL, he wanted to give back to the community, so they have indicated us as a premier high school shop.”
Being able to provide every student and staff member with free merchandise would be a sizable expense for a small organization like Tiger Threads, however, Spreadshop has decided to cover the cost and inventory of all the shirts.
“Not only is (Spreadshop) giving 1,100 kids a free t-shirt, but they’re also giving 150 staff members a free polo. Why? Again, I think it’s to give back. I think it’s to show that they’re philanthropic,” Martinez said. “I mean, there is a school in almost every single town across the country, right? So I think for them, it’s potentially marketing. They’re gonna be able to show, ‘Hey, this is what a premier school shop looks like.’”
The DECA students run a majority of the operations for Tiger Thread such as design creation, where the designs will be placed on the merchandise, pricing, and management. They work closely with the HHS Tiger Vision class led by Dylan Flinn in order to turn their designs into graphics.
“(Design) is one thing we’re really gonna try to focus on. We think it’ll be a great outlet for students to be able showcase some of their artistic talents,” Martinez said. “Spreadshop offered to allow us their design team… if we have a student who’s really great at drawing and we think that their design could make a great t-shirt, we can send that to Spreadshop… We can also go to Mr. Flinn’s class and have one of his students turn it into a graphic.”
Tiger Threads wants to work on reaching a point where they are able to open an on-campus merchandise store, but it is only a topic in consideration. In the future, the store also wants to open merchandise booths at sporting events.
“We would love to see a school store here at Hastings High… (For) Mr. Linden, one thing that he’s been trying to push and encourage has been school spirit,” Martinez said. “Walking around the hall, you don’t see tons of kids wearing Hastings High stuff, so that was our goal. We want to see more kids wearing (HHS) gear.”
Students who show interest in business entrepreneurship, marketing, finance, or making connections, alongside art and graphic design, are able to talk to Martinez or DECA president Prestyn Long to get involved with DECA and Tiger Threads. Those who simply want to follow along can follow their Instagram social media page.
“Anyone interested in helping out with Spreadshop, ideally as of now, it is that you are a member of DECA. Does that change in the future? Maybe. I’m not sure, but for now it’s in collaboration with DECA,” Martinez said. “We have meetings twice a month. (The meetings) are not set in stone yet.”