At Frogmouth, we’ve made thousands of roller derby uniforms for hundreds of teams, but our uniforms are not the only ones you should consider. Here’s how to get the best uniform—even if it is not made by us.
1. Decide What’s Most Important For Your Team
Every team has different needs—in fact, every athlete has different needs. You cannot decide what uniform—and therefore uniform supplier—is best for your team until you decide what’s most important. Every choice comes with a trade-off: the longest-lasting uniforms may not be the cheapest, for example. Before you start looking for suppliers, your team must agree what’s essential, and what’s just nice to have. There are many things to consider. We have listed fifteen below; you may have others you want to add.
Here’s the hard part: you cannot have all the things. We recommend choosing no more than three of the criteria as essential, and no more than three more as nice to have. Pick any more than that and you may limit your options too much. These choices are difficult, especially if you need to reach a consensus across a group of people, but it is better to make them before talking to potential uniform vendors. If you don’t get agreement on what you want in advance, someone in your league may complain about your uniforms after they are delivered because, say, they wanted the lowest price, but you picked the best value.
- Delivery date: do you absolutely have to have your uniforms for a certain game or tournament? It can take several months to agree on a new uniform design, and several more to get the order placed, made, and delivered, especially just before the season starts. If you have a tight deadline, some vendors may not be available, and you will have less time to work on design.
- Specific design considerations: do you have strict design requirements? For example, does your design absolutely have to contain glitter, or need to perfectly match the design of a previous uniform? Some vendors may not be able to meet these requirements, or may need more time and/or money to do so.
- Size inclusiveness: do you have especially small, big, or tall skaters on your team, or can everybody fit into the most common sizes? What about in the future? Some companies don’t offer uncommon sizes, others charge more for large sizes. Are you OK with some athletes having to pay more for their uniforms because of their size? (The argument that companies have to charge more for large sizes because they use more fabric is a weak one. Fabric is not the most expensive part of a garment: the labor required to cut and sew it is, and that barely changes with size. And if fabric is really the reason for higher prices, why don’t those same companies charge less for smaller sizes?)
- Ethical considerations: Do you mind if your uniforms are made by people being paid low wages to work in poor conditions? Many companies outsource most or all of their manufacturing, so the people you are dealing with may not be the people actually making your uniforms in any meaningful way. Almost all cotton t-shirts, for example, are cut and sewn in Central America or Asia, and only screen-printed locally. If ethical standards are a priority for your league, ask each vendor where their garments are cut and sewn. No company is going to admit their garments are made in sweatshops, so don’t ask them about that: use Google to search for independent reports about labor standards in the place your uniforms are made.
- Style options: Are you OK with one style fits all, or do you want people to be able to choose from, say, tanks and t-shirts, or high- and low-necklines? Some vendors will let you mix styles; others will have minimum order quantities that make that impossible or more expensive.
- Gender neutrality: Do you have a mix of gender identities on your team, or will everyone be happy with designs intended for one gender identity only? What about in the future? Some vendors will let you mix cuts and styles to suit different gender identities and some won’t. You should also consider what language the vendor uses to describe their products. Some have a gender-binary mindset and describe their clothes as “Men’s” and “Women’s.” Other vendors are expansive and inclusive in how they think and talk about gender. How will your non-binary athletes feel when ordering? Do you want to use your purchasing power to help influence how clothing companies talk about gender?
- Ability to buy additional uniforms later: Will you be buying all your uniforms at once, or do you want to be able to get additional uniforms—e.g. for new athletes—mid-season or next season without everyone having to buy new uniforms? Some vendors make buying additional uniforms easy and charge the same price for mid-season purchases; others require a minimum order—for example of five or more—or charge more for one off-orders.
- Ease of ordering: Are you OK creating a list of everyone’s name, number, and size, and collecting money from each athlete, or do you want people to be able to pay and order individually online? Some vendors will make you use a spreadsheet or form, others can give you the option to let your athletes order individually from a web store built for your team.
- Availability of accessories: Do you want to be able to get matching accessories like bottoms, helmet covers, armbands, and hoodies? Some vendors will make these for you, others will not.
- Type of business you want to buy from: Is it important to buy only from a woman-owned business, or a derby-owned business, or a business that is in your country, or that is managed by friends or family members, or that has similar values to your league concerning things like LGBTQIA+ rights or anti-racism? Or are you willing to forego those things to meet other needs, such as price? In addition to deciding who you want to give your money to, working with a specialist derby business may bring other benefits—for example, a derby vendor is more likely to notice if one of your athletes requests a number that does not meet the requirements of your ruleset. If this is an important consideration, make sure you understand what each vendor actually does themselves, what they outsource to other companies, and how many active roller derby athletes they employ. If you don’t want uniforms made in sweatshops, for example, you probably don’t want to choose a company that isn’t a sweat shop itself, but buys garments from sweat shops, then screen prints on them. And while some companies may be owned by someone involved with roller derby, they may not actually employ many other people from the roller derby community.
- Customer service policies: Is it important that your supplier will exchange items if people order the wrong size, or spell their name wrong when they order, or are you happy to have people buy a new uniform if they make a mistake, or don’t love what they get? Will your vendor take care of your athletes or will they tell your athletes to take care of themselves?
- Velcro resistance and general wear and tear: How long do you want your uniforms to last? The velcro on roller derby safety gear can snag on some fabrics, causing pilling and bobbling and regular washing can cause some types of decoration to flake or fade. This won’t matter much if you only need to wear your uniform a few times, say at the occasional tournament or for a mashup bout, but it could mean you need to buy replacements more quickly if you plan on using your uniforms for several full seasons. Most roller derby vendors will make claims about durability, but don’t take their word for it. Ask other people in the community about their own experiences.
- Reversible jerseys: Do you need jerseys in more than one color, such as dark and light, or for more than one team, such as a travel team and a home team? If so, you may be able to save money by offering your players the chance to get one reversible jersey instead of two separate jerseys. If you want reversible jerseys, it’s important to understand exactly what each vendor can offer. Not all reversibles are the same: some are two layers of fabric sewn or bonded together, even when they are called “single-ply,” so they are thicker and heavier than regular jerseys, which may be a disadvantage. Some (like ours) are one piece of fabric dyed on both sides, so they are exactly the same weight and thickness as a standard jersey. Don’t just ask if reversible jerseys are available; ask how they are constructed, and specifically how many layers of fabric are involved. Or, even better, see if you can look at an example.
- Design fees and design ownership: How much are you willing to pay to have your uniform designed, and do you want to be able to own the rights to the uniform design afterwards? Even if you have a logo and a clear idea of what design you want, you uniform vendor will still have to do some work to make it into something they can manufacture. Some uniform vendors charge a fee for this work, and some want to retain ownership of the final design afterwards. Decide whether or not you are willing to spend money on uniform design, and if so, how much, and also whether you want the flexibility to take your design with you if and when you change vendors.
- Color matching: Do you absolutely have to have your new uniforms be the exact shade of a certain color, to match your old uniforms, perhaps? In that case, you will need a vendor that offers a color matching service. It’s not enough to provide a Pantone reference, or CMYK or RGB values, or a description of the shade (like “blood red,” for example.) If you must have an exact match, the only way to get it is to send a physical sample (e.g. an old jersey) to your vendor, and have them analyze it, produce some swatches, and send them back to you for approval. Some vendors won’t do this, some will do it for a fee, and some will do it free of charge.
As you discuss needs with everyone in your league who has a say in choosing you new uniform, make sure you get everything written down. You could use an online survey, start a thread on your message board, or handle it by email, for example. Do whatever works best for the communication style and culture of your league, but get it all in writing. End the discussion with a conclusion. For example, “After much thought, we have reached a consensus that the three essential things we want in our new uniform are… and we have also concluded it would be nice to have these three things, if we can get them. Next, we are going to evaluate vendors to see which ones can supply uniforms that meet the needs we have identified.” Write it down, make it clear, and refer back to it when necessary.
2. Discover Which Vendors Can Meet Your Requirements
Once you know your essential requirements, and what other things would be nice to have, you can start researching which vendors might be able to meet your needs. Possible vendors fall into three broad categories: specialist derby-owned businesses; national uniform providers that supply general purpose uniforms for many sports; and local companies that specialize in customizing things like t-shirts, hats, and banners. Companies in some or all of these categories may be able to supply you with uniforms, depending on your requirements.
The best way to start is to build an initial list of possible vendors using Google. Do some searches, find companies that might meet your needs, and check their websites to see how they score against your list of requirements. Within an hour, you will probably have a good list of possible vendors.
Next, get some references. Do not ask the companies for them; instead, identify some other leagues or teams that already use those companies, then ask them what they think. Most companies have pictures of uniforms they have made on their website, Instagram, and Facebook pages, or you can scroll through the #rollerderby hashtag on Instagram to see what people are wearing. Identify a few teams that already use each company, and contact them. If you don’t already have a relationship with that league, you can send a message on Facebook, or via the contact email the league has on their homepage. Something like:
Hi, We’re thinking of getting ACME UNIFORM CO. uniforms for our league, and I noticed your league has ACME uniforms, and wondered if you could let me know, in confidence, what your experience with ACME has been like and whether you would recommend ACME.
This is also a good opportunity to get references related to your requirements, by saying something like:
Three of the most important things for us are reversible jerseys, customer service, and free design [or whatever your requirements are]. If there is anything you can tell us about how well you think ACME does these things, that would be really helpful.
The references won’t be the whole story, of course: every league or team has a different experience, and some people are inclined to always be positive, and others are inclined to always complain. But, if you get three or more references for each company you are considering, you’ll probably start to notice some patterns.
Be thoughtful about feedback in online roller derby forums. Some of it can be very helpful, but there are two things to watch for. First, a company’s friends and employees sometimes reply to public online enquiries without disclosing that they are acting on the company’s behalf. Second, this type of feedback often skews negative, because people are more motivated to comment when they want to complain.
Once you have references, and have removed any shortlisted companies that got unanimously bad reviews, you are ready for your final research step: contact the companies you are still considering and ask them if they can deliver against your requirements. Email, online chat, or messaging is best for this. That way you have the answers in writing, can share them with your league, and refer back to them later. The way a potential supplier handles your requests will also tell you something important. A good vendor will be responsive and happy to answer your questions. They should be treating you as an important potential customer, because that is exactly what you are, no matter what size your league is, whether you are new or old, or where you rank.
Again, get your conclusions in writing and share them with your league. “We researched these vendors, and here is how we evaluated each one against the criteria we identified as important, and the criteria we identified as nice to have.” Make a list, scorecard, or spreadsheet — whatever suits your style — showing how well each vendor on the shortlist meets your previously agreed requirements. Include information about every vendor you considered, even if they could not do any of the things you needed, just in case someone asks why a particular company did not make the cut.
3. Select Your Vendor
You are now ready to make a decision. You know what you require, and you know who can provide it. If you need to get agreement from your league’s board or your teammates, now is the time to do that. If you have a first choice recommendation, and you probably do by this stage, make it in writing, and explain why. If there are any risks associated with your choice—for example the uniforms will cost a little more, or the vendor cannot commit to being ready in time for your league photoshoot, but can be ready for your first game—make that clear and transparent, and do it in writing, so everyone can refer back to it later and see that they agreed to it. Once you have agreement from everyone—again, get it in writing if you can, so you have a record—you can give your chosen vendor the good news that you are awarding them your business, and they can get on with designing and making your uniforms. Put that in writing too, so everyone knows the decision is final. For example: “I talked to ACME Uniform Co., told them they had won our uniform business, and we have started the process of getting the uniforms made. Thanks for all your help making this important decision.”
4. How Frogmouth Meets the Fifteen Criteria
We are always happy to answer your questions, but we can save you some research time by telling you how we meet the fifteen criteria. (You should not take our word for it though—get independent comments from our customers too. Our Instagram is one place to find teams that wear our uniforms.) This will also serve to illustrate the kind of notes you may want to make about other vendors.
- Delivery date: Getting to an approved design can take up to 8 weeks, and it takes about 4 to 8 weeks from when someone orders from us to when their order ships. Let us know when your first bout is, and we will let you know if we can meet your timings. Our production capacity for January, February, March, April, and May gets booked especially quickly, so if you need uniforms in those months, let us know as soon as you possibly can. Otherwise, allow at least three to four months from when you first order or contact us to when you need your jerseys
- Specific design considerations: We use a process called “dye-sublimation” to dye white fabric. Dye-sublimation lets us make pretty much anything you can create on a computer screen. Dye-sublimation has limits, though: we cannot do real glitter, or true glow-in-the-dark fluorescent colors, for example. There are a few other things we cannot do or prefer not to do: we do not typically accept requests to use special fonts for skater names and numbers, as they don’t always fit across all the sizes we make, and there are also licensing issues if the font you want is from a “free fonts” website. We have made collars in the past, but do not offer them any more. So, if you must have a collared jersey with a glow-in-the-dark glitter design with names and numbers printed in a Ye Olde Pirate font you found free on the the Internet, we are not the vendor for you. We also will not sell any designs that may violate other people’s intellectual property rights, so if your logo has—or looks like—somebody else’s property, say Spongebob or Barbie or the logo of your favorite beer, we cannot help unless you have a license. We can do pretty much anything else you can imagine, though.
- Size inclusiveness: All our uniforms come in 3XS to 6XL in petite, regular, long, and crop top lengths, and they all cost the same: $50 for a single-sided jersey, and $70 for a reversible. That price includes adding the skater’s name and number. We do not charge more for larger sizes, and we think it is unconscionable to do so.
- Ethical considerations: We import our fabric from Taiwan via a wholesaler in California and do everything else—design, dye, cut, and sew—ourselves in Austin, Texas. All our ten employees are women, all but one of them play or have played competitive roller derby, all are paid a good, living wage, and all are part-owners of the company. We also provide paid sponsorships to three elite roller derby athletes (Lady Trample, Miracle Whips, and Freight Train) and are uniform sponsors for six elite teams (USA Roller Derby, Team Australia, Texas Rollergirls, Rainy City Roller Derby, Montreal New Skids on the Block, and Arch Rival All-Stars).
- Style options: All our uniform jerseys come as tanks with a choice of two necklines and two backs, or as t-shirts. That’s five styles in all, not counting crop tops. We also offer dresses in a variety of styles. Skaters on the same team can pick any of our styles for their uniforms.
- Gender neutrality: All our jersey options are available in curve cut and straight cut. Your athletes can pick whichever cut best suits their body, personal style, and gender identity.
- Ability to buy additional uniforms later: Anyone can order at anytime. There are no cut-off dates, and no minimums, so people who join the team later are not required to pay a higher price. We will typically keep your team’s online store open until you ask us to take it down.
- Ease of ordering: We make an online store for every team we work with, and athletes from that team can order anything they want individually at any time. We can also arrange for you to prepay some or all of the cost of your athletes’ uniforms. Or, if you prefer, you can tell us everyone’s choices on a spreadsheet.
- Availability of accessories: We design and offer matching shorts, pants, bandanas, helmet covers, armbands, and scrim tops for every team uniform. We are phasing in hoodies and jackets for every team, too.
- Type of business you want to buy from: We are proud to be derby-owned, woman-owned, feminists, humanists, and active supporters of racial equality, body and gender inclusivity, BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ rights, and the rights of the differently abled and neurodiverse, in roller derby and beyond.
- Customer service policies: If any of your skaters don’t love their Frogmouth product, they just have to let us know within 30 days of receiving it and we’ll do what we can to fix it. No catches, no bullshit.
- Velcro resistance and general wear and tear: We expect our jerseys to stand up to a couple of busy seasons of roller derby. We use a specially made fabric, which we call Nanoweave, which uses much finer fibers and a much tighter weave than a typical stretch fabric. The weave is too tight for velcro’s hooks to snag it very easily, so it is much better at repelling velcro and resisting pilling than most other fabrics. We use thread designed to stand up to competitive sports and reinforce our seams. If the seams do fray or unravel within the first two months of wear, you can return your jersey to us for for free re-hemming. We dye our jerseys in a way that means they don’t fade. If you get Sharpie on them, you can get most of the stain out by rubbing some dish soap on it before it goes in the laundry.
- Reversible jerseys: Our reversible jerseys are one piece of fabric dyed on both sides, so they are exactly the same weight and thickness as a standard jersey. They cost $70.
- Design fees and design ownership: We do design for free. We cannot share our actual design files with you, because they contain Frogmouth proprietary information such as the sewing patterns we use, but you are welcome to have someone replicate the design if and when you decide to change vendors.
- Color matching: We do color matching free of charge, but it will add to the time it takes us to design your uniforms.
5. What Next?
Next, it’s time to get started on deciding what your priorities are and doing your research. And, once, you have your uniforms, be ready to be a reference for other teams doing their research. We would love to make your uniforms, and hope to win your business. If we do, you can start the order process here. If you need more information, we have a FAQ here. You can contact us anytime using the help button in the bottom right corner of our website, or message us via our Facebook page.
Frogmouth, Inc. is a roller derby uniform and praticewear manufacturer headquartered in Austin, Texas.
