Free Team Stores: Outfit Your Team and Fundraise Without the Hassle
It starts with a group chat message: “Send me your kid’s size by Friday.” Twelve replies come back — four are wrong, three never arrive, and someone asks if they can pay you “at the next game.” By the time the order goes in, you have fronted eight hundred dollars and become a part-time accounts department. A team store deletes this entire job.
How a team store works
A team store is a free online shop stocked with your team’s custom gear. Once your designs are approved (starting with the usual free 24-hour mockup), the store gets built with your items in it, and you share one link with your team. From there it runs itself: players and parents browse, pick their own sizes against real garment-measurement charts, and pay for their own orders at checkout. Nobody collects sizes in a spreadsheet. Nobody fronts money. Nobody chases the last three payments through the group chat.
Setting one up, step by step
The setup takes less of your time than one round of size collection. It begins the way every Capra order begins: send the mockup form your team name, colors, and logo, and a designer sends back a free mockup within 24 hours. You review it, ask for changes, and approve. That approved design is what the store gets built around.
Next you choose what the store carries. Some teams keep it to the game uniform. Others add a package, for example two uniform sets and a backpack in one bundle, so a parent makes one decision instead of five. Each item goes in with a size dropdown, the garment-measurement chart for that piece, and any personalization the design calls for: a player name, a number, or split sizes when a player needs a different size in the jersey and the shorts. The store is then built as a private page with its own password, and you get the link to review before anyone else sees it.
When you are happy with it, you share the link and password with your families. From there a parent picks a size, types the name and number if the design uses them, and pays by card, Apple Pay, or Google Pay at checkout. Every order lands in one place with its size and personalization attached, and you never open a spreadsheet.
The sizing problem solves itself too
The store shifts sizing from the coach to the family — where it belongs, since the parent standing next to the player picks better than a guess in a spreadsheet ever will. Each item links to garment-measurement size charts, and for teams that want certainty, a free sizing kit before the store opens lets players try real samples first. (The sizing guide explains why garment measurements beat guessing.)
Keep the store open for a window, not forever
The stores that work best open and close on set dates, usually two to three weeks apart. A window gives families a real deadline, which is what actually gets orders in, and it lets the whole team’s gear go into production as one batch so everyone’s kit arrives together. Announce the open date at practice, send the link that evening, post one reminder a week before close and one more the day before. That is the entire communication plan.
The team minimum still applies inside the window: production starts once the store holds at least 10 sets. A roster of any size clears that on its own. For a smaller squad, the sizing kit plus a nudge to the two or three parents who have not ordered yet is usually all it takes.
Turn the uniform budget into a fundraiser
Here is the part most coaches discover late: add a small team markup to store items, and the difference goes back to your program. Spirit wear is the classic version — every hoodie a grandparent buys puts a few dollars toward tournament fees — but it works on any item. The uniform line in your budget stops being pure cost and starts paying some of its own way.
The math is simple. Suppose the store carries a hoodie and the program adds a five-dollar markup. Forty hoodies across players, siblings, and grandparents put two hundred dollars toward the season without a single bake sale. You set the markup once when the store is built, it is applied at checkout, and the difference is returned to the program.
What goes in the store
Anything in your team’s design language: the game uniforms themselves, plus warmups, shooting shirts, hoodies, quarter-zips, bags, and socks — all sublimated to match. Families buy the optional extras they actually want instead of the coach guessing demand. Browse gear ideas on the sport hubs: basketball, soccer, baseball, and football.
What happens after the store closes
On the close date the store stops taking orders and everything in it becomes one production order. Sizes, names, and numbers come straight from what parents entered, so nothing is retyped and nothing is lost between a text message and an order form. Production and shipping run on the same timeline as any team order, typically three to four weeks, and the gear arrives in one delivery for you to hand out at practice. If a family misses the window, ask about a second run; the same 10-set minimum applies to it.
Frequently asked questions
What is a team store?
A free online store for your team where players and parents browse your custom gear, pick their sizes, and pay on their own.
Does a team store cost anything to set up?
No. Capra team stores are free — you approve the designs, the store gets built, you share the link.
Can a team store raise money for our program?
Yes. An optional team markup on store items goes back to your program.
How do parents order the right size?
Items link to garment-measurement size charts, and a free sizing kit before the store opens lets players try real samples.
How long should a team store stay open?
Two to three weeks is the sweet spot: long enough for every family to order, short enough that the gear goes into production as one batch and arrives together.
Is there a minimum order for a team store?
Yes, the standard 10-set team minimum. The store simply collects those orders from parents instead of from you.
Want a store for your team? Start with a free design mockup in 24 hours — the store comes free with it.