Team Stores for Captains

You are the one who ends up doing this. The lineup, the scheduling, the group chat, and now the shirts. A team store takes the shirts off your list entirely: nobody sends you money, nobody sends you sizes, and you do not end up owning four unsold 2XLs.

What a team store actually is

It is your team's own page on this store. Your team name and design on the front, the full garment range behind it. You share one link. Every player opens it, picks their own garment and their own size, pays with their own card, and it ships to their own address.

Nothing routes through you at any point. There is no order to collect, no spreadsheet of sizes, no float to cover, and no box of leftovers in your garage in November.

What it costs you

Nothing. Setting up a team store is free and there is no minimum order. Everything is printed when it is bought, so a team of eight works exactly as well as a club of four hundred. You are not buying inventory, because there is no inventory.

Players pay the normal retail price for what they order. Shipping is $4.75 flat, free over $50 — most players ordering two garments clear that on their own.

The timeline, which is the part that matters

Captains get burned by deadlines, not by prices. Here is the real arithmetic, not a marketing number:

• Build: 2-3 days from you telling us the team name to the page being live. You see it before anyone else does and you can change it.
• Ordering window: however long you give your team. Be honest with yourself here — a week is realistic, three days is not.
• Production: 3-5 business days from each individual order. It starts when that player orders, not when the last player orders.
• Delivery: 5-8 days door to door.

Work backwards from your first match and add two weeks. If your season opens on the 12th, you want the link in the group chat by roughly the 26th of the previous month, and you want to be nagging people by the 2nd. Because each player's order is produced independently, a late orderer only makes themselves late — they do not hold up the rest of the team.

Sizes

Unisex tees run XS to 5XL, though colour choice narrows at 4XL and 5XL. Women's relaxed tees run S to 3XL. Hoodies and sweatshirts run S to 3XL. Every product page carries the measured chest and length for that garment, so send your team to the size chart rather than guessing on their behalf. This is the single biggest source of avoidable problems, because a made-to-order garment in the wrong size is not returnable.

Returns — read this before you share the link

Everything is made to order, which is what makes the no-minimum, no-inventory part possible. The trade-off is the returns posture, and you should know it before your team does: manufacturing defect or transit damage only, reported within 7 days of delivery. No change-of-mind or wrong-size returns.

So: point people at the size chart, and tell them to order the size they actually are rather than the size they intend to be by September.

What you can put on it

Your team name, your club, your league, your season, your flight. Set in our type is fine and costs nothing extra. Your own artwork is fine too, as long as it is genuinely yours to use.

Two things we cannot print: any brand, club, school or university mark you do not have written permission to use, and any professional player's name or likeness. That is not us being cautious — it is the law, and it protects you as much as it protects us.

Questions captains actually ask

Do I have to collect money? No. You never touch anyone's money. That is the entire point.

What if only four people order? Then four people get shirts. There is no minimum and nothing is wasted.

Can people order after the deadline? Yes. The page stays up as long as you want it up. People who join mid-season can order then.

Can I have more than one design? Yes — a lot of teams want a match shirt and a knockabout shirt. Say so on the form.

What if I am not a USTA captain? Same offer. Clubs, drill groups, Sunday morning regulars, pickleball ladders and college club teams all work identically.

Do you make pickleball versions? Yes. Same everything.

Not ready to commit?

Two things that cost you nothing: the captain's toolkit has the lineup card and roster planner, and this quiz is a reasonable thing to drop in the group chat on a rain day.