New Student Night 2023
New Student Night is a yearly event in which the Bookstore is open late to welcome new freshmen and transfer students to come pick up their textbooks, but our director always hoped it would evolve to have more activities. Earlier that year, I saw a booth at Summerfest that was pressing small pre-made graphics onto apparel in exchange for engaging with their social media pages. I knew that I could do something similar.
I made six simple licensed designs and prepared hundreds of transfer sheets for the big night. I also hand tie-dyed uniforms for the Bookstore staff to wear that day so that we would stand out amongst the crowd when customers needed us. When the freshmen came in, they earned their free t-shirt after following our Instagram pages, signing up for email blasts, and tagging us in a selfie at one of our designated photo booths. Then, they could choose their t-shirt size, color, and which of the six graphics they wanted pressed right before their eyes!
Our Bookstore Staff shirt that I designed for the event. I made the graphic and tie-dyed the shirts by hand.
A progress photo of where I was tie-dyeing t-shirts in my parents’ backyard.
Six Bookstore workers posing in front of the Bookstore in their uniforms.
Me standing with my instructional sign in front of my pop-up shop. In the background, my student worker Lydia prepares a t-shirt on the heat press.
Valentine’s Day Apparel 2024
This was the first of many limited edition holiday apparel drops that I hosted. Hoodies were available in two designs, and on lavender or heather red fabric. We made a giveaway post on social media and received hundreds of entries and new followers, but we also learned a lot about how to make the next events more successful. First, we noticed that students were asking for a more classic design rather than a cartoony one. We also posted the giveaway too early; not many people purchased hoodies because they were hopeful that they would win the free ones!
My mockup of a cutesy, branded UWW hoodie with Valentine hearts.
My social media image announcing the hoodie giveaway.
The winners of the hoodie giveaway posing near the Bookstore at sunset.
St. Patrick’s Day Apparel 2024
Quickly following the feedback from Valentine’s Day, we decided to try a similar model for St. Patrick’s Day. Rather than a loud, cartoony design, I used classic collegiate arched text. I couldn’t find a typeface that I liked for this, so I customized it myself by moving anchor points around. We also decided that instead of doing a giveaway, we were going to attempt a popup sale in the University Center. We sold around 70 tees: our most successful event yet!
My social media post announcing the popup shop.
My student workers, Daniel and Isaac, posing at our table in the University Center.
New Student Night 2024
Because the previous year’s New Student Night event brought so much fun and engagement to the Bookstore, we decided to replicate it for a second year. We did nearly everything the same, except I had two student workers to help me rather than attempting to do it alone. Miranda walked the freshmen students through the participation requirements and took their orders, while Leah and I frantically made the orders on our two heat presses. I also made staff uniforms again. The Bookstore director was extremely pleased with the way our pop-up event added the buzz that New Student Night had been missing in previous years. It also helped to divert a bit of traffic away from Textbook Rental so that they could do their work more efficiently.
Tie Dye Workshop 2024
On my very first day working as the Custom Shop manager, I wrote in my notes that I wanted to host a tie-dye workshop someday. In Fall of 2024, after we’d now nailed the formula for a successful event, this was finally a reality. For the shirt design, I decided to use the same “UW-Whitewater” arched graphic that had worked previously. I prepared all the tees, including soaking them in a soda ash solution that would make the colors develop. Then, a few weeks before the event, I made practice shirts with three student workers so we had photos for social media.
On the day of the event, I set up workstations outside the Bookstore and prepared all the bottles of dye while the student workers arranged a check-in table and a music playlist. The event lasted all afternoon and was incredibly fun. One unexpected outcome was all the networking that resulted from it. Many participants were colleagues from other departments, excited to get out of the office for a while!
Me before the event, setting everything up and preparing to be the craft teacher!
Student workers Katie and Megan posing in their practice tie-dye shirts for social media images.
Valentine’s Day Apparel 2025
In 2025, armed with new knowledge about student preferences, we made another attempt at a limited edition Valentine shirt design. We offered four different color variations, this time on crewnecks and t-shirts. I used the classic, trusted arch graphic, with a subtle heart on the right sleeve. New this year, we also had dedicated marketing student workers who tirelessly posted every time I restocked. Between sales in store, online, and at another popup shop, we sold over three hundred items- over four times our previous record!
Posing with my shirts for sale in the University Center, complete with a well-decorated table and festive freebies for customers.
Women’s Basketball “Pink-Out” Game 2025
The latest Valentine’s Day event proved that we now had an incredible formula for selling limited runs of apparel. With one of our student workers being a star on the women’s basketball team, we decided to try selling at one of their games- their breast cancer awareness “Pink-Out” game. I teamed up with our student athlete and the Bookstore’s apparel buyer to narrow down a design for hoodies and tees. Then, on an exceptionally snowy night, we hauled our wares to the Williams Center to table near the ticket booth. We donated a portion of the proceeds to Athletics and their worthy cause.
Early concepts for the pink-out apparel. At first, we thought we wanted to do our traditional sport logo on a pink hoodie, but we didn’t think they looked quite right.
The final design.
Student worker Megan tabling at the Williams Center on game night!
St. Patrick’s Day Apparel 2025
By now, the Custom Shop had gained quite a bit of traction, and students were asking what the next holiday drop would look like! For St. Patrick’s Day, we offered more options than the year before and polled our Instagram followers on what their favorite color combinations were. To our surprise, students started stopping by and calling the store with color suggestions! We now knew to make frequent social media posts and to host giveaways only after the sale was starting to die down. There are so many more directions we can go from here!
My preliminary mockups and notes on possible color combinations. We ended up producing all of them except for the white and black crewnecks.
Tabling at the University Center with student worker Lucy!
Troubleshooting an ink color problem. I had a difficult time pinpointing the shade of green that I had in mind!
This whole bowling team bought our mint t-shirts to wear for their game!
Posing for a social media photo with my student worker, Leah.