All-Star Cheer Athletics (questions/rumors)

[BlueCat]

Blue cat is the CA pro shop entirely run by Rebel now? Is there a phone number for them? I was told there wasn’t one but one of the email blasts said the customer service team was “experiencing a high volume of calls and emails.” It’s been very frustrasting purchasing from them.

I not 100% positive of the phone number, but I think it is 469-518-1422. The email is orders@cheerathleticsproshop.com

Rebel is taking over operation of our online pro shop and showrooms. There have certainly been some hiccups as we make the transition - with response time being the main one. Honestly, we both significantly underestimated the number of man-hours it took to move everything over and get it set up. Rebel (and CA) are aware and are working to improve that. I am confident that it will soon be far better than it ever would have been with us running it.

Retail/warehouse/shipping/inventory/sales/etc. is dramatically harder than people give it credit for. We tried for years, and were never very good at it on our own. (Probably pretty good on a "cheer gym" scale, but not on a "retail industry" scale) The whole retail concept has so many unforeseen traps and pitfalls that we were never able to effectively overcome. While we would theoretically make money on the sale of a shirt (or bow, etc), by the time you paid for someone to research/design/order the product, take delivery, inventory, ship to gym, and pay someone to sort, display, run the register, and then had random sizes left over that you couldn't even sell for what they cost to make, you would end up with hardly anything left. (and pay for a point-of-sale system, pay someone to handle each state/region sales tax reports, etc.) We got a ton of stress and complaints, a ton of headaches, and surprisingly little profit at the end of the day. Worst of all, it took away from the amount of time and energy we could spend on teams/classes/etc.

Retail and distribution are a far better match to Rebel's DNA than ours. We are absolutely world-class at coaching and the cheer experience. They are world-class at retail/apparel design and production. Having them take over the operation of our pro shops will free us up to focus on cheer. Yes, we are still working out a few kinks in the process and flow, but I think it will be no time before our whole pro shop experience will be DRAMATICALLY better than it ever was before. My assumption is that once both sides feel it is running smoothly, they will begin to do the same for other gyms as well.

 

[dance2874]

@BlueCat
Are there any plans to have practice wear for the male athletes down the road? I know there arent as many males as females but as the parent of a male athlete (on the younger side) it really sort of stinks for him to not have comparable practice wear, makes him feel less "important" for lack of a better term. Heck, he would even be happy with just a dry fit style blue and black claw honestly. The males dont need 4 sets of practice wear I'm sure, but something would be nice for them to feel included. Those regular t shirts do NOT wash well when they are worn and washed weekly because they are his only option for practice wear.

 

[BlueCat]

@BlueCat
Are there any plans to have practice wear for the male athletes down the road? I know there arent as many males as females but as the parent of a male athlete (on the younger side) it really sort of stinks for him to not have comparable practice wear, makes him feel less "important" for lack of a better term. Heck, he would even be happy with just a dry fit style blue and black claw honestly. The males dont need 4 sets of practice wear I'm sure, but something would be nice for them to feel included. Those regular t shirts do NOT wash well when they are worn and washed weekly because they are his only option for practice wear.

Honestly, we have so many of the male athletes that are barely able to afford the basic tuition and uniform that we have not really considered it financially feasible in the past. There are certainly some males that could afford anything the females get and more, but that is not the norm. If we get into the idea of them being available, but optional, that isn't ideal either.

We can look into the dry fit shirts, but that material does not accept the more comfortable water-based printing that most of our t-shirts have. You have do the oil-based print that feels "heavy" like an iron-on. Basically, a "sticky" big claw print on the back would probably offset the gains in comfort, particularly as the athletes sweat.

 

[dance2874]

Honestly, we have so many of the male athletes that are barely able to afford the basic tuition and uniform that we have not really considered it financially feasible in the past. There are certainly some males that could afford anything the females get and more, but that is not the norm. If we get into the idea of them being available, but optional, that isn't ideal either.

We can look into the dry fit shirts, but that material does not accept the more comfortable water-based printing that most of our t-shirts have. You have do the oil-based print that feels "heavy" like an iron-on. Basically, a "sticky" big claw print on the back would probably offset the gains in comfort, particularly as the athletes sweat.

Makes sense. I wasnt thinking about the fact most the males are older or even college aged. I just know the current weekly washing of these shirts really wears them fast to where they dont look nice anymore.

 

[CPop]

Honestly, we have so many of the male athletes that are barely able to afford the basic tuition and uniform that we have not really considered it financially feasible in the past. There are certainly some males that could afford anything the females get and more, but that is not the norm. If we get into the idea of them being available, but optional, that isn't ideal either.

We can look into the dry fit shirts, but that material does not accept the more comfortable water-based printing that most of our t-shirts have. You have do the oil-based print that feels "heavy" like an iron-on. Basically, a "sticky" big claw print on the back would probably offset the gains in comfort, particularly as the athletes sweat.

100% stand by water based inks on cotton apparel, but have you looked into silicone inks for dry fit/poly blend shirts? I honestly don't know how a HUGE claw would feel, but generally the ink is pretty matte and light with great opacity. I imagine if your retailer is comfortable with discharge/water based ink it might be an option.

 

[BlueCat]

100% stand by water based inks on cotton apparel, but have you looked into silicone inks for dry fit/poly blend shirts? I honestly don't know how a HUGE claw would feel, but generally the ink is pretty matte and light with great opacity. I imagine if your retailer is comfortable with discharge/water based ink it might be an option.

We know more about shirt production than most folks, but we haven't found a dry-fit shirt and ink combo that we have been happy with in terms of feel/durability/cost. That isn't to say one doesn't exist out there, but we have not run across it.

 

[Lisa Seye]

@BlueCat is there a vendor for luggage or luggage inserts for the hardside rolling carry on suitcases? I checked a couple of vendor sites but don't see CA in them. Just checking because I would love to change my kiddos luggage ;)

 

[BlueCat]

@BlueCat is there a vendor for luggage or luggage inserts for the hardside rolling carry on suitcases? I checked a couple of vendor sites but don't see CA in them. Just checking because I would love to change my kiddos luggage ;)

We do not currently sell or have a vendor for the luggage inserts.

 

[Lisa Seye]

We do not currently sell or have a vendor for the luggage inserts.

Thanks. Just checking. I appreciate it. ;)

 

[SparkleSpankies]

Makes sense. I wasnt thinking about the fact most the males are older or even college aged. I just know the current weekly washing of these shirts really wears them fast to where they dont look nice anymore.

Can you purchase a second set? May help cut down on amounts of times you wash and also preserve the shirts?

 

[dance2874]

Can you purchase a second set? May help cut down on amounts of times you wash and also preserve the shirts?

For sure. Its just not the same as having actual practice wear to him. He is still pretty young so he cares that it's different for girls if that makes sense.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using Tapatalk

 

[wondervvivi]

What do you think about all the vlogs? (Keeping up with the cheetahs, behind zur scenes with babs, wild life) I really enjoy watching those, but I always Think that my Coaches would hate it if I was vlogging during practice because you should keep the focus on practice.

 

[BlueCat]

What do you think about all the vlogs? (Keeping up with the cheetahs, behind zur scenes with babs, wild life) I really enjoy watching those, but I always Think that my Coaches would hate it if I was vlogging during practice because you should keep the focus on practice.

Honestly, I don't really follow a ton of social media closely, so I don't really know about that. I assume that it hasn't been a disruption to practices, otherwise the coaches would have addressed it already.

 

[Rudags]

@BlueCat - Did you change up choreographer's or styles this year? I've always appreciated Cheer Athletics Skills but never "obsessed" over Cheer Athletics. However, this year after your Blue Debut videos, I am a HUGE fan of this years choreography from Level 1 to Level 5 in regards to routine composition and skill use and creativity compared to years past. Was curious is this was an intentional change of style or if you had new blood in the gym from a choreography perspective? Either way, congrats on an amazing season opener and add me to the list of the CA Fan Girls Club.

 

[BlueCat]

@BlueCat - Did you change up choreographer's or styles this year? I've always appreciated Cheer Athletics Skills but never "obsessed" over Cheer Athletics. However, this year after your Blue Debut videos, I am a HUGE fan of this years choreography from Level 1 to Level 5 in regards to routine composition and skill use and creativity compared to years past. Was curious is this was an intentional change of style or if you had new blood in the gym from a choreography perspective? Either way, congrats on an amazing season opener and add me to the list of the CA Fan Girls Club.

Thank you so much for the kind words - they mean a ton. To specifically answer your question, I think it is a bit of both. We do have some new blood that is contributing to the creativity mix, but we also have many of our veteran staffers that have really been doing their homework into what has worked and what has not in terms of routine flow and scoring. We are always hungry to improve in any way we can and aren't too proud to change stuff up if we think there are better ways of doing things.