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School spirit items are a critical source for raising funds for school booster clubs and sports teams. Specifically, stadium seat cushions have one of the highest profit margins for schools and booster clubs than any other spirit item.
If your team plays at a stadium or arena without cushioned seats, stadium cushions with your team name printed on them is a goldmine for a fundraiser. The average college or professional football game is between 3 and 3 1/2 hours in length, even though the play clock time is only 60 minutes. The average high school football game is a little over 2 hours. The extended length of time is due to moving the chains, timeouts, and the halftime show. That’s a long time to sit on a hard surface.
Not only do fans LOVE team merchandise, but they also LOVE to be comfortable. Stadium seat cushions satisfy both and because of that, fans are willing to shell out big bucks for them.
Below you will find a guide that sums up the most popular type of custom stadium cushions so you can easily pick which is best for your team and your fans.
Material
First, begin with the type of material you want your cushions to be. There are 6 types that round out the most popular stadium seats, but I am only mentioning the top 5. The 6th option is open cell foam without a covering, but since I don’t think this is functional by itself for a stadium seat cushion, I’m not listing it in this buying guide.
Vinyl – These are by far the most popular and what comes to mind for most people when they think of a traditional stadium seat cushion. These include an open cell foam interior that is covered by a durable and water-resistant vinyl. These typically tend to offer the thickest cushions on the market.
Polyester Fabric – Cushions covered in a polyester fabric have become increasingly more popular due their increased comfort level over vinyl cushions.
EVA Foam – This stands for ethylene vinyl acetate and you know it from the foam flooring used in the weight room at gyms, floor mats, and those large, over-sized puzzle pieces for kids. This a closed cell foam, which means they are much more conducive to printing than open cell foam. Open cell foam is the same type of soft foam used for foam fingers or inside the vinyl covered stadium cushions.
Non-Woven Polypropylene – You know this as the material used to make the reusable grocery tote bags. It is strong, budget-friendly, a great surface on which to print. These stadium seat cushions are an open cell foam covered with non-woven polypropylene. These will be the lowest priced cushions.
Closed cell Foam – While open cell foam is very porous with large open holes visible to the eye, closed cell foam is a denser material that is stronger and provides more support when sitting on the cushion. This material does come at a higher cost than cushions that include open cell foam.
Shape
Now that you have picked out the material for your cushion, determine the shape you want.
Square – This is by far the most popular shape and you will find that you have a larger variety to choose from when choosing a square shaped cushion.
Round – The round shaped cushions are popular with sports such as basketball, volleyball, tennis, and baseball since the balls from those sports are also round. The graphics can be created to look like the corresponding ball from the sport.
Rectangle – These make sense as a popular shaped cushion since bleacher seats are rectangular in shape; however, choices are limited in rectangle shaped cushions.
Specialty Shapes – There are many choices for specialty shapes, including stadium seat cushions shaped like a paw print, football, football helmet, home plate, and many other special shapes. There are even some unique shapes for business sponsors to choose such as wrench for mechanics or a dollar sign for any business involved in the financial industry.
Size
It’s a fact that butts in America have been getting bigger for several decades. Therefore, the larger sizes are preferable when consumers are buying stadium cushions. If you are reselling cushions, the recommended size is at least 13.5″ W. Promotional giveaways can get away with the smaller sizes.
14″ – This the gold standard. If reselling, the 14 inch size is the most popular.
13.5″ – Not much difference in sizing than the 14″ size, so it’s still a great option and sometimes an opportunity to save a little per cushion.
12″ – These are known as promotional cushions and this size is best used when giving the cushions away as part of a promotion or from a business sponsor.
There are other in between and random sizes available, but the 3 sizes above represent the majority of cushions available.
Thickness
A thicker cushion is more comfortable. Period. Of course, thicker stadium seat cushions will increase your budget. When selling cushions for a fundraiser, the thicker cushions sell better and result in happier customers since they are more comfortable. However, one tip to note is that open cell foam needs to be thicker in order to provide the same amount of support as a thinner closed cell or EVA foam. Therefore, the thinner EVA and closed cell foam cushions are just as good as the thicker cushions with open cell foam.
2.5″ – If choosing a stadium seat cushion with open cell foam inside, this is the best option.
2.0″ – This is still a good choice for open cell foam cushions.
1.5″ – This is the thinnest open cell foam cushion you would want to resell.
1.0″ – If the stadium seat cushions are made of open cell foam, this is a give away quality and not one of high enough quality to resell. However, if the closed cell cushions at this thickness provide great cushion when using them on bleachers.
Less than 1″ – There are many thicknesses less than 1 inch to include 7/8″, 3/4″, 1/2″, 3/8″, and 1/4″. It’s important to know if the material used to make the cushion is substantial enough to provide enough cushion to be useful. Open cell cushions less than 1 inch is not recommended. However, closed cell foam is a completely different material than open cell foam. Since it is a denser material, a thinner cushion is still a good quality.
Imprint Method
Screen Printing – If your logo is going to be 1-3 solid colors, this is the best option. It’s also the lowest cost option for printing.
Full Color – If you really want to show off your logo with many colors, full color printing is your best option. Pricing is more than screen printing, so be prepared to shell out more per cushion.
When your school or sports team needs to easy fundraising, nothing is easier to sell than stadium seat cushions. No one wants to sit on a cold, hard, and sometimes wet bleacher seat for 3 hours. Stadium cushions sell themselves since they provide comfort and they are a reusable team spirit item.
Rush production is available on many of our cushions. Should you have a firm in hands date for an upcoming game, please contact one of our stadium cushion specialists to ensure we meet your delivery date.
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