Stop the Insanity!

[ManyIrons]

Sylvar and Rip Van Scouter (and everybody else),

 

The aloha shirts are in the on-line catalog. Just follow the "New in 2005" link on the menu and then look under "Custom Design". They're listed as "Island Camp Shirts" and are available as prints and solids. They apparently come in different colors but the on-line catalog doesn't allow you view all the choices.

[dan]

I am having a hard time understanding what everyone is really looking for in a new uniform. Cheaper? Better Quality? Fit Better?

When this comes up I think something from Columbia would work good, they have some good clothing, made for the outdoors. Then I go and price them, 70 buck for a pair of pants, 55 bucks for a shirt, and think, well so much for that idea. Another poster brought up LL Bean in another thread, I went and looked at some clothing on the LL Bean site. 65 bucks for a pair of pants, 50 bucks for a decent shirt, that could work as a uniform. Do not know if they where made in the US of A. I know the Columbia's' are not made in the US of A.

How about some Carhart jeans they are made in the US of A? Jeans do not seem to be the right choice for outdoor wear. The current scout pants would work better than jeans. They would dry a lot faster.

Help me out here, what and where would you find a better fit, better quality, cheaper uniform?

[Eamonn]

It was I who suggested that we get out of retail business and hand it over to a firm like LL Bean. Not so much for the savings, but because this is what they do. We shouldn't be trying to be good at this we have things that we are good at and should concentrate on them.

Maybe there just isn't enough call for Scout uniforms and all the different sizes to make selling them in the local high street a viable idea, but a company that specializes in on line clothes sales would do a far better job than our Central Supply does.

I buy the uniforms and pay the money, because that is what it costs. I only have the red wool jacket because Her That Must Be Obeyed bought it for me as a Christmas present. I don't really like it and have other jackets which are better suited for almost every type of weather.

OJ, went all through Cubbing with the one blue shirt, we did buy one pair of Cub Scout pants when he started but found pants that were nearly the same on sale at K-mart. When the word went out that K-mart had them on sale the word spread like wild fire and all the parents bought them. When he got halfway through Webelos Scouts we bought him the tan shirt and Scout shorts. He got the long Scout pants for Christmas.

As time has gone on he has needed more uniforms, for the Jamboree he bought the shorts that were on sale for $16.00 and would take my long pants when he need them. That was fine till he got bigger than me. For NOAC, last year he needed more shorts, he gave me 4 pairs that were now too small for him and we forked out $76.00 for two new pair. $76.00 Hurt. On top of the several hundred we had paid for him going to NOAC. Still we handed over the money.

I have not counted how much we have spent on Scout uniforms for him over the past 9 or 10 years. I think that no matter what the cost is it is small when I look at the things that he has done in the uniforms.

He is also a soccer player and his feet seem to grow at a much faster rate than any other part of his body. I swear that his feet grow overnight when he is sleeping. When he first started playing we were happy to go to the local Pay Less store, we could get away with $20.00. I don't know what happened but soon the catalogs started to arrive the boots went up and up till we were parting with $125 or more, there were also other things that we couldn't live without shin guards at $30.00 and compression t-shirts at $40.00. I have no idea what a compression t-shirt is?? The Soccer Boosters, a bunch of parents who support the team with sales of tickets and plants said that we could opt out of the fund raising if we gave then a check. The way things were for us this year we sure as heck were not going to have time to be selling plants and hassling our friends to buy tickets. Last year the cost of not selling was $65.00 this year it was $120.00. This is the school soccer team. What the heck are they doing with the money I pay in taxes? He really did look the part in his warm up jacket, his soccer Hoodie, his home uniform and his away uniform, his $40.00 shin guards, his $125.00+ boots and you couldn't see the compression shirt, which I'm told has wicking which is out of this world. Next year he is thinking about playing football !! I wonder if they use compression shirts?

Eamonn.

[hops_scout]

Eamonn, those shirts can get expensive, but if you look around you can get them cheap too..

 

I have 3 sleeveless ones, two short sleeve ones, and a long sleeve one.

 

I have another short sleeve one on the way. (Its orange b/c we have to have either orange undershirts or no undershirts for basketball since our away uniforms are orange.)

 

And yes, football players wear them too. Actually, they are probably the main reason they came out with the things in the first place.

 

 

[BSAChaplain]

I'm a catalog junkie too. In fact I'm a uniform junkie. I have about 3 feet of closet space full of uniform pieces. Except for 2 of them, I have bought all of thm from the local Salvation Army and Amvets. Theses pieces ranged from 3-7 dollars each. My son's shorts-3 pairs @$3 each. I have alredy purchased enough uniform parts to see him all the way through the program (unless the uniform changes). His favorite uniform to wear...the one of pieces from the late 60's-early 70's with an overseas hat.

 

Here's another source - http://www.euxnetwork.net/ This is a network of people who sell used uniform parts.

 

But as for the insanity...it's nothing new. I have a catlog from my early Scout days, 1978. In it you will find Scout Canteen, Tents, Backpacks, t-shirts etc. None of which was cutting edge camping gear at the time. perhaps there wasn't as much stuff as now, but plenty all the same.

 

Every activity has its people who go overboard whether it is Scouts, sports, choir, etc. It's our responsibility as Scouters to teach about being thrifty to the boys and their family. Explain what they need and what they don't. That's what my Scoutmaster did and it worked well.