Product Pruning

[Eagle94-A1]

Baltimore was experimenting with an alternate uniform that was a colored UA performance tshirt with the rank on it. So everytime you advanced, you needed a new tshirt. I think the tshirts were $25 to $35 a pop. That's $175 to $245 just on uniform shirts! 

[Momleader]

Golf shirts for cubs!  Much more affordable and easier for kids who have trouble with buttons or sensory issues

This year for a brand new to cubs in my Council:

uniform shirt $35, belt for loops $12, rank hat $15, neckerchief $15, rank handbook $15. Then new kid joining fee $25 annual national & council fees $120. Pack dues $25minimum.   $262 as a baseline this year if everything is bought new and before any fundraising happens. 

They need to find a way to make entry more affordable:  Older scouts buy at least 2-3 uniform shirts thru their career , 1 handbook, 1 hat, 1 neckerchief to get them through. They should do the same for Cub Scouts to some degree. 

[fred8033]

On 7/11/2020 at 9:41 PM, yknot said:

Whatever it is, if kids don't want to wear it, then we shouldn't be doing it if we are trying to increase membership. My baseball kids love to wear the hat, the jersey, the team T, the team towel, whatever. Not seeing the same kind of enthusiasm with the stiff and itchy button up scout shirt or pants. 

Our pack had class B's that the scouts loved to wear and parents loved to see them wearing.   They looked cool and often were a bragging point.  Most importantly, they were very functional if we bought the right base materials.

Many good suggestions so far.   All docs online and via PDF.  Get rid of gimmicky stuff.  Simplify uniform. 

IMHO, the biggest problem with uniforms is that they are not functional.  When I'm hiking, camping, swimming, etc ... the last thing I'd want to wear is a scout uniform.  Heavy.  Itchy.  Catches on things.  Expensive to replace.  Painful to re-sew.  

My recommendations.  

• Shut down the scout shops.  Physical stores are a huge carrying cost.  We're in the era of Amazon.com.  Everything scouts and units need from BSA could be shipped as fast as needed.  It would save the average scout leader time and money driving miles and miles.  ... I'd also argue that the huge carrying costs of scout shops perverts decisions resulting in selling expensive books, gimmicky stuff and many piece parts to the uniform.  ... I'd also argue the units should be the source of materials and parents should not experiencing the scout shop "sales pitch".

Related

• BSA "in-person" sales should be focused on scout camps that have a trading post that sells a combination of property specific, BSA specific, quality outdoor stuff ... and candy.  ... If parents want impress their kids, have them shop at a scout camp trading post.   
• Units should stock advancements to enable awarding as soon as possible.  Ideally, at the same meeting.  ... This would support on-line sales.  ... IMHO, I've rarely seen people wear ranks they did not earn.  The real risk is probably units that go rogue and do not record advancements.   ... but early awarding is much more important.  .... So, let's save cost by not trying to correlated scout shop purchases with unit rank records. 

 

[Jameson76]

20 hours ago, Eagle94-A1 said:

Baltimore was experimenting with an alternate uniform that was a colored UA performance tshirt with the rank on it. So everytime you advanced, you needed a new tshirt. I think the tshirts were $25 to $35 a pop. That's $175 to $245 just on uniform shirts! 

I do not get the cost (well I guess it's the BSA supply overhead expense) for the T-shirts BSA sells.  Our troop prints our own T-shirts each year.  Dri-fit, goods quality, left chest (single color) and full back (single color) screens.  Run of about 100 shirts, maybe $11 per shirt.  Boys like them and they are subtle BSA shirts.  Do not screams SCOUTS.  I see them wearing them around town.  Keep the colors neutral.

Many of the camps we go to have pre-sell of camp shirts, but those are $20 +.  I get you have to make a buck, but cut the overhead and pass the savings on.

 

[ParkMan]

Just catching up on this topic.  

All programs - get rid of shoulder loops.  There is no point.  Same with the world Scouting patch

Cubs - end level specific belts, hats, and neckercheif slides.  Lions-wolves wear the same uniform.  Bears-AOL wear the same uniform.  Keep the level specific neckercheifs.

Standardize on two standard materials- poly/cotton (like is in use today) and nylon (like in venturing).

Most of the rest the patches are decorations or badges.  No need to change those.

[The Latin Scot]

Get rid of ALL the girl-centered products that have been sitting on our stores' shelves untouched for months! Bracelets, ribbons, leggings, hair accessories - I am sure BSA was banking on them being instant sellers once girls joined Scouting, but NONE of it gets bought here, they are expensive to produce, and they take up shelf space with product over half of the program's members will never touch. Such a waste.

[FireStone]

Get rid of all of the badges for doing things that are part of other badges/belt loops. The entire "generic emblems" section on the scout shop website could be eliminated.

My cubs don't need a police station visit badge, they get the belt loop that includes that as a requirement. They the generic hiking badge, they do Webelos Walkabout and get the pin for that. They have a parade badge, a flag ceremony badge, a campfire badge.

Some stuff doesn't need a badge, it's just part of scouting and could very easily go un-badged.

Also, stop making different stuff for every cub rank. One neckerchief, one belt buckle, if you want to distinguish rank with something visual, keep the rank hats, that's all.

My Pack got our own custom neckerchiefs, scouts use one neckerchief all through cub scouts. We (leaders and parents) got tired of the new-rank-neckerchief-every-year madness.