I'm kinda bummed

[SF2K4]

I guess I'll see all this stuff in Atlanta? The only souvie booths I've been to were Spirit's, PR's, The Cadets', SW's, The Magic's, and Teal's at B'ham... plenty of drum corps goodness to go around.

[dannyboy]

Some of us talked about this at a show on Sunday. All agreed that pretty much for the last two or three years the souvies have been lacking in "gotta buy that" designs. Last year at DCI I walked the souvies and nothing at all made me stop in my tracks and say, "Coooooool!" Cavies have one or two cool shirts this year. Madison has a nice guard "primal" shirt, but I'm not a guard-shirt-wearing person. Even if it is cool. Okay, maybe if the shirt had hot 1983 Blue Devil guard chicks on them I'd buy it. But not wear it.

It's also early in the season. Some of the corps don't have all of their 2006 designs yet.

The bando stuff sells. Even Pioneer has trombone and sax shirts... though she keeps them sort of "hidden" until Indianpolis for all those band kids.

I'd like corps to put their logo on these things: http://www.spit-spot.com

Edited July 4, 2006 by dannyboy

[Michael Boo]

The one purpose in having a souvie stand is to make money for the corps. Each corps souvie staff knows what sells best at their own booth. Even with items that primarily appeal to "bandos," I suspect one will be able to find something that appeals primarily to the hard core corps fans.

And "bandos" hopefully are the next hard core corps fans.

While we might like to believe the philosophy of every souvie stand should be, "We're here to satisfy the cravings and needs of the most discriminating corps fan," the real philosophy—by necessity—is closer to, "You've got money. Hand it over. Now."

[DrumCorpsMom]

My son is working at a souvie stand this year. We used to gripe about the band stuff being sold at souvie stands, but it does sell and it helps the corps with their profits. He has been amazed at the amount of sales they get at shows and given the increase in gas costs, etc., every cent counts. We used to sell chocolate bars, garbage bags, peanuts, etc. - they also have nothing to do with drum corps, but they made us money.

My thoughts are that as long as they keep a good inventory of the drum corps stuff I want to buy, I don't care what else they sell. :)

Edited July 4, 2006 by DrumCorpsMom

[Spirit Age-Out]

While we might like to believe the philosophy of every souvie stand should be, "We're here to satisfy the cravings and needs of the most discriminating corps fan," the real philosophy—by necessity—is closer to, "You've got money. Hand it over. Now."

The way I see it is that it doesn't make sense to me logically in the first place. If I've just gone to my first drum corps show as a band kid and I had a blast and I've decided I want to go to more shows and/or join a corps one day. I would buy a shirt that has the name or logo of the corps that I liked the most.

Show's over and I head out to the souvie booths. I just fell in love with The Santa Clara Vanguard so I head to their booth only to be faced with the decision to buy an SCV Tour shirt or "Built Flute Tough" shirt.

Screw SCV! Flutes Rock!!!!

Edited July 4, 2006 by Spirit Age-Out

[Spirit Age-Out]

Believe me, I understand how important souvie sales are and I understand where these band kids are coming from. I used to play sax but from the very first note of Blue Knights warm-up in the parking lot in Murfreesboro 2001 I was hardcore drum corps fan.....

Let's just say I'm more irritated with the people who come to a drum corps show to buy clarinet stuff than I am with corps who don't mind selling it to them.

[jblamb1401]

I waited a long time for the Blue Knights to come out west so I could buy a Blue Knights patch for my jacket or even an alumni patch. I get to thier souvie booth and all they had were souvies geared towards flute, trumbones and saxophones. They had a shirt that said "you wouldn't understand it's a band thing". What's up with that? I don't play sax. If that organization has been around since the 70's that means there are 1000's of alumni that might want a patch or something. They had a million little rubber bracelets with flutes and such. Look at me getting all upset over all this band shwag. Trav

As far as I remember, Blue Knights is the only corps who has the "band paraphernalia" type souvie booth. I hate it every time I see their booth.

[frontline99]

Lots of corps have tons of "band paraphenalia". It makes sense when shows like Boomington-Normal have BOA clinics coinciding with them. Any money the corps can make is a plus. On a side note, I bought a Blue Knight's T-shirt at the Concord show last weekend. I thought they had as good of a selection as the other corps as far as corps merchandise, the band stuff was in addidtion. They have a lot of stuff. I remember working the CR booth in Denver in '04 and running over to help them pack up because they had too much too put away before the storms set in. Good Times

[BD3BK2R2]

Agreed, and if it works.... why complain?

just rummage through your corps of choice's souvies until you find the merchandise you're after.

if the "band" market brings in $$$, fine. So does the corps logo stuff, and it's still there, you just may have to look a bit.

There wasn't any digging around, I asked the attendant if they had any BK patches or anything I can put on a jacket and he said no. I totally agree that these corps have to raise money, but the drum corps to band ratio stuff was way off. All I'm saying is if I wanted a BK patch, that was not the place to go, If I wanted a basoon shirt or wrisband or pin I was in luck. I'm not kidding, they must have had about 30 different wristbands and pins none of them drum corps related. Trav

[SF2K4]

In my opinion, regardless of the money situation, patches should always be available for members or alumni that want one. Patches are part of the tradition of this activity, aren't they? ####, I'd say drop a few shirts if you can just put out some dang patches.