Class apperal takes a downturn

Senior+class+council+is+selling+senior+apparel+next+to+the+bookstore.+Students+are+able+to+pre-order+their+apparel+from+November+1-5.+++

Senior class council is selling senior apparel next to the bookstore. Students are able to pre-order their apparel from November 1-5.

Mia Behringer, Assistant Editor

Junior and senior apparel is a class council tradition. Every year both grades come up with designs for clothing to represent and sell to their class.

The clothing choices usually include some sort of t-shirt, sweatshirt, hat and maybe a sticker. They showcase designs selected from submissions, sometimes from the student body, and other years just designs created by the council themselves.

The whole concept of class apparel has never really made sense to me. Regular North Central apparel can be worn for all four years and is appropriate for every school-sponsored event. In addition, there is individual, specific extracurricular spirit wear for activities like orchestra or baseball. There seems to be an abundance of apparel already, do we need class apparel as well? 

Each year, the clothing is specific to the class, usually containing the class name or graduating year. This means it can only be worn for one year. For example, if you buy junior apparel the following year, you will not be a 2021 junior; you’ll be a 2021 senior. Although it does not bother everyone, many will stop wearing the shirt they just bought a year before, which is wasteful.

For seniors, it is relatively imaginable that when they go off to college, they will not be repping all of their high school spirit wear. Instead, they will be buying new shirts and hoodies to represent whatever they move on to do. Again, this is not true for everyone, but this summer, I plan to donate a stack of NC gear to goodwill. I will not have practice every day after school to wear a women’s soccer shirt, and I will no longer be a North Central 2022 senior. I will keep a few shirts because I will always be a former Panther, but after three full years of acquiring spirit wear for every season and in more than enough colors, I do not intend on purchasing a bucket hat with my class on it.

This year the senior class apparel is just like that of past years. There’s an assortment of products available, all promoting the class of 2022. A variety of items such as a sticker with two peace signs, a bucket hat with a panther paw, a tie-dye shirt with a Taylor Swift lyric and a sweatshirt with a panther on the back. It must be hard to come up with creative ideas every year because I would have bet $100 that Taylor Swift’s lyrics would make an appearance on this year’s batch of senior wear. I have personally never seen a bumper sticker as an option, and I like it. I am not sure if anyone wears bucket hats anymore, but I appreciate the effort to bring them back.

I hope that those who decide to purchase the class apparel this year intend on wearing it for longer than the seven remaining months of this school year. A sweatshirt will not wear out by May and may even last the owner through college! The point is that students who are buying class apparel, especially seniors, should think about whether or not they will wear what they are purchasing in a year or so. If not, then why not save your money, and keep a shirt from ending up in a landfill where it doesn’t need to be.