Why at the end of their last term rather than at the start of their last year at school?
For some, leavers hoodies coming at the end of the school year rather than at the start seems paradoxical. Why not have your hoodie all through the last year of your school so that you can get some wear out of it while still with your whole year group?
At the Leavers Hoodies Company, we get some enquiries right at the beginning of the academic year where the hoodies organiser is obviously intending to get them ordered and delivered before the first half term break. We get a few dozen enquiries like this every year but very, very rarely do they turn into orders in the autumn.
When the organiser starts asking the students, or maybe the school, they invariably find that there is little or no appetite for getting the hoodies so early. We see the same people coming back again in the new calendar year (rather than the school year) and we get their orders then.
Reasons for not buying hoodies in the autumn term
The reasons given for not ordering in the autumn are common to many of the enquirers we talk to:
- People can’t be bothered at this time of the year
- We aren’t allowed to wear them during school time
- They are for celebrating/remembering the end of our time at school – so let’s wait until the end
- It doesn’t feel right after all
- If some people don’t get a hoodie it might cause friction, they might feel excluded, through the year
However, the biggest single reason seems to be that at the start of the final year at school, or at a particular school, the students don’t feel like leavers! There are roughly 10 months to go before school is finished. 10 months is a long time for a young person. A time to learn more, make and lose more friendships, to grow—physically, mentally, emotionally— to have fun, to be a different person by the end.
Autumn hoodies would need to be renamed
If someone wanted to get hoodies in the autumn and set a new trend among students, they would need to be called something different. Leavers hoodies are for leavers at the time of leaving not 10 months early.
So, tongue in cheek, we have a few suggestions for those organisers who consider getting their hoodies in the autumn term.
- Autumn hoodies
- Fall hoodies
- Soon be done hoodies
- Nearly done hoodies
- Only 10 months to go hoodies
- Last year hoodies
- Out of here soon hoodies
- 10 months to freedom hoodies
- I’m super organised hoodies
- Finally—hoodies
