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To the age-old debate about how women are different from men comes this question in the team business ? Is there a real difference in how women's and men's teams want their uniforms and team apparel decorated? The jury is still out.

Team dealers and the companies that make the decorating equipment and supplies remain split on the issue. Most would agree, however, that it's best to be armed with information on trends and prepared with appropriate options that appeal to the creative side of female athletes and their coaches.

"I don't have any preset ideas of what certain customers are going to want," says Dick Cann, Marlow Sports, located in one of Maryland's Beltway suburbs. "We try to be prepared to handle whatever request comes in the door, no matter who it's coming from."

John Wyffels, of 1st American Sports, Phoenix, AZ, says funding for school sports in his state has kept decorating for men and women on an even playing field. "Girls may want fancier looks or more embroidery, but they're working with the same budget constraints as the guys, which tends to keep the final results pretty similar," he explains.

The exception, he says, can be on team apparel worn before and after games, which often is paid for by the individual athlete or with booster club funds.

Mike Carter, of Dalco Athletic, Dallas, TX, adds that the rules of state or national sports organizations often restrict decorating styles and sizes, making non-school sales more receptive to flashier looks. "If it's a select team or something outside the school, then the girls can have a freer hand," he adds.

Meanwhile, Sue Wilcosky, of Transfer Express, Mentor, OH, says she has actually noticed a decline in differences between the sexes in uniform decoration. "The girls' uniforms are more athletic looking, fancier and with more trim than ever before, and their decorating demands are for that same athletic look," she says.



Illustrating the difficulty in pinning a label on young girls' fashion tastes, Fran Stinson, team sales manager at Long-streth's Women's Sports, Parkersford, PA, has seen the exact opposite. "Female athletes are much more apt to go for something creative versus something traditional," she says. "They like to experiment with different designs, materials and even decorating methods,whatever is going to give them a special look that expresses their individual or team style and personality."

Stinson says many of the all-female teams with which she works prefer embroidery and screenprinting to tackle twill, which some find too heavy, bulky, masculine and limiting in terms of lettering style.

Sublimation has become especially popular with some of her team customers for its ability to deliver very detailed, multicolored designs at prices usually lower than similarly colored screenprinted items. "With sublimation, the design on the jersey can match all the colors in the kilt for field hockey or lacrosse," she notes.

Of course, tackle twill still has a solid place in the girls' uniform business and Wyffels says it remains very popular with his women's teams. New looks from companies such as Twill USA, he says, are giving female athletes more options that make tackle twill anything but standard.

That's good news, of course, for the folks at Twill. "Girls have been saying they're tired of the traditional look, that they want something that looks custom and unique to them," says Larry Simon, sales and marketing manager, for Twill USA. "We listened and have responded."

Twill's block and script letters in tie-dye team colors have caught the eye of many women's teams. Both Twill and Dalco report that metallics, like silver and bronze, are gaining girls' interest, too, for lettering as well as design elements, like balls or team mascots.

Simon notes that the cost of these new products from Twill is about the same as basic twill, putting style and creativity within reach of women's teams that choose this decorating option.



In addition to selecting different methods or materials than their male counterparts, female athletes may also be more apt to add new design elements to team lettering or to reinterpret their team mascots. "The Angels may decide to put angel wings on the letter A in their team name, or the Blaze women's softball team may come up with a graphic that turns a softball into a fireball," explains Stinson.

She adds that female athletes like to get creative with design placement, too. The butt print ? lettering across the seat of the pant or short ? remains popular. Lettering, sometimes in combinations with a graphic, down the leg of a pant or arm of a shirt is also popular.

Twill's Simon notes that no-sew tackle twill plays into this trend: "You can put it into unique locations on a garment where maybe you couldn't hoop it."

Wyffels has noticed more women's teams expressing their creativity and uniqueness through sayings screenprinted on team T-shirts. This trend may be a carryover from streetwear, where such T-shirts for girls are red-hot. A recent example from 1st American Sports was a design for the Panthers women's cross-country team. It had the panther team mascot on the front and the words "Eat my dust" on the back.



Selection has been a typical complaint of female athletes when it comes to team apparel, but today more vendors have filled out their lines and the criticisms are subsiding. In the custom team jacket market, CranBarry, Lynn, MA, may just have silenced them. The company recently introduced a line of 35 team jackets made specifically for girls and women.

"It was a huge, huge undertaking, but we have a lot of women who work here and they helped us come to the conclusion that unisex clothing is really sized for men," says product manager David Gaspar. "Women ought to be able to buy jackets that are actually designed to fit them."

The new jackets have shorter sleeves, added space in the hips, are less bulky, thinner through the waist and narrower through the shoulder. Most of the cuts remain traditionally team, and include expected features like gussets under the sleeves. Several new styles, including performance fleece and some vests, have been added specifically to appeal to women's tastes.

Like all of CranBarry's jackets, the women's styles can be made in team colors and customized with features like Velcro or elastic cuffs, hoods and the like for a specific look. ? SGD