Juniors were finally able to claim their class of 2023 merchandise on Nov. 22 and 23, almost three weeks after they were originally scheduled for pickup.

All juniors had the opportunity to purchase a blue T-shirt and/or blue sweatpants at the beginning of the school year, custom designed with a unique logo created by junior planner Andrea Kim. “I think the sweatpants are kind of cool,” junior Jules Lindauer said. “Like a minimalist vibe, I like that it’s not a loud, flashy design.”

Although the shirts and pants were ordered in October, and juniors received an email confirming their merch would be available the first week of November, when the date rolled around, junior class sponsor Lisa Young found herself merch-less. “We use an online order system, and we are given the final product counts from our financial secretary,” Young said. “We then send the final numbers to the online vendor for them to fill the order, and let us know when we can come pick them up.”

The order was placed in the same manner as the other grades. “Mrs. Walsh, the treasurer of the school, told us about a vendor that most classes use for merch,” junior class treasurer Tyler Cosgrove said.

So what went wrong? “The online store was set up so we had a deadline for the purchase orders,” Cosgrove said. “But the deadline turned out to be longer than we planned, so we had to order another batch because orders came in past the deadline that we planned, but before the deadline of the vendor.”

When the merch finally arrived, there was another miscommunication: the vendor told the junior class officers extra-small sizes would be available, but everyone who ordered a size extra-small ended up with a size small. “I can’t even fit into my sweatpants, they’re so big,” Lindauer said. “I wish the vendor would’ve gotten the sizing right, so I could actually wear them.”

Shirts and sweatpants are still being distributed in room 174, as not everyone has retrieved their merchandise yet. “A little over half of the kids have come to pick up their merchandise,” Young said. “The rest are sitting on a shelf in my classroom, waiting.”

On the student end, the process to get the merch is quite simple. “I went there, I told them my name, and got my pants,” Lindauer said. “It was pretty easy. It’s not like it took an hour.”

Not only are class shirts and sweats worn to pep rallies to show class spirit, but wearing them to school during the normal week promotes class unity. “It’s so important to have class merch,” junior Samantha Peguero said. “It’s the momento that you’ll have with you throughout your life. I know it’s like ‘oh, who cares? It was high school’, but it’s important to remember milestones in your life and to buy things you can keep as memories of Wootton.”

However, not all juniors bought class merchandise. “It was too expensive,” Peguero said. “I wish there was more to the design, then price wouldn’t really matter.”