Questions
Frequently asked questions.
Everything people ask before they open a store, answered plainly.
The free league storefront
What is the free league storefront?
It is a spirit-wear store under your league's own name that we build, host, produce, pack, ship, and answer for, at no cost to the league. You send the artwork. The league keeps 20 percent of the net revenue on every sale, paid out weekly.
What does it cost the league to start a storefront?
Nothing, and there is no fee later either. No setup cost, no monthly fee, no inventory to buy, no minimums, and no card needed to open one. There is nothing on our rate sheet to quote you for a league store.
What does the league actually have to do?
Send us your logo and tell us where the money goes. That is the whole ask: we handle design, product setup, production, packing, shipping, returns, and every customer email. Most leagues spend under an hour on it, ever.
What is inside The Collective's 80 percent?
Payment processing, sales tax filed as merchant of record, refunds and chargebacks, the blank garments and the inventory risk, DTF production, quality control, packing, shipping labels and carrier costs, re-ships, storefront hosting and updates, and every customer email.
When and how do payouts happen?
Every Monday, automatically, through Stripe. Nothing to invoice, nothing to chase, and each statement reconciled to the cent. Payouts are made through Stripe only, so a league needs its Stripe account connected before the first one can land.
What counts as net revenue?
The merchandise total on an order after any discount, not including shipping or sales tax. The league's 20 percent is calculated on that figure. Refunds issued after a payout are netted against the next one, never invoiced back to the league.
Who owns the league's logo and designs?
The league does. Your name, your logo, and your artwork stay entirely yours, and you warrant that you hold the rights to whatever you send us. The print-ready production files we build to reproduce that artwork are ours.
How fast can a league store go live?
Days, not months. Leagues have gone live the same week they sent their logo, once the artwork is in hand and the range is agreed. If you have a registration date or an opening day to hit, tell us and we will confirm it before you commit.
Who a storefront is for
Who can get a free storefront?
Youth baseball and softball leagues only. Little league, softball, travel ball, and the clubs and boards that run them. We narrowed the program to one audience so that we could give it away and still run it properly.
Can a business, brand, or ministry get a storefront?
No. We are not able to run a storefront for a business, a brand, a ministry, a school, or a military command. What we can build you instead is a website, including a full e-commerce store, priced on the public rate sheet and open to anyone.
We already have a store with you. What happens to it?
Nothing changes. Stores already open on the platform keep running exactly as they are, with the same terms and the same weekly payouts. The change is to who we can take on now, not to anyone we already work with.
Can we sell online if we are not a league?
Yes, through a website rather than a storefront. An e-commerce build starts at $2,500: we design, build, and host the store, and you handle fulfillment, inventory, and shipping of what you sell. The Collective does not fulfill for e-commerce website clients.
Leagues, seasons and families
How many volunteer hours does a league store take?
None. Families order, we produce and ship each order straight to them, and we answer every question. Nobody collects sizes, fronts money, sorts boxes in a parking lot, or reconciles a spreadsheet at the end of the season.
What happens to a league store in the off-season?
It stays open, and it costs nothing either way. There is no fee to pause and no tier to change: the store keeps its catalog and artwork, sells whatever it sells in the quiet months, and is ready when registration opens again.
What does the league have to provide?
Your logo, and a destination for the money. That is it. We build the store, produce the graphics, make the gear, ship to each family, and pay the league 20 percent of every sale's net revenue weekly.
How does the gear reach families?
Each order ships directly to the family that placed it, made to order. No bulk buy to organize, no team box to hand out at practice, and no pile of leftover sizes when the season ends.
Do you carry youth sizes?
Yes, youth small through adult sizes on the core pieces. Every item is made when it is bought, so a single player ordering a single youth medium is exactly as workable as a full team order.
Production and shipping
Where is the gear produced?
In San Diego, California, through our print partner. We buy the blanks ourselves and carry the inventory risk, so nobody on the league side has to order in bulk up front.
What printing method do you use?
DTF. It is what every storefront order is produced with, and it is what the mockups on a league store represent. If you need something a DTF print cannot do, tell us before the store opens rather than after.
Is anything printed before it is ordered?
No. Every piece is made to order, produced after the customer buys it. That removes dead stock, order minimums, and the money normally tied up in a garage full of boxes nobody wanted.
How long does an order take to arrive?
Orders are produced once placed, checked, and shipped as soon as they pass quality control, with tracking sent to the customer. Turnaround varies with the piece and the season, so write us first if you have a hard deadline.
Who handles returns, exchanges and reprints?
We do, under the league's name. Customer emails, tracking questions, returns, exchanges, lost packages, and reprints are all ours to answer and ours to fund. None of it routes back to the league.
Is every piece checked before it ships?
Yes. Quality control on every piece before it ships is part of what our 80 covers. If something arrives wrong, we remake it and we pay for the remake.
Websites and the Studio
What does the Studio do?
It builds websites, and it builds them for anyone. Landing pages, business sites, full custom builds, and e-commerce stores, with graphic and brand design, hosting, security, and updates alongside them. It will also take over a site you already have somewhere else.
What does a website cost?
A landing site is $500, a business site is $1,000, a premium build is $1,500, and a custom or e-commerce build starts at $2,500. Every site carries hosting and care at $49 a month on a 12 month minimum term, which begins at checkout.
Do you fulfill orders for an e-commerce website?
No. On an e-commerce website you handle all fulfillment, inventory, and shipping of what you sell; we design, build, and host the store itself. Fulfillment is something we only do inside the free league storefront program.
Can you move a site we already have?
Yes, and it is free. A site you already have moves to us as part of any new build, with the domain, the DNS, and your content handled for you. We do not sell a transfer on its own any more, so there is no separate figure to quote: you pay for the build, and the move comes with it.
Where are your prices listed?
On one public rate sheet: website builds, hosting and care, Growth plans, and design work. It is the canonical version our terms reference, and the version published there governs. League storefronts appear on it with no price, because they have none.
What does a Growth plan cost?
Grow is $495 a month and Grow Max is $695 a month, each with a $750 one time setup. Site Care and Hosting is included free while a Growth plan is active, and the 12 month care minimum is waived for as long as the plan runs, so a Growth client is not paying the $49 on top of it.
What ships every month on a Growth plan?
Two new service and area pages, one local article written for your customers, and FAQ schema on every new page. Setup adds a keyword to city map, a Google Business Profile overhaul, Search Console and GA4 wiring, and the first four matrix pages, and the profile is refreshed quarterly with a summary report. Grow Max adds monthly profile posts, AI drafted replies to every review, a citations campaign in the first ninety days, AI search optimization, an answer library built across the first three months, and an automated report on the first of every month.
How do we cancel a Growth plan?
Tell us, and it ends 30 days later. It is month to month with 30 days notice and there is no term to buy out. The one thing to know is that Site Care goes back to its normal $49 a month, and if you cancel Growth inside the site's first 12 months, the care months you had not yet served resume at that rate. They resume, they do not accelerate, so there is no lump sum.
How do we get started?
Tell us what you are making. The chooser hands you to the builder with your door already picked, or write us and we will point you at the right one. No account and no card until you are ready to publish.
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