Cheerleading Bags

What goes into cheerleading bags? The answer can vary a lot, depending on what kind of bag you're talking about. Some cheerleading bags are for equipment, but cheeleading spirit bags are designed to motivate the team.

Cheerleading Bags for Gear

When going to cheer competitions or away games, cheerleaders may want to have a lot of different kinds of equipment. In the best situation, the bags they carry serve the same function as the uniforms they wear or the jackets they stay warm in: showing their school spirit in a bright and over-the-top way.

Rather than a simple duffel bag, the school should purchase matching and durable cheerleading bags for all the squad members. These bags should be in the school colors (often with the bag one color and the carrying straps the complementary color) and have the school mascot and name prominently printed on the side. It's also a nice touch to have each bag personalized with a cheerleader's name, but that may be too expensive for some schools.

What Goes in Cheerleading Bags?

It's hard to say exactly what should go into cheerleading bags. Every team and every cheerleader has different needs. It can be a good idea to have some "standard" things in the cheerleading bags, so that in the heat of performance it's easy to find a piece of equipment such as a spare set of cheerleading pom poms or a band-aid. It also can be useful to make sure that the bags have more than just one big sack to put things in – having side-pockets and water bottle holders makes the bags much more useful and organized.

Here are some other ideas for gear that might be useful to put into a cheerleading bag:

• Spare uniform – Having extra cheerleading skirts, tops, shoes, and other essential pieces of the uniform make it easier to recover from any wardrobe malfunctions like tears or spills.
• First Aid Kit – This doesn't have to be too extensive – some bandaids, an ace bandage in case of sprains, perhaps some ibuprofen (make sure to check with the school's medication policy). However, having these items, plus a hot/cold pack or two, in all the bags means that if an injury happens they are always easily available.
• Cheap disposable camera – For catching those impromptu moments that cheerleaders treasure for their whole lives.
• Street clothes – As great as it is to wear your cheer uniform to show school spirit, having extra clothes that you can change into after the game or competition is a good thing to keep in your cheerleading bag.
• Spare Music CD – If your squad is going to be performing to a recorded song, make sure you burn a spare CD in case the original gets scratched or damaged. This spare CD can go into the squad captain's cheerleading bag.

All of the bags should also be clearly labeled with the cheerleader's name – many commercial companies sell matching "luggage label" type identification tags.

Where to Buy Bags

There are many, many places to buy cheerleading bags – any sporting goods store will have some selection, and as cheerleaders are athletes a bag designed for athletes will work. However, purchasing online can help get better deals in bulk and also enable the same colors and style to be bought for several members at once.

SportsTeam.com is a good example of an online merchant with a wide variety of bags. Here are some to consider:

• Sling Bag – a very stylish and metro look, these bags have only one strap that goes across the chest, and multiple pockets in a durable bag. However, this may be too small to hold enough gear.
• Duffle Bag – The classic sports bag, this usually has a large central compartment and zipper pockets on each end (and sometimes on the side). These bags are usually the easiest to get monogrammed or labeled.
• "Deluxe" Bags – Some bags are designated as "superstar" or "deluxe", either because of the materials or because of the addition of custom compartments (such as shoe compartments or water bottle holders).While these may seem expensive, usually there is a discount for getting them in bulk and the general rule of "buy quality and you won't regret it" applies.

Other vendors include GTM Sportswear (which advertises custom embroidery), and Cheerzone (which offers both embroidery and silkscreening). Regardless of where you buy, taking the time to match the bag to the needs of your squad will be well worth your while.

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