If your kids have to wear uniforms to school.....

[DawnM]

My kids may be going to a school that requires uniforms next year.

I am wondering how many actual uniforms you would recommend me get?

I was thinking of maybe 5 pr. pants and 5 shirts for each child to start with.

I have boys so I expect to have to replace things as knees wear out, etc....

Do you have any brands to recommend? Any to avoid?

They will need navy or tan pants and white, navy or light blue polos or oxfords.

Thanks,

Dawn

 

[storzo]

I have three pairs of pants, four shirts and two sweaters for my son. I find that I can almost always get two days out of the pants. Sometimes the shirts too, especially in winter, but they usually take the brunt of lunch spills.

I really like the French Toast pants as they have the double knee which really prolongs their life. I have never gotten rid of pair except for outgrowing.

 

[got2travel]

My son has been in uniforms all his school life. Poor guy we switched to public this year, and low and behold this year they started wearing uniforms.

Anyway, I start the year with 5 and 5 and usually have to add 2-3 of each around Christmas time then again around spring break.

Previously we were required to purchase pants from Dennis Uniform (not sure if it's regional or not). These had the reinforced knees and were very sturdy fabric. Rarely did they wear out, most of the time my son just outgrew them.

Now this year, a brand is not required, just blue or black. I got pants from Target and Walmart hoping to save money. Well these pants have worn out so quickly, buttons have fallen off, belt loops torn off. I've gone back to Dennis for the uniforms. I have to pay $22 per pant instead of $12 at the other stores, but the quality is so much better.

 

[Worfiedoodles]

It all depends on how often you are going to do laundry -- and if there is a day when they will need a gym uniform, and the climate you live in. My ds has four regular uniform days and one gym day.

He has three pairs of pants, two long sleeved blue shirts, two long sleeved white shirts, two short sleeved white shirts and two short sleeved blue shirts. I do a load of laundry every day. At least once during the school week the load is his clothes -- so three pairs is enough for me to be covered.

I do buy pants with reinforced knees, and I'm not shy about taking them to have patches added if needed. My favorite brand is Lands End, because I can get an entire year of wear from the clothes, and they really don't require ironing. However, if your kids do their growth spurts during the year rather than the summer, that could be expensive.

I also advise you to buy plenty of socks. They seem to wear out, hide under beds, etc. on a regular basis. You also will want to find out if there is a sweatshirt, ties, or other items you might need. DS has two ties, so I can always find one! The kids like to wear their sweatshirts when it's cooler, and they are allowed to keep them on in th classroom even on non-gym days at ds's school.

Good Luck!
Maria

 

[MALE*RN*777]

We also have the same colors and buy ours from French Toast, JC PENNY sometimes we can find things at Wal*Mart and Sears.

 

[loriandmatt]

my son has to wear a regular uniform 4 days a week and a gym uniform one day a week (sweats that have the school name on them)

we purchase just about all of his uniform pants and long sleeve shirts (can be worn in the winter months) from jcpenney.com. they are good quality, last the entire school year (sometimes into the next) and usually arrive very quickly. the are one of the rare places where you can get husky sizes as well.

for his short sleeve shirts we have to get those at a school specialty store in the area as they have to have the school logo on them.

we get 4 pants, 4 short sleeve shirts, 4 long sleeve shirts, one tie (has to be worn with the long sleeve shirts) and one pr of shoes per year along with one guy uniform.

this does mean that i have to be vigilant with wash and with making sure he knows he HAS to change out of his school clothes before he plays (and that rough play that will damage his clothes/shoes during recess/bus stop is not good practice in general) but he has done pretty good about being able to live with 4 sets for the week.

 

[loriandmatt]

some things i forgot to add....

ditto what another poster said about lots of socks. we wear thru those or loose them like crazy. buy more than you think you will need.

you mention that you have a choice in white or light blue shirts. white has the advantage that if they get stained (my son for a few years there could NOT eat lunch wihtout getting something on his shirt that would stain) they can be bleached (either spot bleach - all hail the clorox bleach pen or an across the board bleach in the wash load. however, he has gotten much better with that stain thing and the light blue shirts are more forgiving for regular dirt/wear if you are going to try and squeek more than one day of wearing out of them. (i could do this before my son reached puberty....now the pits don't lie so no squeezing two days out of a shirt, even if it has no visiable dirt on it.)

 

[jamimb]

I live in the south I usually buy 6 pairs of pants for my dd and 3 0r 4 shorts and around 6 or seven shorts. We buy most of her uniforms from old navy. Even if you cant buy them in the stores you can get them online. Around here in the summer before school starts everybody has them including target, walmart, JC penney, and sears but Old navy are my favorite.

 

[shelly3girls]

Burlington Coat Factory sells the Lee brand uniforms. I hear they are made by French Toast but I am not sure. These uniforms hold up like steel! All of the clothes are no-iron including the dress shirts. All of my uniforms last through 2 kids and still look decent. I believe I paid around $6-$7 per shirt and around $12 for the pants. I normally buy high end brand clothes for my kids so I was very leary but I love them more than any other brand I tried including GAP, Lands End, etc.

By the way, I did not like the Children's Place uniforms at all. I found everything faded pretty quickly.

 

[MaeDisney]

My son starts out with 4 pants and 4 shirts at the beginning of the school year. And then around winter break, I buy another 2 or 3 pants. We have to buy his shirts from the official school supplier because they're the only ones authorized to do the embroidery of the school logo.

For the pants, just like the other posters, I recommend French Toast (from Target) because of the double-knee protection. However, for this school year, I think I didn't buy his uniform pants early enough so my local Target ran out of the size that my son wears. And I had to buy the Cherokee brand....And I won't ever do that again. By December, 3 pairs of his pants already had huge holes around the knee area, and the fabric itself felt too thin. The only good thing with the Cherokee brand was that the navy blue color didn't fade as much compared to his old French Toast pants.

Recently, I just bought him 3 pairs of pants from Gap.com. I was going to buy them at Old Navy because it was a little bit cheaper, but they didn't have the right size anymore, and I didn't want to wait any longer for the store to get them back in stock.

 

[trulygoofy]

I like Gap. I have bought from Old Navy before, but they are awful. They fall apart quickly. I just got a deal on shorts at our area discount school uniform store. Have you checked to see if there is one in your area? Our school has a used uniform sale also.
I know a lot of people buy at Target.
I like to have at least 4 pair of pants, two sweatshirts (more is better) and 4 shirts to start our. I do a lot of laundry though. I did not want to buy too much until I saw what the other kids, particularly my older kid's classes, wore most.

 

[Delilah Bleu]

I buy my dd 6 pants (in case I don't want to wash every week, it gives me 1 extra day- no washer/dryer in home) and 6 shirts, 2 shorts. I like the French Toast brand and purchase them beginning in July at Mervyns. Sometimes the sizes sell out. It is also harder to find uniforms on sale during the rest of the year (after the back-to-school sales).

 

[Pinkprincessmom]

It would depend on how fast your kids grow. My DD grew 2 sizes in kindergarten. The khaki pants I bought her for the fall were too snug by Christmas. If you have fast growers, I'd only buy maybe 3 of each and do laundry frequently.

I too like French Toast. DD can wear jumpers. They last a little longer than pants, but her white tights really take a beating.

 

[DawnM]

Thanks guys. I don't yet know if the school sells their own shirts with logos on them. I think they only sell the sweatshirts with the logo.

I should mention that LandsEnd.com currently has all 3 colors of shirts for 1/2 price right now. $7.99-$8.99 each.

I would order a bunch if I knew for sure they were going there next year. Hopefully they will still have some left when I need them.

Dawn

 

[cajunfan]

My son has been in uniforms also. We buy from LaRose of Memphis (some local schools also use Parker Unifroms). Definitely buy brands that have double knees. The ones from Larose wear really relly well.

As to how many to buy, I would buy enough for how ever many days you want to do with out doing laundry. I try to have five complete sets to start each year with (we have different winter/spring uniforms, so I have five of each). But I only want to do uniforms once a week for laundy...much easier.

Some notes...definitley choose Navy pants over Khaki...much more forgiving on stains...especially on the knees for boys. I agree with the white shirts over Navy for the same reasons as one of the posters noted above. We started his school career with Navy pants and lgt blue shirts...I didn't care for them much. Then they switched to Khaki pants and white shirts...don't care for that either!

Lynn

 

[DisneyMomx7]

My kids wear uniforms and we have to order from Flynn and O'Hara. I start with 3 pair of long pants, 2 pairs of shorts, 3 short sleeve polos, 2 long sleeve polos, 2 turtlenecks, 1 sweater vest, 1 sweater, 1 summer gym suit, 1 winter gym suits. All our shirts and gym uniforms have the school insignia on them. For my girls I start with 2 uniforms (jumpers), 5 short sleeve blouses, 4 turtlenecksk 1 summer gym suit, 1 winter gym suit and 1 sweater.

 

[Tinkmom]

....We buy from LaRose of Memphis....Definitely buy brands that have double knees. The ones from Larose wear really relly well.

As to how many to buy, I would buy enough for how ever many days you want to do with out doing laundry. I try to have five complete sets to start each year with (we have different winter/spring uniforms, so I have five of each). But I only want to do uniforms once a week for laundy...much easier.

LaRose clothes wear like iron. In our school, the boys wear navy pants and white polos during warm weather, then add the sweatshirt in cold weather. I bought 5 pairs of pants, 5 short-sleeve polos (past 4th grade or so , boys simply won't wear long-sleeve shirts; it is either short-sleeve polo or they add sweatshirt if really cold!) and 3 sweatshirts. We have occasionally used a sweatshirt a second day (when he said he took it off right after getting to school and never put it back on and it looked perfect) but I cannot imagine ever having him wear a pair of pants or his polo more than one day!!! Your kids must be pristine, my son isn't!

I also agree with getting 2 of required accessories. We have 2 belts and sometimes we have to hunt to find one. He would have been out of uniform once or twice if we didn't have the "fallback" one.

For what it is worth, I LOVE uniforms. They just make life much easier overall.

 

[roliepolieoliefan]

I used to buy French Toast but this year bought DS Lands End and they are the best!

6 months into the school year and they still look like new. I bought the shirts actually from Disney Shopping, then just recently found some blue ones on clearance at kohl's.

DS also wears a gym uniform once a week then the uniform 4 days a week. He has 5 pair of long pants and 7 shirts, all short sleeve. The school is like 90 degrees all year round. Also has a couple pair of shorts.

Uniforms are the best. No fight what to wear every day. I only ask do you want to wear a blue shirt or a white one?

 

[MrsPete]

My girls used to wear uniforms -- I miss them! They were so much less expensive than buying regular clothes. Of course, we had regular clothes too, but not as many as we have to have now.

My uniform hints:

Buy from Sears -- remember that they sell Lands End items. If their things wear out, they'll replace them with identical, same-sized items. Never buy cheaply made uniform pieces; you'll just have to replace them soon -- no savings there.
If Sears isn't an option, put an iron-on reinforcer on the inside of the knees while the pants are still new; it'll greatly extend the life of the pants.
We had the choice of khaki or navy blue bottoms (pants, shorts, skorts, skirts, jumpers); khakis can often be worn for two days, while blue pants show dirt more.
We had the choice of red, white, or blue polos or button-downs. The colors were my girls favorites, and they didn't start to look dingy after a while.
We're in Carolina, so we have mild weather most of the year. I bought mostly short sleeved shirts, and the girls wore sweatshirts with the school logo on top for much of the winter.
For a girl, skirts and jumpers are the most economical item; they can be worn with short sleeved shirts in the fall/spring, and with turtlenecks and tights in the winter.
Before you decide how many outfits to buy, find out whether they have "special day" on Fridays. Our kids were allowed to wear jeans and spirit-wear tee shirts only on Fridays.
Many schools have a used uniform sale in the fall/spring -- look into this for both buying and selling. Ebay's a good place to buy basic items too.
At any given time, my girls probably had 2 pairs of pants/shorts, 1 jumper, 1 skirt, 3 short sleeved shirts, 1 long sleeved shirt, 1 turtleneck, and 2 logo sweatshirts.

 

[LuckyMamaInDE]

I co-run the used uniform sale at my kids' school so I get first crack at the clothes! And because I'm paying much less than at the pricey uniform store (required), I can get many more pieces than I would otherwise. Bonus, I don't have to do laundry all the time

I like to have 3-4 long pants and shorts for ds13, 2 long pants 2 skorts and 2 shorts for dd12, and 2 long pants 2 shorts 1 jumper for dd7. They all have at least 4 short sleeve polo shirts. Ds has to wear white or blue dress shirts with ties (any) during winter uniform months (have 4). The girls can wear long sleeve polo shirts, white turtlenecks or white peter-pan collar blouses (have a bunch). They wear gym uniforms once/week so I have a complete set for each (shirt, shorts, pants, sweatshirt).

If you have girls who wear tights, buy LOTS and LOTS! It's almost impossible to find heavy navy blue tights in February should all the tights she started the year with have holes! We've had the best luck with tights from Target (if I need to get it quickly) and LandsEnd. In fact, dd7 is wearing LandsEnd tights her older sister wore.