Saturday morning at the band hall, and there’s a pile of plumed shakos on a folding table by the door. The smell of slightly mothballed wool is in the air, three older students are running the fitting line, and your fourteen-year-old is third in line for the size 38 coat. The senior fitting him just made a comment about his shoulders that made him stand up straighter. By eleven you’ll have signed a six-hundred-dollar uniform contract. Here’s what you’re actually agreeing to.
What he wears under the uniform
Almost every marching band uniform is wool, which is heavy and hot, and underneath it he wears his band undergarments, usually a t-shirt and athletic shorts. Most programs require specific black athletic shorts and a specific band t-shirt the program orders, and some require nothing specific. Confirm before fitting day.
The undergarments are his to keep all season. They will get sweaty. He’ll wear them for every game, every competition, every parade. Get him two of each so one can be in the wash while the other is at school.
The not-included extras
Most uniforms require a few things the program doesn’t provide. Tall black socks that come well above the boot top, calf-high or knee-high crew socks, not ankle, not athletic. Black gloves, which some bands order collectively and some make you buy. Black athletic shoes, sometimes specifically marching band shoes that look like dress shoes with a sole made for rolling, sometimes any clean black athletic shoe, confirm.
These are his responsibility, not the school’s. Buy two pairs of gloves because they get lost.
The uniform itself
A typical marching band uniform is a jacket called a coat, a pair of pants called bibs because they have suspenders attached, a hat called a shako or a plume hat, and sometimes a sash or a gauntlet (cuff). Each piece is fitted to your kid, the bibs are taken up at the hem for height, the coat is adjusted at the sleeves and chest, the hat has a chin strap that gets sized. He’ll be in the uniform for at least twenty minutes during fitting, so bring water, the room is usually hot and the wool doesn’t breathe.
What the contract says
You’ll sign a uniform contract before he walks out with anything. Read it. The standard contract says three things. The uniform is the property of the school district, and you’re receiving it on loan. You agree to return the uniform clean and undamaged at the end of the season, where “clean” usually means professionally dry-cleaned at a specific cleaner. And you agree to pay replacement cost if the uniform is damaged or lost, which for a full marching uniform is usually four to eight hundred dollars.
There’s sometimes a uniform care fee, often fifty to a hundred dollars, that covers basic cleaning or repair during the season. Pay it if it’s required, it’s almost always cheaper than dealing with damage out of pocket.
What gets damaged
A few specific things. Hat plumes, the feather or fluff on top of the shako breaks easily, and most programs charge thirty to sixty dollars to replace one. Sash buttons, gold buttons rip off jackets when caught on a chair or a music stand, and replacement is small but adds up. Pant hems, rain on a parade day soaks the bottom of the bibs, and mud destroys them. Sweat damage, particularly under the arms and at the collar, most programs accept this as wear and tear; some don’t.
The cleaning question
Most programs require dry cleaning before final return, and most also designate a specific cleaner that knows how to handle band uniforms. Do not wash a band uniform at home unless the contract says you can. Most are dry-clean only. A washing machine on wool turns the jacket into a doll’s coat.
The good move is to take the uniform to the designated cleaner the week of return and pay the band’s bulk cleaning rate, which is often discounted.
A piece of advice
The night your kid comes home in uniform after his first home game, take a picture. You will not believe how fast the photos pile up across four years. Take them every game. They will not let you in a few years.
After the season
The uniform goes back. The undergarments stay home, and your kid will hang on to them for next year. If he’s graduating, sell the undergarments to a younger band parent, the community boards usually have an active uniform swap, and you can recover the cost and pay it forward.