Franklin Regional opens Panther's Den, consolidates merchandise under 1 vendor

Franklin Regional officials and Unity Printing held a grand opening Friday for The Panther’s Den, a brick-and-mortar store inside Unity’s Fancy Fox Embroidery & Silkscreen in Murrysville.

The shop and its attendant website will be the exclusive home to merchandise using logos the school district created and trademarked.

The school district also released an explainer for how the store will operate and interact with parent-teacher organizations, school clubs and booster groups.

But it wasn’t good news to Laura Vrable of Murrysville, vice president of boys’ soccer for the Franklin Regional Soccer Boosters.

“I think the most frustrating part, from a booster standpoint, is to not have a choice of vendors,” Vrable said. “We don’t have an extreme amount of money and we’re trying to get as much as we can for the kids.

“Being able to shop around — just like if you were buying a gift for someone — allows you find a better deal. They’re taking that ability away from us.”

Franklin Regional’s school board charged district administrators with finding new sources of revenue, particularly in light of an upcoming athletic facility study that will assess its current infrastructure and plan for future needs.

One of those was an exclusive licensing agreement for logos the district paid to develop and trademark.

Prior to the opening of The Panther’s Den, Franklin Regional Superintendent Gennaro Piraino said the district worked with booster groups to let them sell off their existing merchandise, with the understanding that they’d need to go through Unity Printing to order school-branded merchandise for fundraisers.

The annual licensing fee states the school district will receive 10% of the highest annual sales growth, using 2024-25 as a baseline year, with a guaranteed minimum payment of $2,500.

The district will also receive $2 from all merchandise designated as a student fundraiser, and $3 per item for all merchandise sold through booster fundraisers. The district receives $5 from every item sold in The Panther’s Den and its online store.

Vrable said it’s going to mean less money for all of the groups that, up to now, have been able to shop around for vendors to produce school-branded items.

“We always do a spirit clothing sale,” she said. “We can get those items through Unity, but it’s now marked up twice — the fee that benefits the school, and the booster fundraising mark-up. So as a parent, I now have to pay two fees.”

Vrable said Nike-branded clothing is among the more-popular sellers.

“We sold FR-branded Nike hoodies for $58,” she said.

That same style of hoodie cost $68 on Friday at The Panther Den. Other items in the store range from long-sleeve T-shirts ($28) to light athletic jackets ($58) to seasonal merchandise like school-branded Christmas stockings.

The fees do not apply to items meant for direct use by district sports teams, maintenance staff or other school-related activities, Franklin Regional officials said.

District officials said they chose Unity Printing as the exclusive license-holder because the business is able to scale up to meet anticipated demand. Earlier this summer, Vrable and other fundraising groups voiced their concerns about shifting production of all school-related items to one vendor, in particular when it came to the demand for all manner of merchandise leading into a new school year.

They asked the school board to consider letting other businesses license the logo, but were rebuffed.

“When you go to buy Steelers gear, there isn’t just one store,” she said. “They license it and it can be sold by anyone who wants to buy a license.”

The Panther’s Den is at 4425 William Penn Highway, around the left rear of the building.