The fall of 2016 marked the beginning of a Xavier uniform policy requiring all sweatshirts to be stamped with an official Gear Xchange trademark. Sweatshirts that do not have Xavier’s trademark on the left arm will be banned by the fall of 2017 and no longer considered legitimate uniform articles.
The Xavier logo, motto and title have all been registered and trademarked through a licensing resource group (LRG) to prevent large corporations from profiting from Xavier merchandise according to Sr. Lynn Winsor, Xavier’s Director of Athletics and Activities.
“We are the only Xavier College Prep gators in the US and [have] to protect our interests. We needed to do it [register the Xavier trademark],” Sr. Lynn said. “It [Xavier trademark] stops people from using our symbol.”
“They [Gear Xchange] are putting it [trademark] on everything we make and protecting our products and identifying for the teachers. You will know if the girls are wearing official Xavier clothes,” Sr. Lynn said.
The Gear Xchange trademark requirement received primarily positive reactions from the Xavier administration and faculty and mixed reactions from students.
Xavier’s Dean of Students, Denise Macrina, expressed her approval of the student body for accepting the changes. “I am very proud of all of our girls this year [for] adapting to the new sweatshirt requirement,” Macrina said.
However some students were dismayed that the new uniform policy, which they perceive as an attempt to increase uniformity, will also exclude team and club sweatshirts from the list of approved clothing, according to the Xavier handbook.
“I understand that spirit jerseys made the uniform look [too] informal,” said Junior Lizzie Self, who thinks any Xavier sweatshirt–sticker or not–should be allowed, “But the variety of sweatshirts is important to Xavier culture because it gives students the opportunity to identify themselves.”
“Perhaps there were worries about clubs becoming exclusive and girls feeling [left] out for not having a special sweatshirt,” Self said. “However, those girls can choose to become involved in anything at any time, and at the end of the day, sweatshirts are sweatshirts.”
According to Junior Alexandra Figueroa, a member of Xavier’s swim and dive team, athletic team and club sweatshirts allow students to take pride in representing their sport or extracurricular activity. “We played those sports, put our time into those clubs,” Figueroa said.
Students have also expressed disappointment over the new rule because it will outlaw vintage Xavier sweatshirts except on out-of-uniform days.
Xpress Faith-in-Action writer Elie Carlos, ‘18 and Junior Grace Tobin both have sisters who are Xavier alumnae and were disappointed in the policy.
“I’m sad that I’ll have to wait for buck a sweans days to wear my sister’s old sweaters,” Carlos said.
Tobin said, “When my sister went to Xavier I would look at her sweatshirts and look forward to wearing them,” Tobin said. “Now I have about ten sweatshirts that I will not be able to wear and will probably never wear outside of school.”
“It is also a waste of money,” Tobin said. “I very much am not looking forward to having to buy new sweatshirts for my senior year which will only be worn for one year. The sweatshirts are expensive. I don’t see any fairness or logic in the rule.”
Freshman Jessica Mirmelli said, “Since it’s my first year and I don’t have any other sweatshirts [sic] without the little sticker [trademark] on them, I’m chill with it … [but] I would be kind of frustrated if I bought a lot of sweat shirts [sic] from the previous years and wouldn’t be able to wear them on campus.”
Junior Quinn Beckham, who views purchasing all new sweatshirts as extremely expensive and unnecessary, proposed a possible amendment to the policy: instead of banning all of the old sweatshirts, it might be reasonable to place trademarked stickers on past Xavier sweatshirts as well
