The Warrior Shack isn’t just a trailer in the middle of the track at McHenry’s McCracken Athletic Field.
It’s a mobile store selling McHenry High School spirit gear. It brought together students from various academic study areas. The Warrior T-shirts, sweatshirts, and hoodies are designed, printed, and created by the students themselves.
Once costs for production are covered, a portion of those sales will help the school’s Business Professionals of America club earn money toward competition costs. It’s those students who work the shack during games.
The trailer is a student-led initiative.”
— McHenry High District 156 Superintendent Ryan McTague
The Warrior Shack was unveiled Sept. 29 during the school’s homecoming football game.
“The trailer is a student-led initiative,” McHenry High School District 156 Superintendent Ryan McTague said at the ribbon-cutting.
The students and teachers “sold me on the concept of a school store,” he added, thanking them for the idea and for agreeing to operate it during games.
The mobile store was bought through donations from area businesses – Black Diamond, the Bremer Team, Buss Ford and Knapheide Trailers – and the Class of 2023.
“The trailer is beautiful because of all of them,” business instructor Vanessa Kirk said of the business donations.
The trailer itself “is an extension of our learning lab” and includes students from business, marketing, management and design classes, and the school’s student-run print shop, Warrior Ink, Kirk said.
Students were also responsible for the idea to use a trailer as a shop.
Ally Schattuck (17) and Emma Blanken (17), both juniors, were given a class assignment for business last year. The students were required to develop a business model for a liquor store and then present it to the administration.
“Ours was the most organized,” Blanken said, and it was used in the shack’s final plan.
Kirk explained that McHenry High’s students make and sell the vast majority of the gear. Kirk said that even the designs for the gear were created by McHenry High students.
Marketing students created logos and designs. After narrowing these concepts, students were required to poll at minimum 10% of the student population on the ideas and designs that they liked the most. Kirk called this market research.
Students in Matt Connor’s graphic design class took those ideas to the next level. His students turned these concepts into logos with the help of professional graphic software. Kirk explained that his production class creates the final wearable equipment.
Senior Mollie Hobson, 17, designed the trailer’s distinctive wrap as part of her classwork using Adobe Creative software.
“It was a challenge. … It has to line up perfectly,” Hobson said.
The design was created by knowing what it would look like from all angles, as well as on panels that lift up to be hidden later.
Kyle Stojak (17 years old) helped to wrap the trailer in vinyl.
It’s harder than it looks, he said. To lay the vinyl on, they had to make sure that the surface of their trailer was completely dust-free. They worked out placements and removed air bubbles while doing so.
By working on the Warrior Shack, Stojak said he learned “how to expand my creativity in anything graphics” and get a working knowledge of the technology and art behind it.
Hobson added that the technology aspect also involved ensuring donors provided the correct graphics. A too-small logo in the wrong format could mean the donor’s logos would pixelate when blown up for the wrap.
“There was a lot of back-and-forth” with the sponsors on that to get the right logos, Hobson said.
Kirk revealed that there are still more plans for the store, including an area at both the upper and lower campuses to sell spirit gear during school games.
Accounting students will also be involved in the running of stores, including forecasting sales needs and managing inventory.
“It will be a self-sustaining business,” Kirk said.