I don't think vendors would ever require member id numbers. I mean maybe if it was something only from the GLO's own website. I know though that non- greeks and greeks off other GLOs can buy stuff from Herff Jones and other online greek vendors. Many of my sisters have gotten chapter guards or nicer badges from their non-greek parents.

As for buying stuff from other GLOs, one of the local greek vendors at my campus had tons of stuff for all GLOs. I have bought stuff there that is not from my GLO as gifts for other friends (I used to work in an office with a bunch of AKAs and SAEs). I never had a problem. If someone knew that I was Theta and asked why I was buying something that was AKA, I would simply tell them it was a gift or something.

I'm still in highschool so maybe that's the reason I'm confused, but I really don't understand this statement :confused:. If someone is homeless they need all the help they can get, I don't see why it would be so offensive for them to wear clothing with greek letters on it?
I know that an athletics team is on no level equal to a sorority, but I've always loved the idea of someone getting use out of my cheerleading or equestrian shirts and sweatshirts. If I'm not wearing it any longer, it seems a shame to throw it away just because it is associate with an organization.

Maybe it's something I'll understand later on, once I'm in college?

What she was saying was not that the homeless person was a bad person, but that the individual who simply threw away his or her letters was not respecting the "'nalia" of the organization, meaning, he or she tossed out their letters or letter shirts without giving them a second thought. For instance, with all of my undergraduate letters or those I no longer wanted, I willed them down to other sisters. I didn't just toss them in the garbage or put them in Goodwill.

No they could not restrict you from buying from them, because you could be purchasing it as a gift for someone who is a member.

But our long time vendors do tend to be more cognizant of the problem. It is more able to be controlled at our national conventions, and regional conferences where a badge is required to get into the exhibit area.

But then there are the non-certified vendors that come to our endorsed events and sell 'nalia out of their hotel rooms and even on the street. So my question to the perp would be more to determine if it was purchased my a licensed vendor or a rogue vendor.

BTW, my favorite greek store in the Lou is Swift's.

I give my sister (still in HS) some extra shirts from our different events, philanthropies, formal, etc. I feel that its ok to let a female wear my organization's name (my letters can not be put on tshirts because they are sacred) but I would never let another male have a shirt from my GLO.

The local Salvation Army thrift shops often have shirts of Greek Letter organizations.

A guy I know buys old fraternity and sorority pins that he picks up at garage sales, flea markets, etc. He makes jewelry (cuff links, tie pins, money claps, etc) with the pins and sells the new stuff at craft sales, etc. He feigns ignorance when asked about the letters. He says it is his way of getting back at the stuck-up fraternity/sorority crowd at his alma mater.

Gotcha.

Jeez, I don't remember the name of the Greek store I went to. On Delmar somewhere between Skinker and Vandeventer. I didn't have a car on campus so the few times I was the driver I usually just drove down Delmar til I found it.

10 years ago it was quite the thing in our local high schools to wear Greek party shirts. It was like you had an older brother or sister who gave you old shirts. Guys wearing sorority letters was fine, too. Still is, in fact. I gave my kids DG shirts to wear...I felt it was good advertising to PNMs!

That was Swift's! :D I have known Jerome Swift since high school.

There's a BIG difference between trading letters for 2 weeks (we did this during Derby Daze for whoever our coaches were that year) and doing the walk of shame looking like crap in a letter shirt that you obviously took from the guy you boffed the night before. Not cool. As for the "brother" excuse - I would think her brother would know if the chapter at her school wasn't down with nonmembers wearing letters.

He sounds like a very petty, stuck up jerk himself.

First off, you're still here?

Second, are my letters any less sacred if they're on a shirt...? Absolutely not.

Eh, eventually he'll tire of trying to prove his Fratiness and mellow out, or leave.

And FIJIs have a thing about their letters (they can only be on Badges and Official Houses)- which is why they wear FIJI shirts, instead of PhiGam block letters.

Ah! I didn't know the owners' names :D They are indeed an awesome store, which reminds me I should stop back in when I visit next.