Four SWMO school districts adopt Spirit Box

Soda and snacks? That’s old school.

Now, there is a vending machine for students hungry for earbuds, smartphone chargers and notebooks.

Dubbed the Spirit Box, four southwest Missouri school districts signed on to put the vending machines on campus helping support educational business initiatives in need of funding.

Philip Baird, an organizer of entrepreneurial group 1 Million Cups-Springfield and director of Spirit Factory, which sells the Spirit Box, said the business model is centered on creating fundraising tools for school districts. Working for a division of Dallas-based Stingray Worldwide Imports, the Springfield native now runs the 4-year-old venture from the Queen City. Baird relocated from Kansas City with business development in mind.  

The boxes are stationed in Camdenton, Nixa and Ozark high schools. This week, another will be delivered to Springfield’s Central High School. Products in school colors include lanyards, pencils and pens for $2, notebooks for $5, Droid charging cables for $8, headphones for $12, USB power banks for $15 and iPhone charging cables for $20.

Spirit Factory is currently in 25 schools from Washington, D.C., to Kansas City. Through a pilot program this year called Spirit Box 2.0, eight machines including each of the Springfield-area boxes have adopted a greater electronics focus.

“We’ve kind of pivoted this year,” Baird said, adding the company plans to adopt the new approach as it grows into other markets.

He said the goal is to install Spirit Boxes in three more local districts this school year.

How it works
Spirit Box 2.0 is designed as a turnkey operation.

In its first years, students handled the ordering, marketing, labeling and inventory, but Baird said some teachers got stuck with a lot of the work.

“We’ve been shifting to a more traditional vending machine model,” he said, noting through Spirit Box 2.0, the company now handles those tasks.

Baird said he tries to meet or talk with student groups about once a month to discuss options for marketing or tweaking the orders.

Products used to be customized, but now they are more generic. Earbuds – a top seller – often are sold in the school colors, but there are no school-specific T-shirts. In Camdenton, for instance, he said students can purchase purple and gold shirts that say, “Game On.” In November, new products, including fanny packs and such seasonal items as Kleenex pocket packs and hand lotion, will fill machines.

In the company’s sales structure, the districts receive a cut of the money. Baird said those that generate under $5,000 in sales throughout the year receive 10 percent of revenue; 12 percent for sales between $5,000 and 10,000; and 15 percent for those that sell over $10,000 of merchandise.

Locally, he said the annual sales goal is $10,000 per school.

Grant Jenkins, a marketing instructor at Ozark High School, became interested in the boxes as a way to help fund trips for students involved in Deca. He learned about the company last school year while at an international Deca competition with students and felt the program could support future trips. Spirit Factory is a member of the Deca National Advisory Board.

“In the past, the schools would have to buy those machines and inventory,” Jenkins said. “We are just allowing the company to place the machine in our school and helping with the marketing of those products. We have absolutely no risk. If we don’t sell anything, then we just won’t get a profit share.”

So far this school year, Spirit Box sales at Ozark High have been around $2,000.

In Nixa, the focus is on Future Business Leaders of America. Program manager Jordan Burns, also a high school business education teacher, said the Spirit Box has generated about $1,000 in sales.

“It’s just not in an ideal location,” he said of the “lonely hallway” placement he hopes to change to a high-traffic commons area.

The move is awaiting administrative approval. Burns said a product idea is in the works, too. “We are working on gift cards to go with the Spirit Box,” he said.

Spirit past and future
Spirit Factory got its start as a joint venture between custom-apparel firm Stingray Worldwide Imports and Overland Park, Kan.-based yearbook company Walsworth Yearbooks, where Baird was a project manager for business development.

“Stingray approached Walsworth and said, ‘Hey, you guys are already working with over 5,000 schools, and we create custom apparel and promotional products. Why don’t we start getting into the education industry with custom apparel and things of that nature?’” Baird said, noting other yearbook companies already were in that space. “I was put on that project and literally started from nothing, so I went out and starting talking with schools in the Kansas City area.”

Teaming up with Deca helped the business gain a foothold.

“We partnered with Deca and actually developed curriculum around automated retail, which is a new phenomenon that’s picked up over the past five or 10 years with things like Redbox,” Baird said. “This is a hands-on kind of project for the Deca teams. They help with marketing the products in the box and identifying the right product mix.”

With the venture gaining traction, Stingray bought out Walsworth’s interests in early 2014 and asked Baird to run the division.

Working out of Springfield, where Baird’s parents run Apple computer company Database, he said Spirit Factory is considering markets outside of education.

“People have asked about being able to partner for other things like convention centers and office buildings,” Baird said, noting the print-wrapped boxes are purchased in quantities of eight and expenses run about $5,000 apiece to stock and place. “We certainly have become aware of other opportunities for the Spirit Box; we are just not quite there yet.”