Townsville’s cheapest uniform shop Tropic Tshirts closes after three decades

Families struggling with cost of living pressure are being urged to stock up on cheap school uniforms before a decades-old Townsville store closes soon. See why they’re closing.

Tropic Tshirts are closing after more than three decades. Picture: Supplied.

Townsville families have just days to race out and stock up on bargain-priced school uniforms before the cheapest uniform store in town ceases trading after clothing generations of students over the last three decades.

Tropic Tshirts Townsville was founded by John and Beatrice McLean on Ingham Rd in 1989, initially doing screen printing, and then expanding to sell uniforms, before relocating to 1/7 Castlemaine St, Kirwan in 1992.

Tropic Tshirts Townsville manager Cathy Sherman. Picture: Evan Morgan

The business was taken over by the couple’s son Andrew in 2006, who sold the screen printing aspect of the business to Prime Print, and doggedly fought to keep the business afloat, despite strong competition and local schools reducing the availability of their uniform licences.

Last week the business announced it was winding up at the end of June, and closing down had kicked off to clear away the remaining stock for just $5 or $10.

The store’s manager for nearly 19 years, Cathy Sherman confirmed on Wednesday that they still had uniforms remaining for JCU nursing, Kirwan primary, Rasmussen, Mundingburra, Heatley primary, Town High, Bohlevale, Wulguru and Willows.

Tropic Tshirts has been at 1/7 Castlemaine St, Kirwan since 1992. Picture: Google Maps.

Tropic Tshirts has sold cheap uniforms to Townsville families for decades. Picture: Supplied.

She said there was a lot of sadness from the community about the closure, given that Tropic T-shirts had a reputation for selling low-priced, yet high-quality uniforms sourced directly from their Indonesian manufacturer.

Because they were cutting out the middle man, the store had been able to pass the savings on to families grappling with cost of living pressures, where some products were almost half the price of their competitors.

Tropic Tshirts founders Beatrice and John McLean (centre) with the Townsville Suns basketball team before they were known as the Crocodiles. Picture: Supplied.

“We do school uniforms, mostly for public schools, and also JCU nursing. We kept the price down as low as we could so that everybody could afford them,” Ms Sherman said.

“Everyone’s been sad, because they know that from now on, they’re gonna have to pay a lot more for their uniforms.

“A lot of (parents) have been coming here as kids to get uniforms, and now they’re either bringing kids or grandkids here … it’s gone down the generations.”

Tropic Tshirts has sold cheap uniforms to Townsville families for decades. Picture: Supplied.

Tropic Tshirts are heavily discounting their stock before closing on Monday. Picture: Supplied.

She said their competitors had been able to offer schools more money for permission to use their logos, squeezing Tropic Tshirts’s original range of 30-40 schools, down to less than 10.

Once word got out about the closure, she said it had been “really busy”, and while they had run out of some stock, there had been plenty of uniforms in storage.

“(What we don’t sell), we’ll have to donate. Some schools will come in and we’ll just give it to them, otherwise they’ll just go to rags, or to Lifeline and other charity shops.

For more information: tropictshirts.com.au.

Originally published as Townsville’s cheapest uniform shop Tropic Tshirts closes after three decades