Marathon Cheer Squad Shirts: Order-By Dates for Chicago, Marine Corps & NYC

Every marathon has roughly one runner for every four people standing on a curb yelling at strangers. Fall is the heaviest stretch of the year for that: the Bank of America Chicago Marathon runs Sunday, October 11, the Marine Corps Marathon takes Washington on Sunday, October 25, the TCS New York City Marathon goes Sunday, November 1, and the Indianapolis Monumental Marathon follows in early November. If your group wants matching shirts on the course, the deadline is earlier than you think.

Doing shirts for your crew? Start in the slogan designer — one design covers tees, hoodies and totes, and there is no minimum order.

The order-by math (the whole reason to read this now)

Printing is on demand and delivery to US addresses runs about 5–10 business days. Give yourself two weeks so a slow week does not ruin race morning:

• Chicago — Sunday, October 11: order by Sunday, September 27
• Marine Corps — Sunday, October 25: order by Sunday, October 11
• New York City — Sunday, November 1: order by Sunday, October 18
• Indianapolis Monumental — early November: order by mid-October
• Any local half or turkey trot: count back 14 days from race day and put it in your calendar today

If you are reading this inside that two-week window for your race, order anyway but choose the tee over the hoodie — lighter items move faster.

20 cheer shirt lines that actually work on a course

The rule for spectator shirts: the runner has to read it in under two seconds at 9 mph, while exhausted. Short wins.

• GO RANDOM STRANGER GO
• YOU ARE ALMOST SORT OF NEARLY THERE
• THIS SEEMED LIKE A GOOD IDEA IN JANUARY
• SMILE, YOU PAID FOR THIS
• WORST PARADE EVER
• MILE 20 IS A LIAR
• I DROVE 4 HOURS TO HOLD THIS SIGN
• TOENAILS ARE OVERRATED
• RUN NOW, BRUNCH LATER
• CHAFE HAPPENS
• OFFICIAL SNACK CARRIER
• PROFESSIONAL YELLER
• HURRY UP, MY FEET HURT
• PACE TEAM: EMOTIONAL SUPPORT
• STRANGERS, BUT PROUD OF YOU
• WE HAVE GUMMY BEARS AT MILE 18
• CRY LATER, RUN NOW
• 26.2 REASONS I'M STAYING HERE
• THE COWBELL SECTION
• BEEP IF YOU'RE SUFFERING

Add the crew's name, the year, or a mile number on the back if you want it to feel like a specific day rather than a generic joke.

One thing to skip: the race name and logo

Race names and their logos are trademarks owned by the organizers, and putting them on merch you print yourself is the one way a fun idea turns into a problem. Write whatever you want about the race in your group chat — on the shirt, use a generic phrase, the distance, the city, or the cheer itself. It reads better anyway. "THE COWBELL SECTION" is funnier than a logo.

Group orders: no minimum, and the organizer can earn

One design covers the whole crew, and everyone picks their own product and size — tee, oversized tee, hoodie, tote, or a poster for the runner afterward. There is no minimum quantity, so a cheer squad of five works exactly like one of forty, and nobody has to front money for a box of shirts.

If you are the person organizing it, share your design link instead of collecting Venmo payments: everyone orders their own size, and you earn 10% on every sale through your link, paid out from $10 via PayPal or Venmo. Plenty of running clubs put that straight back into the post-race breakfast fund. Details are on the affiliate page.

Going alone? Still worth it

Most people at a marathon are not part of a matching group, and a cheer shirt works just as well solo:

• One shirt, one joke, aimed at your one runner — they will spot you faster than they would spot a sign held at waist height
• A shirt with their name on it, which is legal, free, and genuinely useful in a crowd
• A finisher gift instead: their race photo turned into art on a poster or shirt, ready for when they can walk down stairs again
• Your own training shirt — a half-marathon block is 12 weeks of early alarms and deserves something better than a free expo tee

What it costs

Tee $35, oversized tee $39, hoodie $65 (worth it for a 6 a.m. October start line in Chicago), tote $29, pillow $29, poster $25. Free shipping to US addresses, 5–10 business days, printed after you order so nothing sits in a warehouse.

The shirts on the rack at a race expo were decided months ago by a handful of companies, and they are the same in every city. The thing your group actually shouts at mile 18 is not on any of them. That gap — between what is being sold to you and what you would say yourself — is the entire reason to design your own. You know your runner. A merch buyer in another state does not.

Design your cheer squad shirt, count back two weeks from your race, and order. If you are outfitting a group for something else this fall, we also wrote up sports parent shirts, family reunion and group trip shirts, and gym shirt sayings.