Back to School: Longtime New Jersey school uniform business is ready for new year

RUNNEMEDE, New Jersey (WPVI) -- It's back-to-school season at Risse Brothers School Uniforms in Runnemede, New Jersey.

"We started in my father's basement in 1995," explained Rob Risse, who owns the store along with his brother.

Now, Risse Brothers serves roughly 350 schools in multiple states including New Jersey.

Rob Risse explains this is the busy season, and they bring in around 100 seasonal employees.

"We do about 75% of our business in about eight weeks," Risse said.

The sounds of steady stitching can be heard in the embroidery room attached to their store.

Embroidering and screen printing take place throughout the year.

"Set the machine up. We gotta hoop it, start the machine, and off we go," explained machine operator Jennifer Bryan.

Bryan has worked at Risse Brothers for 25 years, overseeing progress on the embroiderer, programming machines, and fitting hundreds of different thread colors.

"Whatever color you want, we got it. If we don't, we'll find it for you," Bryan said.

Online orders are popular, but people do like coming in to try on the clothes.

"After July 4, I like to say everyone kind of realizes school is right around the corner," said Tim Crawford, director of operations.

It's too late for an early start this year, but we asked the ideal time to come shopping, keeping in mind how fast kids grow.

"Uniform guy says the earlier the better," informed Risse, who said he gets this question all the time.

"Leave it in the bag with a receipt in it. If you have to come and make an exchange- it will take you 15 minutes. If you have to come and buy everything a week before school- it will take you two hours," Risse added.

And how many uniforms should you get?

"It depends on how much laundry you're going to do. I get moms that say- I do laundry three times a week- you only need two or three items. If you're only going to do laundry once a week- you'll need five," Risse said.

Come November, it will be time to start getting ready for the next school year.