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Rhinestone Leaders: How Glitter Stars Is Redefining the Cheerleading Uniform Industry

From rhinestone transfers on t-shirts to becoming the number one cheerleading uniform provider, Liz Scamacci of Glitter Stars joins Dan Cotton to share how nearly 20 years of listening to customers built something truly special.

Welcome back to another episode of the Cheer Biz Podcast! I’m your host, Dan Cotton, and today we’re sitting down with Liz Scamacci, the founder of Glitter Stars — the trademarked Rhinestone Leaders of the World™. Glitter Stars currently holds the title of the number one cheerleading uniform provider as presented by Cheer Daily in 2025, and with their 20th year in business right around the corner, they’re just getting started. Liz joined me to talk about how Glitter Stars evolved from a simple pro shop into a full-service brand powerhouse, what makes their approach to uniforms and customer relationships so different, and what gym owners can learn from the way they run their business. This is a conversation packed with real insights for anyone in the cheer industry.

From Pro Shop to Rhinestone Leaders of the World

Glitter Stars didn’t start out in the uniform business. When Liz launched the company right out of college, it was a classic pro shop — rhinestones on t-shirts, tote bags, and parent-facing retail items. That was the business for the first seven or eight years. Then came practice wear, and then, at the encouragement of one of their largest customers — a gym with 2,500 athletes on the East Coast — came uniforms. That gym owner walked in and essentially said: take the sports bra you already make for us, add sleeves, turn the shorts into a skirt. There are your uniforms.

That’s the spirit that has defined Glitter Stars from day one. As Liz put it, their customers pushed them to be better, their partners pushed them to be better, and they push back in return. The trademarked phrase “Rhinestone Leaders of the World” wasn’t added later — it was filed the same day as the Glitter Stars trademark itself, nearly 19 years ago. Some might call it putting the cart before the horse. Liz calls it manifesting your destiny and doing exactly what you said you were going to do.

Today, Glitter Stars offers everything from their original pro shop rhinestone transfers to practice wear, uniforms, the IT Bag backpack, and even shoes. As Liz said, they’re doing everything from bow to toe now. And this summer, they’re moving into a brand-new 30,000 square foot facility in Chicago — a space they plan to open up as a collaborative haven for the gyms they serve.

What Makes Glitter Stars Different

When Dan asked what sets Glitter Stars apart in a crowded market, Liz pointed to two things: their event partnerships and their relationship-first approach to selling. Glitter Stars is deeply embedded with event producers across the industry. Their team is in coaches’ rooms at competitions on weekends, sponsoring jackets, giving away free uniforms, and forming real connections with the people they serve. That kind of presence isn’t something an overseas supplier can replicate.

Branding also plays a huge role. Pink is their color, their sales team is called the Glitter Girls, and there’s an intentionality behind every piece of that identity. As Liz explained, you can’t be upset wearing the color pink. When you say “I need to call my Glitter Girl,” your voice literally rises. That kind of emotional connection to a brand is something they’ve cultivated carefully over the years. On the backend, they have a full-time IT staff entirely funded and employed by Glitter Stars, building the infrastructure that keeps all of that looking effortless from the outside. As Liz noted, everybody says we make it look easy — and that’s kind of the secret sauce.

The Glitter Girls: Relationship-Based Selling

Glitter Stars has about 15 team stylists — their sales representatives — who are collectively known as the Glitter Girls. Liz is very intentional about the philosophy she instills in them: they are in the business of relationship-based selling. You can design a great uniform at a great price with on-time delivery, but at the end of the day, these are just humans wanting to do business with humans. If we sell some cheerleading uniforms along the way, great. But the focus is always the human-to-human connection first.

That approach shows up in ways that might surprise people. Gym owners often don’t have a neutral party to vent to — they can’t always troubleshoot with their own customers. But a Glitter Girl who’s been embedded in the industry for years? She’s seen it all, and she can be that sounding board. The result is that Glitter Stars team stylists don’t just sell uniforms — they become a genuine part of the gym’s extended family.

Building the Infrastructure Behind the Brand

Behind the fun pink branding is a seriously sophisticated operation. Glitter Stars manages thousands of units a week across multiple production arms — in-house in Chicago, a facility in Pennsylvania, operations overseas, and a growing presence in the Dominican Republic, plus two additional arms Liz kept close to the chest as trade secrets. All of that is coordinated by a dedicated logistics director, production manager, and in-house logistics team.

One of the things that separates Glitter Stars is how tightly connected their departments are. In their regular department head meetings, the production lead is in the same room as the events lead. So if a Glitter Girl is flying out the next morning to see a gym at a competition, the production team knows those orders need to be out the door. That cross-departmental accountability is a big reason why Glitter Stars ended last season with on-time delivery rates in the nineties — something Liz is proud of and continues to build on.

Better, Faster, Cheaper — and Guaranteed

The topic of uniform pricing came up, and it’s something Liz thinks about every single day. The industry is trending toward increasingly expensive uniforms, and Glitter Stars is right in the thick of figuring out how to push back against that. Their internal mantra is “better, faster, cheaper” — which sounds like a contradiction until you realize they mean it sincerely. The goal is to deliver a higher-quality product, more quickly, at a lower cost. Dan loved it so much he added a fourth element: guaranteed. Better, faster, cheaper, and guaranteed. If you can nail all four of those things, you have a nearly unbeatable product.

Liz also noted that this philosophy isn’t just for uniform companies — gym owners can apply the same thinking to their own businesses. Sharper choreography. More efficient scheduling. Smarter cost management. Pull out the P&L sheet, go line by line, and find where you can bring costs down without sacrificing what makes your program great. As Dan always says, it’s less about “cheaper” and more about delivering real value at an affordable price point.

Transparent Pricing: “Out the Door” from Day One

One of the more practical and impressive things Liz shared was how Glitter Stars handles pricing transparency. The moment a design is completed, an automated pricing sheet is generated and sent with the proof. No human is manually calculating costs — it’s built into the system. Every line item is visible: the base product cost, add-ons like rhinestone waistbands or scatter upgrades, all of it. When sizes are submitted, that same pricing sheet automatically converts into the invoice. No surprises.

They call it “out the door pricing,” and it’s a phrase their team stylists are trained to use with every customer from day one. Shipping is included as a fixed percentage of the order total, and that percentage has not changed in three years — even when tariffs shook up the industry, Glitter Stars absorbed the impact internally rather than passing it on to their gyms.

This is particularly important for gym owners who build their cost sheets in February and March. If you’re quoted $375 per uniform and then receive a bill with an additional $25 per garment in shipping, and you’ve already set your athlete pricing, you’re suddenly in the negative. Transparent, out-the-door pricing eliminates that risk entirely.

Ordering Direct from Overseas: What Gym Owners Should Know

Dan raised the growing trend of gyms ordering uniforms directly from overseas factories, something he does himself. But he was quick to point out the caveats, and Liz added her perspective from the supplier side. The biggest issue isn’t price — it’s color matching. When a gym works with Glitter Stars, their creative team builds out a complete color profile from the very beginning of the design process. That means when that same gym comes back for practice wear, warm-ups, backpacks, or shoes, Glitter Stars already has everything on file. You’re not starting from scratch.

When you order direct from overseas, you’re placing orders with factories that don’t know your brand. Color matching across multiple product categories becomes your problem, and most gym owners don’t realize what they’re taking on until they’re already deep in it. Dan added that the cost savings can also be misleading — when you factor in the staff time required to manage the process, the per-unit cost often ends up comparable to working with a reputable uniform company anyway. Unless you have an experienced team and the infrastructure in place to manage it, ordering direct can cost you more than it saves.

Branding, Social Media, and the Power of Pink

If you’ve seen Glitter Stars on social media, you know they’re doing something right. Their content is vibrant, consistent, and undeniably fun. About two years ago, they brought on a dedicated marketing director, Heather, who has built an impressive team around her and plays an active role in their department head meetings. That integration — marketing being present and informed across every arm of the business — is what keeps their content feeling authentic rather than disconnected from what’s actually happening at the company.

Liz emphasized that social media is where Glitter Stars gets to show their voice, their brand, and their values to an industry that spans coast to coast. And since they’ve been a bit cramped in their current 10,000 square foot space, a lot of their recent content focus has shifted to what they can create outside the office. That will change dramatically once they settle into their new building, which they’re planning to open as a destination for the gyms they partner with.

Building a Team That’s Better Than You

One of the most relatable moments in the conversation came when Liz talked about the early years of Glitter Stars. She was quick to point out that nearly 20 years in business does not mean nearly 20 years of success. There were a lot of years of grinding, figuring it out, and not giving up before the traction really started. That’s a message worth sitting with for any gym owner who’s a few years in and wondering when things will turn a corner.

The real shift came when Liz started hiring people who were better at specific things than she was — and then praising them for it rather than feeling threatened by it. She described trying to clone herself, then realizing the smarter move was to find people with complementary skill sets and build a culture where doing your job better than the founder is celebrated. That dynamic, she said, is what really unlocks growth.

Liz also shared that Glitter Stars gives back to the industry in a very tangible way — hosting eight to ten free athlete parties at events throughout the year. It’s an expression of genuine gratitude for an industry that has given their business room to grow, and a reminder that the relationship with their customers goes far beyond the transaction.

This was such a great conversation, and a big thank you to Liz Scamacci for joining us. If you’re heading to Nashville, make sure you swing by the Glitter Stars booth and check out their products in person — including the IT Bag, which Dan is personally excited to see. And if you’re interested in connecting with a Glitter Girl about uniforms, practice wear, or anything else they offer, you can find them on social media. As always, thank you for listening to the Cheer Biz Podcast! If you want to keep the conversation going, join our Cheer Biz Podcast Facebook groups where gym owners and industry professionals connect, share, and support each other every day.