The kids in scouts tend to love wearing their uniforms. We aren’t a particularly strict group with regards to uniforming. More often than not our cub scouts will be in their “Activity Uniforms”, (sometimes called “Class B”, a term from the military) which for us is just their Pack t-shirt and some reasonable cloths.
The full “Field Uniform” (sometimes called a “Class A”, a term from the military) has a lot of components. The cubs wear a navy blue button down collared shirt. Nearly everyone gets this from either the Nassau County Scout Shop (https://trcbsa.org/scoutshop/) in Massapequa, or from Robert’s Menswear (google map link: https://maps.app.goo.gl/pb2xwjeeHgMuQwot9 ). Robert’s Menswear can sew on all the patches you know, they know exactly what is needed for our Pack.
Then the official uniform also includes navy blue pants, a cloth belt, knee high socks, a baseball cap, a neckerchief and a slider to hold the neckerchief in place. Each year, as the cubs advance to a new Den, they can buy new socks, caps, and neckerchiefs, which have coordinated accent colors for each Den/grade level. Our Pack doesn’t push purchasing these items each year, anyone that wants to or who’s kid enjoys a spiffy uniform can go ahead and get them. In fact no uniforms are required at all, this is a longstanding Cub Scout rule, no one has to purchase uniforms or wear them. And for anyone that wants a uniform but doesn’t want to spend the money on them, we have a uniform “hand me down” pool. Kids of Cub Scout age tend to grow out of cloths quickly. Our recommendation is usually to buy the largest size button down shirt that you can tolerate, you should get a few years out of it.
Lions Den /Kindergarten cubs technically don’t wear the official uniform and instead have a t-shirt. But in our group the kids tend to like the uniforms so many of them wear it.
Tigers thru Bears (Grades 1–3) traditionally wear the navy blue uniform described above.
Webelos and Arrow of Light Dens (Grades 4 & 5) traditionally wear a variant uniform, with tan button down shirts, green pants and belt, and a green hat with plaid accents. This is usually called the “Webelos Uniform”. In many Packs though the 4th grade Webelos Den will have some members who are still in their Navy blue cub uniforms. Especially if they still fit, this is a good idea. Doing this also allows the scout to wear the Rank badge that they earned at the end of 3rd grade. The green and tan Webelos uniform doesn’t officially include the Tiger-Bear rank badges.
Once you have the uniform parts, there’s the issue of where the various badges are placed. Our badges are sew on, though you can certainly get iron-on material to use instead. Robert’s Menswear knows where things like the USA Flag Patch, Council Shoulder Patch, and Pack numeral patches go, they’ll get your uniform looking just right. Each year the cub scouts will earn their Rank badge. These get arranged on the left pocket of the shirt. This way a quick glance will tell you what rank a scout is and how long they’ve been with us.
It’s also worth purchasing a scout belt when you get your uniform shirt. During the year the cub scouts will earn “Belt Sliders” for doing different activities. These are small metal devices that a belt can be threaded through. As their time in scouts goes on the kids will deck out their belt in many jingly sliders. Your den leader will arrange and lead these activities as part of the progression to earning the end of year Rank Badge (like the Tiger Rank, or the Bear Rank, etc). Rank badges and belt sliders are NOT purchased by the families, our Pack provides them free of charge as the kids earn them.
Lots of people want to have their uniform just right. We are fortunate then because each year we have the Boy Scouts from Troop 201, the Grizzlies, come by and do a Uniform Inspection. The Boy Scouts have a uniform checklist and they’ll meticulously go through each item and mark merits or demerits depending on what the cub scout has. They’ll also look at the sharpness of the presentation of the uniform; tucked in shirts, nicely tied kerchief’s, proper placement of badges and insignia.
There’s a risk that the cub scouts will become a little upset if they don’t score high on the uniform inspection, but there is nothing to worry about. There’s no punishment of any sort for missing bits of the uniform, it’s just a fun way for the cubs to learn what the full uniform can include. They get to meet and interact with the older Boy Scouts in the Troop 201, which is where most of our cub scouts who continue their scouting adventure move on to in 6th grade.
Here’s a link to the BSA website describing the uniform:
https://www.scouting.org/programs/cub-scouts/cub-scout-uniform/
And here is a look at one of the uniform inspection checklists. The Boy Scouts will go through these and hand them to your cub scout at the end.
https://mediafiles.scoutshop.org/m2pdf/50015_Cub_Scout_Unif_InspFNL.pdf
