Own a Piece of iHub: Introducing the iHub Store [April Fools]

Apr 1, 2019

Inquiry Hub has always been a forward-thinking school. As a leader in inquiry and digital citizenship, we created two Board Authority Approved (BAA) courses now standard in schools throughout the District. As believers in the power of students and educators learning together, we’ve created a space where ideas are judged on merit, not on the role of who suggested them. We’ve always been the first to try out new technologies and learning models, and to develop our own when the current ones didn’t work.

Now it’s time for iHub to take another bold step forward: Today, we’re introducing the iHub Store.

The Store is an online storefront where members of the iHub community and enlightened educators can shop for products, memorabilia, and swag to show off their support for the iHub movement! It’s an excellent place to shop for a little present for a friend or loved one, and perhaps a little something for yourself as well. In a way, it’s our gift shop, our way of giving you a chance to own a piece of iHub!

The new iHub Store.

Student-Led Profit

“The future of schooling is highly based around profit,” says Inquiry Hub principal David Truss. “If your school isn’t profitable, if it can’t make money off of its brand, its image, if people aren’t willing to buy into its marketing, then it’s not going to last that long into the next decade.”

The Store is highly inline with topics being explored in this year’s marketing class, says Dr. John Sarte, iHub’s marketing teacher. “The movement in marketing these days is away from marketing as something you just give away for free, to something where the marketing itself has to actually make money. Instead of television ads and billboards, you have tee-shirts and pop sockets.”

iHub’s Marketing course is a new addition to the school this last year, placing students in even greater control over the school branding. “The Store was originally proposed in Marketing, in fact,” said Dr. Sarte. “The students figured that, since iHub’s brand has been built up so much over the last half decade, and is so well-loved amongst our community and our fans, we had the chance to turn it into something profitable for the school.”

An opportunity for students

All the products in the new iHub Store have been designed by students, and this is something that we’ll be continuing as new products are added. The hope is that the Store will become a storefront for not just iHub brand materials, but for student art as well. “There’s a time in the near future when we’ll be releasing things like Senn’s watercolours, like Stan’s renders, like Sterling’s artistry on tee-shirts and mugs,” says Laef, head of student content. “It’s something I’m really looking forward to.”

You can shop the new iHub Store for yourself at store.inquiryhub.org.