If Ohio State delivers, so will he

A printer plans to supply about 30 stores with national championship shirts.

By DON SHILLING

VINDICATOR BUSINESS EDITOR

HUBBARD — Ron Fox has a game plan for Monday night’s national championship football game.

If Ohio State wins, the Hubbard printer will deliver nearly 6,000 shirts and sweat shirts in area stores by 6 a.m. Tuesday.

Fans who can’t wait that long will be at his store, Eagle Wear, 23 N. Main St.

“They’ll be lined up out the door by the time the game is over,” Fox said.

He knows from experience.

When the Buckeyes won the national championship in 2002, the line of late-night customers went down the block.

“People came flying out of all the bars in town,” he said.

The mood was much different last year, however. Fox had ordered 20,000 blank shirts and sweat shirts and was prepared to begin printing national championship logos as soon as the game ended.

The Buckeyes lost, however. Fans went to sleep without a national championship to celebrate, and Fox returned the shirts and sweat shirts.

He’s hoping for a different outcome this year. He and a staff of nine will come to the store at halftime and prepare for a long night’s work. If the Buckeyes win, the first national championship shirts will be printed about a half-hour after the game.

Fox has arrangements to deliver merchandise to 13 area Walgreen’s stores and 16 other area retailers Tuesday morning. He expects the list of stores wanting shirts to grow by Monday.

Fox said he ordered fewer shirts this year because the national championship game is on a weeknight. It will be easy to get more blank shirts delivered.

Some stores placed small orders, and he expects them to reorder Tuesday once they see the demand.

Fox ordered more blank shirts last year because the championship game was on a Saturday and he couldn’t order more shirts on Sunday.

If Ohio State loses, he doesn’t lose any money on the shirts. He works with a wholesale company in Michigan that will accept shirts back at no charge if the cartons haven’t been opened.

He has been investing in advertising, however, in the hopes that people will come to him if they want to be the first ones with a national championship shirt.

The cost will be $16 for a T-shirt, $28 for a sweat shirt and $34 for a hooded sweat shirt.

Not every printing shop can churn out national championship shirts, however. A printer must have a licensing agreement with a college or professional team in order to use a team’s logo.

Fox works with Atlantis Sportswear in Columbus, which has licenses with colleges to produce its College Issue clothes line. Fox pays Atlantis a percentage of his sales in order to print the national championship shirts.

Companies holding a license with Ohio State must pay the school 8 percent of all sales of school merchandise.

Fox said he’s been working to get his own license with Ohio State and hopes he’ll have one in place in time for next year’s football season.

“Coach Tressel said he’ll put a good word in for me,” Fox said.

The store owner said he owes much gratitude to Tressel, who won four national championships as a coach at Youngstown State University.

Fox opened his store in 1989, and Tressel began his championship run two years later. Eagle Wear has a license with YSU, and demand for YSU merchandise was strong each time it won a championship, Fox said.

“If it wasn’t for Tressel, I wouldn’t be in business,” Fox said.