FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — There is still a buzz surrounding Wednesday’s arrival of Coach John Calipari at the University of Arkansas.
With the new coach in town, comes the opportunity for fans to begin purchasing some new Razorback merchandise.
"I saw the shirt on Instagram on the B-Unlimited page, and I was like, ‘I need to get that,'" a Razorback fan who was shopping for Coach Cal merchandise at B-Unlimited in Fayetteville said. "I think it's so cool that Coach Cal has come to Arkansas after being at Kentucky for so long, so I thought it was really awesome."
And she’s not the only one. Screen printing company B-Unlimited says their retail store has been busy with Coach Cal fans coming in, looking for their new "Cal Those Hogs" T-shirts.
"They've been kind of flying off," Retail Store Manager of B-Unlimited’s Fayetteville location Delaney Snyder said. "We got them in, I think, around four o'clock last night, and we had a bunch of sales overnight."
Snyder added that the store has already had to place an order for more shirts because of the demand and popularity.
But how exactly did this business get Coach Cal merchandise into the hands of eager fans just hours after the announcement that he would be leading the Hogs?
That all began at B-Unlimited’s headquarters in South Fayetteville.
"The buzz starts and so do the group texts and we’ll see it on Twitter," Vice President of Sales for B-Unlimited Danica Farr said. "We're like, 'Okay, these are names that are being talked about,' and we'll honestly start coming up with slogans and designs for any name that seems kind of credible."
Even without knowing exactly who the next coach was going to be, Farr said the company had to still be prepared.
According to Farr, the company is always on pins and needles during big sporting events, anticipating the outcome of what could happen to try and be the first to print gear.
"On Monday, before we knew anything, we just went ahead and ordered a couple thousand T-shirts," Farr said. "Something's gonna happen no matter what, we want to have t-shirts here, so we already had shirts ready waiting in all the sizes."
Once Farr and the rest of her staff received the go-ahead to begin printing shirts after the deal was made public, the rush was on to get them into the retail stores.
According to Farr, she was at the airport when Coach Cal’s plane touched down.
When she got back to the office, the production team was already printing the merchandise and packing cars to send the product to retail stores in the pouring rain.
"Those are the moments that you don't forget," Farr said. "Because you're just trying to get stuff out as soon as possible, and it's cool because we've already seen people wearing it today on social media, which is awesome."
Farr added that new ideas are already being considered for future Coach Cal merch. She said the company often scans its social media pages and takes input from the community on new designs.
The arrival of Coach Cal is not just an exciting time for retail stores in the area, but for Farr on a personal note as well.
"I know I'm gonna be at every game, so I hope that everyone else is too," Farr said.
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