Lewy is selling loads of hats, jerseys and, yes, panties.
LEWISTON – Lewy, the gap-toothed symbol of Lewiston’s semiprofessional hockey franchise, the Maineiacs, is becoming a fashion magnate.
Just four months into the team’s inaugural season, merchandise with the Lewy logo has ballooned, going from three items on Sept. 1 to more than 100 by year’s end. The battered, cartoonish face is emblazoned on such traditional products as hats, shirts, coats and hockey jerseys. But under the weight of increasing demand, the pro shop at the Central Maine Civic Center has branched out to such unusual items as nursing scrubs and men’s boxers.
And the biggest seller of all: women’s thong underwear.
“You name ’em,” said pro shop manager Roland Landry. “Everybody buys thongs.”
After hearing repeated requests for the garments, described vaguely as “ladies unmentionables” on the team’s Internet Web site, the underwear went on sale about two weeks ago. More than 100 have already sold, Landry said.
And who’s buying them?
“Men, women, the players,” said Landry.
It’s a baffling takeoff for the merchandise; something no one, including Landry, predicted. It seems that anything with the logo sells. “When we saw it, we thought it was a nice logo,” said Landry, the pro shop manager for the past 14 years. “But that’s all. We didn’t have any idea.”
A few hats and other clothing items were going to be an added sideline to the shop’s main business: selling hockey equipment and sharpening skates.
“Now, I don’t do anything with hockey and I have tripled my sales,” Landry said. “I just hired three new people.”
Since September, the shop has sold out of its replica hockey jerseys three times. In the days before Christmas, embroiderers were working nights and weekends to meet the demand.
Team officials say they also had little reason to expect the merchandise would sell so much.
If they’d known the new logo would sell so well, they would have had more products ready when the team began playing here in 2003, Landry said.
He believes sales have been driven by the customers. After he hears their suggestions for a new product, he tries to get it in the shop.
He still sharpens skates, and a few hockey sticks remain in one corner of the shop. The rest of the space is piled high with an eclectic mix of goods.
Companies benefit
There are logo shot glasses, logo beer mugs, logo pitchers and logo Christmas ornaments, all hand-painted by Kelly Murdock of Murdock Country Creations in Sabattus. East Coast Sign and Design in Lewiston makes the window and bumper stickers. And most of the clothes come from Maine Awards Rogue Wear, also from Lewiston.
Those include layered jackets that cost as much as $180 and sweatshirts with the logo sewn in two places, on the chest and on the back of the hood. The company’s niche is producing relatively small numbers of specialty items, said President Mark Rodrigue.
It’s worked well for the pro shop, which is in a temporary booth in one corner of the Civic Center. Every spare space is filled. It’s so tight, Landry has been keeping some stock at his home.
Yet he continually is ordering from Rodrigue’s company, sometimes daily.
“It’s definitely a surprise,” Rodrigue said. “Nobody knew the merchandise was going to go this far.”
Landry, who also manages the Falcon Shoe Co., is planning for the future.
“I want to come up with a Lewy boot line,” he said. “I’ve already got the leather embroidered.” The logo would appear over the ankle, he said.
And there are other projects, though he won’t talk about them.
“I am planning another line,” he said. “It’s top secret.”
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