With the Jacksonville Jaguars in the running for the Super Bowl for the first time in a decade, fans are still buying the team’s merchandise in January. And it’s not only big stores that sell licensed apparel who are winning the retail game — some local artists and small shops are too.
One is downtown’s Wolf & Cub boutique on Laura Street near Hemming Park. Husband and wife co-owners Varick Rosete and Emily Moody-Rosete opened it about a year-and-a-half ago.
“Our shop is a blend of vintage and new, we call it a ‘concept shop’ because we have a lot of artisan pieces, and we do our own line of jewelry and our T-shirts,” Moody-Rosete said.
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Varick Rosete designs the shirts, including a popular line inspired by the Jaguars. On Tuesday, those tees were stacked on a table a tier below some leather chokers and a bowl of assorted sunglasses.
“I would say it’s definitely not your run-of-the mill sports athletic shirts,” Rosete said, “because one of the things I also wanted to do is just design something that can be year-round that doesn’t blatantly scream football.”
His most popular Jags shirt is influenced by skate culture. It’s a play on an old Tony Hawk logo, but instead of a hawk, Rosete’s is a Jaguar skull with a teal tongue and the phrase ‘Til We Die’ underneath.
He has several other versions of the skull and another shirt with a jaguar cub character. There are also patches, pins and stickers donning his creations.
Rosete said even though his tees sold well when the team had a 3-and-13 record, this season has been different for the shop.
“We’re coming off a holiday, so obviously that’s a huge selling time for us, and these were great gifts, especially this season with them doing so well, so with that combined with the extended life of the playoffs now people are still wanting gear,” Moody-Rosete said.
Online, she said buyers from California, Texas, Brooklyn and London have ordered the Jags-inspired gear. And at the brick and mortar shop, she said people are coming in for Jags shirts and leaving with other items too on a daily basis.
“It’s giving the shop more exposure to people who might not have originally sought out a little concept boutique,” Moody-Rosete said. “But they know that they can get Jags stuff here and then they walk in and they realize we have other great designs by Varick or a funky men’s leather jacket.”
They say this year’s success has been exhausting, but Varick is already starting to dream up more Jags designs. Hopefully there will be a Super Bowl edition, he said.
Lindsey Kilbride can be reached at lkilbride@wjct.org, 904-358-6359 or on Twitter at @lindskilbride.
