Franklin Street Stores Gear Up for Final Four

It’s hard to find a time when Franklin Street isn’t buzzing with cars, shoppers and students.

And thanks to the final four game Saturday against Oregon, Chapel Hill Sportswear Manager Holly Dedmond said there’s been even more hustle and bustle than usual.

“Business has been great this week,” she said. “We got in several final four t-shirts on Monday, and then the remainder of them came Tuesday. And so it’s just been pretty much wide open full-blast all week. People are very excited about this year’s final four.”

Manager of Underground Printing (UGP), Elizabeth Flake said she’s also noticed a considerable spike in business this week.

“People are definitely shopping for final four shirts,” she said. “But also as many UNC shirts as they can get. We’ve had a lot of people coming in that are actually going to… Saturday’s game and they’ve already been in to get their shirts. And we’ve had so many requests for, ‘Can you get me a shirt to Phoenix by Saturday?’ So it has been very busy.”

Flake said some of UGP’s signature shirts are flying off the shelves, but there are also some newer designs that the company can’t restock quickly enough.

“Our bestseller is ‘Chapel Hill vs. All Y’all’ and everybody loves that, so that’s been going over well,” she said. “And we’ve gotten in some new designs lately, such as ‘The Ceiling is the Roof,’ which is extremely popular right now, we honestly have not been able to keep that one in stock so we have ended up getting about 300 more in in each style this morning so hopefully that will last us at least until Saturday.”

Davine Laster is the Retail Division Manager of Johnny T-shirt. She said people have continually asked for the UNC locker room shirt from the Elite Eight game, that says, “Cut the Net.” She said her store is expecting lots of business this weekend, especially if UNC beats Oregon.

“Especially if we win the game on Saturday, I’m anticipating it being really hectic, but in a fun way,” she said. “Everyone’s, like I said, really excited so we’re expecting heightened business.”

Dedmond said it’s always exciting getting to produce final four t-shirts.

“We expect we’re going to make it to the sweet sixteen every year so that’s not really that big of a deal for us,” she said. “And the elite eight only lasts two days. And it’s always over the weekend, so there’s really no time to get in those shirts and sell those shirts… so we just go straight from hopefully a regular season or a tournament championship t-shirt to a final four if we make it that far.”

UNC is playing Oregon at 8:49 P.M. on Saturday. The game will be broadcast on CBS and on 97.9 FM WCHL.

Franklin Street Stores Gear Up for Final Four

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