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NC State Ok’s vintage-inspired apparel line from Indiana company after shutting down Alum with same idea

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3 years ago

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Let me start out by saying how excited I am to see Homefield Apparel finally drop a vintage-inspired NC State line tomorrow.

I’m a big fan of their stuff, and I’m 100% sure I’m going to be picking up a few pieces at noon when it drops.

But I can’t let this slide without telling you guys the story about the apparel company that never was. The story of State Print Co.

About 6 years ago, a friend of mine (who asked not to be named in this piece) pitched me this idea. He wanted to start a vintage-inspired college apparel line. He wanted to go the route of creating cool-looking, non-branded college apparel that simply implied the fandom instead of having NC State written all over it (so he could get started before going the licensure route). During that time, it was the primary business model of BreakingT, which was an emerging company doing this for pro-sports.

My friend wasn’t just a great designer, he was also an avid Wolfpack fan. He studied design and graduated from NC State. He was taught there to use his design skill to become an entrepreneur. So he did just that.

He started State Print Co. and launched with a few neat designs. If you remember, the guys at Pack Insider (I introduced them) tweeted out these designs and a link to the new company.

It wasn’t less than a few days later that NC State put the kibosh on this. They reached out to State Print Co. to let them know they wanted the designs removed from the site or else there would be a cease and desist.

The cease and desist would be based on the fact that he was using NC State’s color (red) and was portraying a wolf. Forget that the Wolf didn’t look anything like Tuffy (or anything else State had at the time) and the University’s name wasn’t used anywhere on the shirts.

Our friend, despite having ordered a good deal of the shirts that had almost sold out in two days, removed the designs as requested. He then laid out his business plan to NC State’s Trademark and Licensing group. He explained that he would go through the proper channels to get licensed, and had a number of vintage style designs that remade/rethought 1983-era NC State apparel that he would be able to use when licensed and would become the cornerstone of the company. He also showed them some fresh takes on themes he thought NC State wasn’t exploring.

NC State’s Trademark and Licensing department told him not to even go through the process. They told him they only licensed with larger companies and that he would need to establish something much larger before they even gave him the time of day.

With no other avenues to explore in getting in with NC State, he shut down the company that day.

He has since gone on to make a number of sports logos you’ve certainly seen on national TV and has spent time working to help brand professional leagues and teams. He has made a great career for himself and interestingly enough has been extremely successful working with a large sports apparel company. He doesn’t have anything against NC State (he still loves them), and doesn’t hold anything personal against them, which is why he didn’t want his name mentioned in this piece. However, I like to make waves, and I think this story is worth telling. That’s why I convinced him to let me tell it.

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Meanwhile, a year after this all happened, Connor Hitchcock created this shirt for Indiana University fans, after their 2017 pinstripe bowl loss to Duke.

The shirt saw major success and despite using the team color and referencing their game vs. Duke, it wasn’t halted by Indiana. In fact, it went on to sell like crazy.

That shirt was the jumping-off point for Homefield, a vintage-inspired college apparel brand. They started without licensure making shirts that referenced their favorite team (it wasn’t even their Alma Mater) and 5 years later they are a national brand that has gotten a ton of accolades.

And now, they are finally launching their NC State line. Yep, that’s right, NC State has licensed with the Indiana-based company that is doing exactly what they were pitched 6 years earlier by a homegrown designer who wanted to make NC State the cornerstone school in his apparel company.

Now, fine. Homefield is huge now. They have a massive social following and are licensing with over 100 schools. They are a great brand that I personally support. But they started with a single shirt that was unlicensed, and they used that to catapult them to what they are today.

The point I’m making is that NC State had the chance to do this exact same thing with a designer that their school helped create. The school that told him to use his design to become an entrepreneur had the chance to put their money where their mouth was. They had the chance to have a company like this be credited to their University’s design school. But they didn’t have the foresight. His own school big-timed him.

Sure, he could have kept pushing. He could have built the company into something large and then came back to NC State and tried again, but he didn’t. Maybe Homefield deserves it and maybe he wouldn’t have gotten to the level they have.

We’ll never know.

What I do know is that NC State missed an opportunity that day. They missed a chance to invest in one of their own.

I love this university. I graduated from NC State a long time ago, but I am still loyal to my school. I never miss a game. I support them in every way possible. Hell, I get paid jack-sh*t writing for the guys at PI, simply because it’s a passion of mine (JK guys, the pay is good, don’t fire me.)

But this story always reminds me that college sports is a business. And loyalty usually only flows one way.

That said, you know my a%# will be logged on at noon tomorrow to pick up everything NC State that Homefield can drop on me. I’ve already alerted my wife to the $200 that will be missing from our account.

However, I just wish that my school would have had the foresight and trust in their own, so that I’d be logging on tomorrow to get these shirts, not from Homefield, but from the NC State alum-run State Print Co.

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