Monday's Championship Means a Busy Tuesday for Duke Stores

Shoppers buy championship shirts and hats Tuesday morning at the University Store in the Bryan Center. Photo by Steve Hartsoe

Senior Hilary Bowman hoped her last basketball game at Duke would be a national championship, and her wish came true Monday night. On Tuesday, she made sure she got the T-shirt to show it.

"For my last basketball game as a student it was definitely, definitely a satisfying, great experience," said Bowman, from Huntington Beach, Calif.

Tuesday morning she joined a continual stream of shoppers at the University Store in the Bryan Center who came to buy championship T-shirts. Grey, blue, black and white T-shirts were stacked on a table stretching the length of the store, and on a second smaller table.

"I'm having a hard time choosing," said Bowman, who watched the game in Cameron Indoor Stadium with thousands of fellow ecstatic students. "It was awesome, it was insane. The energy was incredible."

Shirts started arriving from printers shortly after 6 a.m. Tuesday, less than seven hours after Duke defeated Wisconsin 68-63 for the Blue Devils' fifth men's national basketball title. Printing began as soon as the final game buzzer sounded.

The store received around 8,000 shirts by the time doors opened at 9:30 a.m. Nearly 20,000 T-shirts will have arrived by late afternoon, said Jim Wilkerson, director of Trademark Licensing and Stores Operations.

Durham resident Brant Grady was one of the first people to buy championship T-shirts – one for him and one for his father.

"I've bought shirts for every championship win," he said, describing himself as a life-long Blue Devils fan. "(Monday's game) was one of the most hard-fought games I've seen in a long time."

The most popular items, Wilkerson said, are always the Nike caps and shirts the players don immediately after the game, he said.

The number of customers grew steadily throughout the morning, and Wilkerson said the store would remain opened until business died down, likely until around 9 p.m. or 10 p.m. Tuesday.

Strong sales will expected to continue into the evening, Wilkerson said, when members of the Duke community and public gather in Cameron for a 5 p.m. celebration with Coach K and the team.

If past experience repeats itself, Wilkerson said he expects business overall to increase by around 50 percent during the next 90 days, compared to the same period without new championship shirts and hats to sell.

"It's going really well," he said.