Competition for the dollars of patriotic Aggies dissipated Wednesday as local clothing retailers deferred to the on-campus Red, White and Blue volunteers, even as the group temporarily ran out of its ‘Standing for America’ T-shirts.
A group of students are urging fans to wear red, white and blue T-shirts to the football game Saturday, with the proceeds of the T-shirt sales going to help the families of firefighters and policemen killed during last week’s terrorist attacks in New York City and Washington, D.C.
Fadi Kalouze, owner of Aggieland Outfitters and Inspirations, said he pulled his red, white and blue T-shirts from his store racks Wednesday to avoid competing with the Red, White and Blue Out effort. He also offered to let the student volunteers sell their shirts from his businesses, which are located in Post Oak Mall.
“As soon as I found out there was a student organization that was pushing this to raise money for charity, I stopped selling the T-shirts,” Kalouze said.
Eric Bethea, a Red, White and Blue Out organizer and a junior finance major, said the T-shirt demand is already overwhelming his group’s supply, and that he is not worried about competing with other retailers.
“What really concerns me is the idea that somebody might be profiting off of this,” Bethea said.
The Texas A&M Bookstore in the Memorial Student Center announced Wednesday that proceeds from the sales of its red, white and blue T-shirts will be donated to the Red, White and Blue relief fund.
“The MSC was getting some bad bull from a lot of people who thought they were trying to compete with us,” said Nick Luton, a Red, White and Blue Out organizer and a senior civil engineering major. “I know a lot of people were confused about who was selling which shirts and where the money was going, and we want to make sure everybody knows that every dime that we make is going to charity.”
Marc Eckhart, the manager of the bookstore, said the proceeds from the patriotic-themed T-shirts had already been earmarked for charity, but he decided to join the Red, White and Blue Out project to avoid duplicating efforts.
“It’s an opportunity to help meet a tremendous demand for these shirts and to help this group that’s trying to do something good,” Eckhart said.
Bethea said his group has already sold more than 25,000 T-shirts, and even ran out of t-shirts Wednesday morning.
“They’re (C C Creations) printing them as fast as they can, and we’ll have 11,000 T-shirts, all colors and sizes, ready to go Thursday morning,” Bethea said, and added that the main problem is now getting enough volunteers to man the tables selling the shirts.
Bethea said Red, White and Blue Out has already collected more than $100,000, roughly half of which will go to the designated charities after expenses are covered. Also, another batch of shirts will be printed to meet the swelling demand.
“We expect to sell a ton of shirts on gameday, so we’re not worried about having too many left over t-shirts,” Bethea said.
Also, A&M clubs from around the nation have expressed interest in buying t-shirts, and Red, White and Blue Out will still be filling those orders next week, Bethea said.
“When we first met to plan this out, we debated whether to order 7,000 or 10,000 shirts. We had no idea the demand would be this overwhelming,” Bethea said.