During a recent visit to Southridge Mall, I walked into Steve and Barry’s University Sportswear, a supermarket-sized retailer selling collegiate apparel, t-shirts, shorts, sweats, hats, khakis, and several thoughts sprang to mind:
Thought No. 1: Where was this place when I was in high school?It wasn’t around yet. Back in the dark ages, if you wanted a college t-shirt your best and often only option was the university bookstore. Steve and Barry’s sells apparel from Wisconsin and elsewhere. Just about everything in the store costs less than $8.
Thought No. 2: Who are Steve and Barry?
The store isn’t named for Barry Alvarez. The CEOs, Steve Shore and Barry Prevor, both 42, are childhood buddies who started their empire in 1985 with a single store near the University of Pennsylvania. That store, which offered clothing at lower prices than the campus bookstore, got the ball rolling. The chain, which is privately held, hopes to have 200 locations by the end of this year.
Thought No. 3: How can this place make money when everything is so inexpensive?
The business magazines say the key is a business model that relies on aggressive incentives from mall owners (who love the younger audience the stores attract) and creative purchasing methods. They also spend virtually no money on advertising, prompting one article to dub them “the fastest-growing retailer you’ve never heard of.”
Thought No. 4: I bet my nephew, Ross, loves this place.
Ross, who will soon be starting his junior year at Franklin High School, turned 16 last month and I don’t remember the last time I saw him wearing anything but a t-shirt, jersey or hooded sweatshirt on top of jeans and sneakers.
I asked him if he had been to Steve and Barry’s and he gave me the universal teenager reply.
“That place is awesome.”
In the interest of doing a little market research, I decided to take Ross to the store, give him $30 and watch him shop. When I was Ross’ age, my buddies and I went to the mall for two reasons: to hit the food court and ogle girls from other high schools.
Shopping wasn’t really part of the equation for us, but kids today are different. Ross has a job washing dishes at a steak restaurant and he knows his way around a store, not to mention eBay and about a gazillion web sites.
As we walk leisurely through the racks of t-shirts, Ross quickly developed a plan.
“I need some tennis shorts,” he says. “My mom says that I need shoes, too.”
We look through the shorts and he finds a black pair that he likes, so we head for the t-shirts. In addition to college logoed items, the place includes a number of shirts with somewhat ribald sayings or fake business names.
“I can’t buy a lot of the shirts they have here, because my mom wouldn’t let me wear them,” Ross said.
We poke around for awhile and he picks up a red ace of spades shirt that he likes. After bypassing a display of superhero shirts (“They don’t have Batman and that’s my favorite,” he says), Ross spies a black University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee shirt and picks it up.
“I don’t have any UWM stuff,” he says. “You went there, didn’t you?”
Back in the dark ages, yes, I did.
With Ross’ shift at the steakhouse rapidly approaching, we pick up the pace. Ross knows he wants a baseball cap, which I can only guess will push his collection into triple digits, and decides to replace the University of Miami lid that he lost earlier this year.
“They don’t have fitted hats here, but this is pretty cool,” he says.
With time wasting and his Uncle Drew allowance just about spent, Ross decides to take one more trip through a t-shirt aisle near the back of the store. “I don’t think I’ve ever been in this part before,” he says. “Man, this place is huge.”
In the middle of the rack, he sees a t-shirt depicting the 1960s era group “The Monkees” and says “That’s cool. My dad likes The Monkees. I’ll probably be the only guy with a Monkees shirt.”
Hello, Monkees. Goodbye, Ace of Spades.
We head to the checkout line and discover that each of Ross’ items -- and seemingly everything in the store on this day -- cost $6.98. With tax, he got the Miami hat, the striped gym shorts, the UWM T-shirt and the Monkees vintage shirt for $29.48.
Since the store manager wasn’t thrilled with the idea of us taking pictures inside, we drop the stuff on the curb for a quick snap and I ask Ross what kids his age like about Steve and Barry’s.
“The stuff here is good and it’s cheap,” he said. "They've got T-shirts, sweats and hoodies ... it's what we wear.”
Steve and Barry's also has three locations in Madison and one at Regency Mall in Racine.
Host of “The Drew Olson Show,” which airs 1-3 p.m. weekdays on The Big 902. Sidekick on “The Mike Heller Show,” airing weekdays on The Big 920 and a statewide network including stations in Madison, Appleton and Wausau. Co-author of Bill Schroeder’s “If These Walls Could Talk: Milwaukee Brewers” on Triumph Books. Co-host of “Big 12 Sports Saturday,” which airs Saturdays during football season on WISN-12. Former senior editor at OnMilwaukee.com. Former reporter at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
