Evans business owner sells ‘hard to find’ items after Georgia win

EVANS, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) - Local stores have seen University of Georgia merchandise flying off the shelves since Monday’s win.

We stopped by Fan Zone, where the owner had to make a trip to Athens to get his merchandise.

If you’re a fan of college football, it’s more than just the game, it’s a tradition that runs deep, and Dawg fans say they’re adding on retail therapy as a new tradition.

“It’s a religion for us here in the south. It truly is. And I mean, there’s nothing like being in Athens on a Saturday afternoon for a good tailgate. I know the line kept moving, and it was around two touchdowns. I thought Georgia could handle that. But to win by 58 points... I don’t think anybody in the country saw that coming,” said Jimmy Atkins.

It was a blowout that shocked the country and shocked local business owner Bryan Kirkland.

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“Very tough to order a pre-order. So we started ordering about three weeks ago, and as it got closer, we started adding on to the orders and getting specific dates,” he said.

But with demand and shipping issues, Kirkland says it wasn’t enough. He took off to Athens Tuesday morning.

“We jetted straight to Athens for pickups for t-shirts. Our printers that printed these shirts last night, they started at 10 o’clock, at halftime and started printing, and they print into seven o’clock this morning,” he said,

With back-to-back wins, he wanted to offer his customers like Atkins merchandise he couldn’t get anywhere else.

“One thing I like is they carry a lot of merchandise made by local vendors. You find stuff in a small family-owned store like this, that you’re not going to find in the box stores,” said Kirkland.

His shipment included eight boxes of t-shirts and jerseys some of the other stores have yet to receive.

Kirkland added, “We’ve got jerseys in, so if they want jerseys come hit us because these are very, very hard to find. Academy’s shipment of these shirts was on the dock when I left Athens, so they haven’t picked those up yet.”

That hard-to-find merch is what Atkins loves.

“It’s definitely exciting to be one of the first to have it on your back. You know, the 2022 championship logo,” said Atkins.

Kirkland says he will be back on the roads at 5 a.m. to pick up 28 more boxes of t-shirts, hoodies, polos, crew necks, and quarter zips. Fifteen different styles with one new logo, champions.