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The Trojan Threads Apparel Co. has become more and more popular among Troy University Athletics fans over the past year and, as a result, will be opening a physical location near campus soon.

Trojan Threads will be opening a brick-and-mortar store on University Avenue later this summer, just in time for football season. David Smith, Trojan Threads owner, grew up in Brundidge and graduated from Troy University. He also worked for a number of years at the university as Director of Creative Services and saw a need more Trojan gear in the area.

“One of the things I always noticed was the lack of Troy apparel within the area,” he recalled. “You have really two areas to buy it, the (Troy University) Book Store and Wal-Mart.”

Smith said along with offering quality Troy gear, he wanted to make sure it was affordable for Pike County families.

“There really wasn’t a happy medium where a family of four can go in and buy good quality apparel at good prices and walk out happy,” he said. “Now a days, with inflation and the cost of goods and such, I wanted to be able to have that happy medium where that family of four can walk in and find products that they like at good quality and good prices and be happy with it.

“I don’t want them to walk in and say, ‘His T-Shirt prices are outrageous’ and never come back in. I want quality pricing for quality products at good prices. I’m from the area and grew up around Troy and went to Troy, so I want to be able to provide a quality service to everyone.”

Trojan Threads offers all kinds of Troy apparel and merchandise ranging from hats to T-Shirts, hoodies, jackets, bags, blankets, Polos, tumblers, window decals and more.

After landing the licensing agreement with Troy University Athletics, Smith said he never planned to open a physical location and just stick to the online store.

“I just wanted to do an (apparel) line and not have a brick-and-mortar storefront,” he recalled. “The past 3-5 months I watched my sales progressively increase and I felt like I was offering a disservice to the people that can’t physically walk into the store. I want our customers to have that experience of shopping in a physical location.

“With the success of a lot of the sports at Troy going on right now, I thought it was a pivotal time to get a brick-and-mortar location.”

The physical location will be at 110 University Avenue, just off the campus of Troy University, in the same shopping center as Escape Troy and Moge Tee.

“I want everyone to be able to come and shop with us. If there is a recruit or someone looking to come to the school, I want those potential students to know I’m a block off campus, so I’ll be within reach to them,” Smith said.

Smith said he plans to have the soft opening for Trojan Threads at the end of June with a target date of early August for the grand opening of the location. He also said he has plenty of new merchandise in the works for the opening of the physical location.

“I have close to 76 items for the store opening and that list is growing and will probably be closer to 100 new items by the time I open the store,” he said. “I’ve also started doing custom screen printing and embroidering, too.”

Trojan Threads can currently be found online, at trojanthreads.com.