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| One last look at Shirt World on SU Hill |
It's always a right shame when a local business closes, and certainly when one as unique and distinct as Shirt World on Marshall Street on SU Hill. After five decades in business, it has closed. Your one stop shop for all things orange (I despise the "s" word, and I don't mean Syracuse, of course). The owners have decided to retire from retail and transition to renting out the property. It has been confirmed that a chain are letting the space in the coming months, and I will update as soon as we know who they are. While they've had a good run, it seems like selling out when national chains take over college neighborhoods and other areas like this, making them devoid of their charm and personality. I can remember some other big names as well as other indies in the old days that have come and gone, but Shirt World had few peers. There may still be inventory left at the end of the last day, even with a long queue and marked down prices. However, most of the good stuff was still a pretty penny, too nice to be that cheap. I settled for one of those game day wigs I could work into my Halloween costume (story for another post, and that would make this too topical and dated) so I could say goodbye somehow. I still have a couple things I bought there, even though they were expensive. Much of what people got there likely wound up around the block at 3fifteen when they didn't need it anymore since it is a boutique charity shop targeting the Orange Nation if you like. On Game Day, both shops, as well as Mannys, Schine, and others would sell out and eventually replenish before the next one the rest of each season. Anyway, if charity isn't an option for these goods, even for tax purposes, I suppose these places would take it off of them, if it works that way. Dicks and Rally House wouldn't need any of the lot. Champs and Scholars downtown sell used goods from before 2000. Even online is too easy these days.
Schine Student Center in the bookshop; Waverly Ave., main campus on the promenade (recently acquired by Barnes & Noble College, who also run the leMoyne and OCC stores)
Mannys on the Hill, Shirt Worlds former main rival; onetime Charneys satellite store
University Sport Shop; Destiny USA, north side
Charneys; NY 5, deWitt (mostly mens, especially big and tall)
Papas Sports; NY 370, north side (likely anything they made that Shirt World bought wholesale)
Whatever happens, we wish good luck to the owners and staff on what the future may hold.
UPDATE: Haraz Coffee House, a chain from Dearborn, MI with ties to Yemen, will be opening in the space in the coming weeks. I expected something comparable as far as apparel, but this makes sense too, despite more national names on the hill than in the old days. Haraz could get their own post at a later time, even though I'm not familiar with the chain or Middle Eastern coffee myself.
