Earlier today Pro Wrestling Tees took to Twitter today to announce that they will be closing their brick and mortar location on Damen Avenue in Chicago, IL. The reason for this is that due to the company’s online sales success, they no longer have enough space inside the location.
“When we opened our Pro Wrestling Tees brick and mortar clothing store in October of 2017, we were excited to give wrestling fans a place in Chicago they could visit and shop for some of their favorite wrestler’s apparel. Over the last year, our on-line business has skyrocketed, we have hired almost 20 new full-time employees and purchased tons of new equipment to help us through the high demand. Due to the increase in business, we are unfortunately out of space inside our location on Damen Avenue. Therefore, starting today, we will be officially closing our brick and mortar retail store in Chicago for the foreseeable future. We will be expanding our print and ship e-commerce capabilities into the retail store space to be able to increase productivity and give our staff a more comfortable work environment.
The best thing about our retail store business was that it was connected to our fulfillment center, allowing us to restock the same day. Plus, it came with no real operational costs, because it didn’t require full-time employees to be in the store at all times. It was the perfect experiment which proved to be successful.
The past 4 years has allowed us to meet so many customers, some who are now employees at our shop, and some who have become great friends. From the All In press conference to meet & greets with wrestling legends such as Mick Foley & Road Warrior Animal, we had the privilege of having over 250 different wrestlers visit our store in the last 4 years.
Our One Hour Tees location (2348 N Damen Ave) will still be open for in-store pickups if you order from either ProWrestlingTees.com or ShopAEW.com. Eventually, we do plan on creating an event space where we could have meet & greets. We also hope to create a computer station to allow customers to order Pro Wrestling Tees with a one hour turnaround inside the store to print while you wait.
The good news is that we will be putting all of our in-store exclusive Chicago flag branded merchandise for sale on-line (before Black Friday) under a new “Chicago” section on our website. We do not feel those designs should get locked in the vault and should be shared with the world to keep the memories of the retail store alive.
Thank you to all the fans who traveled from near and far to check out our store. I’m sure we will “pop up” somewhere in the future….”
Pro Wrestling Tees was founded in 2013 by Ryan Barkan headquartered on the Northside of Chicago. It first started as a digital print shop in 2008, where Barkan sold custom T-shirts under the company One Hour Tees. In 2010 received an email from a well-known independent wrestler Colt Cabana to help create a shirt for his friend CM Punk that would say, “I Broke Big Show’s Hand”. After that, Ryan received more orders from Colt Cabana and later Colt offered Barkan a deal for promoting One Hour Tees on Colt’s podcast, The Art of Wrestling. After getting featured on Colt’s podcast, the brand bloomed and got the attention of the wrestlers such as The Young Bucks, Joey Ryan, Kevin Steen, Christopher Daniels, and Frankie Kazarian.
In 2013, Ryan started the website ProWrestlingTees.com which is a marketplace of over 1,200 wrestlers who sell their own merchandise worldwide. In 2014, the company signed partnership deals with New Japan Pro-Wrestling.
In 2017, they signed a deal with Hot Topic to supply them the wrestling clothing and merchandise. In 2019, they become the official merchandise partner for All Elite Wrestling, launching ShopAEW.com.
Check out our official store at PRO WRESTLING TEES, show us your support, and buy a shirt. You can visit our store by clicking here.
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