Summer is coming up fast, and as you put away your fall and winter wear that might have spilled into your spring rotation, you may be thinking to yourself that you want some brand spanking new articles of clothing to freshen up your look. Seeing as it’s the summer of superheroes with ‘The Avengers’, ‘The Amazing Spider-Man’, and ‘The Dark Knight Rises’, it’s the perfect time to power up your outfits with superhero logos and the like. But if you’re at a loss as to where you can find such attire, then we here at ScienceFiction.com have a tip for you: Look no further than SuperHeroStuff.com!
Started back in 1999 by Ronando Long when they only had 4 different t-shirts for sale, SuperHeroStuff.com has evolved into a one-stop shop for all your Marvel and DC merchandise for men, women, and children. If you’re into Batman, Superman, Spider-Man, the Avengers, or superheroes in general, you’ll definitely find something for you at SuperHeroStuff.com.
Recently, I had the pleasure of paying a visit to the crew over at the SHS warehouse in Central Pennsylvania, where I was greeted by an adorable dog named Indiana. Brian Welch, the current owner/director of marketing and operations, gave me a tour of the office, showed me around the shelves upon shelves of inventory, and took time out of his busy day to sit down to chat with me a bit about the site, some of the things it has to offer, and a few other superhero related topics.
How much has the demand for super hero apparel increased since the dawn of the better superhero movie, like Iron Man and Christopher Nolan’s Batman series?
It’s been huge! It’s funny though because the movie merchandise doesn’t sell as well for us but there’s a demand for the comic stuff. There are people who are getting interested in this stuff because of the movies. We sell our fair share of movie merchandise, but the demand for the good old-fashioned comic print and symbols is through the roof.
Tons of people are searching for The Avengers, but when that dies down, it’ll pick up again with Spider-Man and ‘The Dark Knight Rises’, which will be the biggest thing for us this year.
Really? Bigger than ‘The Avengers’?
Yeah. Batman and Superman in general are our two top sellers. There’s more marketable stuff to sell. I don’t know that ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ will be as popular or reach the level of phenomena that ‘The Avengers’ did, but we’ll have a lot more stuff, and it’ll correlate to a bigger event for us.
Well, that leads perfectly into my next question: Who sells more between Marvel and DC?
By far it’s DC and the main reason is because the people who aren’t really huge comic fans latch onto the symbol shirts. Marvel just doesn’t have a whole lot of symbols on merchandise.
Of the top ten [best sellers on the site], eight of them are DC. One of them is Star Wars. We do a lot of Spider-Man, a lot of Flash, and a lot of Green Lantern. The movie didn’t do nearly as much as the Blackest Night event did. With Blackest Night, all of a sudden Green Lantern fans instead of having one symbol to buy for had five that they could buy.
Even though it’s not a superhero license, Star Wars is up there. We try not to deviate too far, but we incorporate some things non-superhero related [like ‘Doctor Who’, ‘Star Wars’, and ‘Star Trek’].
The best Marvel licenses are probably Captain America, Spider-Man, and general Avengers/Marvel stuff where there’s like fifteen different heroes on a shirt.
What would you say is the most unique item that you guys have for sale?
We have a lot of superhero bikinis that just came in and they’re pretty unique. Some of them are available at the big boxes but none of our competitors have them.
We also have some t-shirt designs that you can’t get anywhere else. Sometimes we’ll design them ourselves and have them printed by one of our partners or we bought enough that we’re the only company to have them.
What else is going on in the world of SuperHeroStuff.com that our readers should know about?
We just started a wholesale program where we’re selling to comic shops as a better way to get superhero merchandise in those places. Because of that, we stopped selling comics and graphic novels so as to not compete with the shops. We want to direct people and say if you want comics, go to your local store and support them. That’s a pretty new initiative for us.
This year we’re doing tons of conventions and we have specials going on there. Not only will we have our big booth, but we’ll also have a cosplay booth set up. We’ll have professionals and amateurs and you can come by to get your picture taken. We can email it to you for free or you can buy a print to take home with you.
And we’ll have a great big promotion for ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ later this year that I can’t reveal yet, but stay tuned!
Brian then went on to tell me about how everyone who works for the company is a fan in their own right. An X-men and G.I. Joe fan himself, Brian informed me that the site is dedicated to providing merchandise for fans by fans, and it’s greatly reflected in the descriptions of the products on the page, among other aspects around the site.
There you have it, kids. Whether it’s superhero symbol shirts for the whole family or super swimsuits for the ladies, SuperHeroStuff.com is the place to go to make your summer wardrobe super. Or, if you’re in the Philadelphia area from May 31st to June 3rd for Wizard World Philadelphia, visit the SuperHeroStuff.com booth on the convention floor.