Two stands of red and white balloons swayed in the wind Friday morning, signaling something new on Cecil B. Moore Avenue near Broad Street.
Temple’s Sideline Shop opened Friday at 11 a.m. inside Morgan Hall North. The store features strictly Temple Under Armour athletic products.
“Our objective is always to get the Temple brand out to the fans and to the community,” General Manager of Temple Book Stores Jim Hanley said. “To get as many people to spread the spirit and spread the fact that Temple is a presence in the city of Philadelphia.”
Under Armour became Temple’s official outfitter in July 2010. The university announced its 10-year extension with the Baltimore-based company Aug. 31, when the idea for the Sideline Store was revealed.
“It came along with that agreement that we could partner with them and create something that was special and unique to Temple,” Hanley said.
The store is a partnership between the university, Under Armour and Barnes & Noble.
The Sideline Store joins two other Barnes & Noble locations on campus that sell Temple merchandise—the Main Campus Bookstore located in the Student Center and the Barnes & Noble on Broad Street.
“Everything is Under Armour, so that’s kind of cool,” sophomore risk management insurance major Matthew Filippini. “I don’t know if we needed another store, but I don’t mind it.”
“I think it’s a little weird that they’re opening a new store right in between the two stores they already have, but I think the goal is advertising just because the athletic team is doing so well right now,” senior kinesiology major Michael Hyer. “So they’re like, ‘Why don’t we open up another shop and get some pride going around campus?’”
Some items include traditional apparel like jerseys, t-shirts and sweatshirts. The store also sells items like baseball hats, knit caps, backpacks and gym bags.
“Jerseys we’ll have in all the locations, but we wanted to make this store special, so everything you see, you can’t buy any place else,” said Joyce Armand, Regional Manager at Barnes and Noble College Booksellers.
Temple’s football team is 10-2 this season and ranked No. 20 in the AP Top 25 poll. The Owls play Houston in the American Athletic Conference Championship Saturday at noon in Houston.
The team’s increased exposure this season, which included a game on ABC’s Saturday Night Football against the University of Notre Dame on Halloween, pushed the opening of the new store to an earlier date.
“We wanted to have it open for the Notre Dame game, but there’s only so much you can control when you’re constructing a building and designing it,” Armand said. “Temple’s been a wonderful partner with us for so many years. The football success has driven the trying to get it done more quickly and certainly inspired us to do it more so than in the past.”
Owen McCue can be reached at owen.mccue@temple.edu.
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