“Even Jesus hates LSU”
I’m neither sure how I stumbled upon this last week nor do I understand how I never found it before, the Arkansas based online t-shirt store: Rock City Outfitters. The brains behind Rock City Outfitters is Chris Bouldin. He designs t-shirts constantly it seems. His designs poke fun yet embrace all that is Arkansas and/or Neil Diamond.
The prices range from $6.99 to $15.99 and come in man and lady sizes.
I emailed Bouldin some questions about Rock City Outfitters. The following is his keen and slightly pared down response. Read it. He’s funny.
How did Rock City Outfitters come into existence?
Rock City started when I owned a restaurant in central Arkansas. A great little restaurant with a shiiiiiiittty name. Pizza for Less of Sherwood.
In the process of owning this restaurant, I would spend entire weekends in Sherwood, dressed up on the curb as a GD inflatable pizza man, putting door hangers out and illegally putting flyers under windshield wipers while most of the free world was at home NOT ordering my pizza. I would even get up and go to the early Mass at Immaculate Conception so I could put flyers on the windshields of all the Protestant churches.
Needless to say, I didn’t own the restaurant long. I sold it in March 2008.
One positive thing that did come from it, however, was the fact that I had invested in some shirts for my employees to wear, something unique. It was the I <3 LR shirt (I was overruled when I suggested “F*ck Little Ceasars”). I had my employees wear them for about 3 months, and in that time, I sold more shirts than I did pizza.
In April 2008, we launched, with about 6 designs and an extra bedroom full of shirts. And when I say “we,” I actually mean “me” because I am everything. I do the packing and shipping, the advertising, write the press releases, design the shirts, and talk to the people when they call looking for that special smart ass shirt for the guy in their life that has everything. I do, however, employ my girlfriend (that curly headed girl in 85% of my photos) to be my model, as I am quite unattractive and would do myself no favors if my photo were placed on the website.
How does your girlfriend like modeling your designs?
She doesn’t mind the modeling duties, so long as she gets to choose which photo I use.
She usually gets pissed because we look at 2 different things when we choose a photo for the website. She is looking at her hair or her smile or whatever the hell it is that women think make a good photo, while I am looking to make sure the shirt’s logo is well lit and visible.
She also has the greatest collection of Rock City shirts of any person on the planet, as she charges a shirt per photoshoot.
What’s so damn special about Neil Diamond?
Whats not damn special about Neil Diamond? Have you ever sung Sweet Caroline with 20,000 other people? He is the Jewish Elvis (and he has not 1, but 2 Christmas albums). Jesus was Jewish, and I am sure, had he lived today, he would be a huge Neil Diamond fan too.
Seriously, though. I also have man-crushes on Ben Folds and Dave Matthews but they are harder to relate to Arkansas. I did take Ben Folds a Fayettenam t-shirt when I went to see him in Tulsa, hoping he would wear it the next night in Fayetteville, but as far as I know, he screwed me on that one.
What inspires your designs?
Alcohol mostly. And funny shit I see written on people’s Facebook wall. And Comedy Central latenight. And the Griffin Family of Quahog, Rhode Island. And countless weekends spent driving backroads of Arkansas taking pictures of random Arkansas landmarks (as seen on my flickr site). And my experiences living in almost every city in Arkansas (Paragould, Jonesboro, Fayetteville, Batesville, Little Rock, Bentonville and Rogers to name a few). It’s all in how you see the world.
Honestly, I have no idea where some of my designs come from, but the good sisters of St. Mary’s School (in Paragould) and my parents would have beat my ass for some of the stuff I now put on shirts.
Do you have an all-time favorite design?
Mallett is my homeboy. Sold like crazy for a while, but the General Counsel for the University of Arkansas called and “suggested” I remove it from my website. I really did try to be pissed about not being able to sell it, but the lawyer that called was so damn nice and was audibly laughing about the designs on my site as he was talking to me, so it was hard to stay mad long. I also had enough law school (2 semesters, while working on my doctorate at the UA) to know that I was in the wrong.
Are people constantly telling you their ideas for their hometown?
Yes and no. Some of the emails I have received in the past 2 years have been hilarious, while some of them have quite offensive, even to me.
As much as I would like to accommodate some of these people, in a business sense, I just can’t. Usually, I will take a day or so and put the slogan together with a logo, but those designs go to the “You pick it, we print it” poll just like mine do, so it’s the greater state of Arkansas that actually decides which shirts get printed.
One of my goals for the next 12 months is to get my readers more involved in the design process, however. To allow for guest designers and people to suggest shirts for their towns. The polling process for the designs was the first step in that direction.
(This Beebe with heart glasses design was in the “You pick it, we print it” contest but lost to another design. I say you flood Bouldin with emails to get it back on the ballot)
If I suggested a t-shirt, would you consider it?
I will see what I can do 
Tags: arkansas, Chris Bouldin, Rock City Outfitters, shannon sturgis, t-shirt, t-shirt design