NOV./DEC. 2008

INDUSTRY

SPONSORS

Wholesale Fashion Jewelry by Cool Jewels

ARCHIVES

2008

2007

2006

2005

By Clare Ann Adrian

Old Salty, a popular wind form from In the Breeze.

ightseers aboard the Conch Tour Train wave to a Johnny Depp lookalike who is dubbed Johnny-O, stationed in front of a new point of interest along the open-seated trolley route in sunny Key West, Fla. The Pirate Soul Museum and Retail Shoppe opened the portals to a 17th-century seafaring swashbuckler’s world on January 5, 2005. Entry from the museum into the 500 square feet of retail store provides visitors with a preponderance of piratical gift, souvenir and media opportunities from manufacturers all over the country, who are watching their pirate merchandise sales surge.

“Doing extremely well” in Bend, Ore., Bill Dual, owner of In The Breeze speculates that “the pirate phenomenon got really strong four or five years ago with the discovery of Blackbeard’s sunken ship off of Ockracoke Island, N.C. And the movie Pirates of The Caribbean spurred it on further.”

Dual stocks Walt Disney World in Orlando, Fla. and other attractions and merchants with windsocks. An assortment of other products include flags, kites and his latest additions of polyresin figurines, key rings, and magnets. Dual originates a continuous stream of new designs for his flags and stocks new lines of pirate theme kites that kids and adults alike enjoy.

For whatever reason, Eagle Products, Inc. owner Duffy Carduff notices his piratical-themed T-shirts have gotten hot in the last two to three months. From Kansas City, Mo., the 40-year-old business has maintained what Carduff considers “very economically priced wearables. We’ve come up with three different designs in the last three months to fuel the need. New art on T-shirts, sweat shirts and other wearables, anything with pirates on it, seems to be a trend that, near as I can figure, came from The West Coast.” Along with the coastal accounts including Ripley’s aquarium in Gatlinburg, Tenn., Carduff does business with Grant’s Farm in St. Louis, Mo., other Anheuser Busch entertainment properties in St. Louis and on the coast.

When John and Ardie Flynn started distributing flags five years ago, business was slow. Now that they have successfully infused the gift and souvenir market with Flappin’ Flags from their Eugene Ore., location, they are adding captioned caps to their manufactured items. According to Ardie Flynn, “Flappin’ Flags customers are mostly retail stores in areas that have close proximity to water or have nautical or pirate themes.”

Their flags travel cross country to the Pirate Soul Shoppe in the Florida Keys. General Manager Sue Hagan describes how Flappin’ Flag products are displayed consistent with the pirate theme, “Flags are vertically displayed on a wooden Jacob’s ladder that is hung on a door. Customers can identify the flag design symbol and names of them as they are written above each ladder rung.” Caps from Flappin’ Flags are displayed in their packaging adjoining a blunderbuss rifle and pistol selection.

At the Pirate’s Plunder in Seattle, Wash., Manager Valerie Davidson has tried various flag arrays and has settled on a slot wall display. Demonstration 3 X 5 foot size flags are removed from packaging, opened and hung on flagpoles extending from a rustic barrel. The actual packaged flags are behind the counter available upon request. Stickers are on spinner racks along with pirate jewelry and other items. The most popular selling items are anything printed with the phrase “Surrender The Booty.” Flappin’ Flag caps, T-shirts and flags so inscribed are displayed on a back wall easily seen upon entry into the store.

Pirate merchandise has settled into a consistent category for Mystical Treasures in Los Angeles. Owner Dana Davies expects another spurt in sales to occur with release of a second Pirates of the Caribbean movie in 2006. Davies’ newest pirate-related items, two new pen designs, key chains, pirate notebooks and journals are amongst those he sells to Disneyland in Anaheim for the Pirates of Caribbean Ride Shop, Treasure Island Casino’s Sirens Cove Shop in Las Vegas and the Pirate Soul Shoppe in Key West where the journals are in a rather topsy-turvy arrangement, by design. Visitors transition from the museum to the store through an area where displays are upside down! Merchandise, such as Mystical Treasure’s pirate journals are supported upon the capsize theme devices. From a crow’s nest of an inverted ship, the journals can be viewed upon 3-tiered round ledges. Davies’ clay pens, however, are positioned upright on top of a pedestal holder in another area of the store where everything is more traditionally right side up.

Renaissance man and owner Pat Croce and his daughter Kelly Sorg are mainly responsible for the multifaceted museum/store concept presentation. Hagan, who assumed management of the museum and retail operations after 33 years in the banking industry, was awestruck by the degree of creativity that has gone into the shop. "It surpassed my expectations," she beamed, as she described the layout. "When visitors walk through the museum they enter into Port Royal, Jamaica. It's a self-guided tour that can last one to 11.2 hours. Upon exit, they enter into the upside down pirate ship with some inverted decor like a mermaid and a life preserver to give the illusion of being under the sea."

The Pirate Soul inventory is very thorough. True to a long journey at sea, every cranny and nook of the store is efficiently stocked with pirate-themed items from home decoratives, to clothing, books, novelties, toys, jewelry, and cutlasses with scabbards. Hagan delights in describing the merchandise: “The clear glycerin Bath Adventures soap bars eventually end up as a toy Blackbeard or Captain Kidd pirate with sword. We have pirate crab and lobster ornaments for tree or window.” Of the private line of Pirate Soul clothing, for adults there are logo sweat and T-shirts with skull, bandana and earring, and for young tykes, rompers in pink or red with no less than the words “poop deck” printed on the back bottom. The home decoratives include skulls, sconces and tiles, pub signs, wine bottle holders and business card holders all bedecked with palm trees and mermaids. Besides a complete line of pirate books, a section of the store is dedicated to the motivational books by Pat Croce.

Having been involved in the retail side of banking and working with the public has contributed to a smooth transition into Hagan’s current niche. She bases any planning sequence for the gift shop on feedback from clients and employees about additional merchandise to carry. “Though we really don’t have any competitors down here, we plan on refreshing the merchandise probably every six months. There are other pirate ships in other stores but we are unique in that we are a pirate gift shop.” Hagan deals with approximately 64 vendors all over the country to stock the store with a total of 360 items of merchandise. That doesn’t include the photos of pirate-garbed Johnny-O and visitors that come through the museum. The photos are captured by the remote wireless clicker in his hand and sold in the gift shop as just another of its novel side attractions