Selling the Basics

Top-selling T-shirts, Sweatshirts, and Hats

By Carimé Lane

T-shirts, sweatshirts, and hats are staple souvenirs for visitors at zoos and aquariums. For this article, we interviewed five zoo and aquarium shop personnel about their best-sellers in this area, along with the pandemic-driven changes they’ve made to operations.

Currently, the best-selling shirt at Cameron Park Zoo in Waco, Texas, is a recreation of a cute map the zoo hands out to guests printed on the back of a Comfort Colors T-shirt, said Michele Schulz, guest services manager and buyer. Comfort Colors T-shirts are a hit, in particular with younger generations and college-aged kids.

“Anything on a Comfort Colors T-shirt is a best-selling T-shirt,” Schulz said.

Bright and tie died color schemes have been the second best-selling colors in both T-shirts and sweatshirts lately. Entire families have purchased tie died apparel so they all match, Schulz said.

Last spring, Schulz moved operations outdoors. Now, they’ve been back indoors for quite some time and are adhering to COVID safety and guest capacity protocols in the 3,400-square-foot gift shop. Schulz plans to keep up with the sanitization protocols post-pandemic.

Despite the pandemic, they’re doing very well, said Schulz, and are going “full steam ahead,” fully stocked and ready for Spring Break.

The Birch Aquarium is located at Scripp’s Institution of Oceanography (SIO) at the University of California San Diego. Since re-opening in October, their top-selling T-shirts have been those with SIO branding, said Store Director Emily Decenso .

Other popular shirts include those logoed or co-branded with SIO and the Aquarium.

The hoodies with this logo sold out almost immediately. Both students

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