Merchandise sales are thriving and a palpable buzz remains around the El Paso Chihuahuas one week after the brand was unveiled in front of a crowd of more than 1,300 children and community representatives.
The Chihuahuas have been a featured topic on Around the Horn (ESPN) & the Jim Rome Show (CBS Sports Network), received online coverage from the likes of CBS, Yahoo! Sports and AOL.com, in addition to being among the top-10 national trending topics on Twitter.
The team’s Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/epchihuahuas), established only a week ago, has already become the 13th-most popular page among the 30 Triple-A baseball teams. The page, which received more than 16,000 likes within the first 36 hours of the announcement, has now swelled to almost 23,000. The Chihuahuas have also made their presence known on both Twitter (https://twitter.com/epchihuahuas) and Instagram, with a combined total of almost 3,000 followers.
“We are so pleased and fortunate that the Chihuahua brand has not only exploded locally, but nationally and internationally,” said Brad Taylor, General Manager for the El Paso Chihuahuas.
Merchandise has been flying off the shelves, with the equivalent of a month’s worth of sales being processed within the first week. El Pasoans made the strong statement of support for the team with a line 20-people deep outside the door of the Team Shop the night of the reveal, and traffic at the store has yet to slow down.
“We have consistently been filled with customers since our debut,” said Kara Hayes, Manager of Retail Operations. “The store has been constantly busy with plenty of traffic and there are times when the lines are out the door.”
With a sincere desire to serve its fan base, the store has stayed open beyond its posted closing time according to Hayes.
“We have had customers walk up five minutes after we’ve closed,” Hayes said. “We’ve opened our doors for them. We don’t want to turn anyone away.”
Online sales have also excelled, with orders placed from 37 states, and requests have also been made to ship to Canada, Germany, Japan and Mexico.
New Era on-field caps are the biggest seller, a trend that occurs across most markets. The cap serves as the official player cap worn across all of Major League and Minor League baseball.
There are plenty of items in the store to choose from and Hayes says that will be just the tip of the iceberg.
“I assure you when we move to the permanent location in the ballpark we will have an even bigger selection,” said Hayes.
The Team Shop, located at 303 N. Oregon, Suite 120, is open Monday through Friday, 10 a.m.-6 p.m. and Saturdays from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Fans can also visit the online store at www.EPChihuahuas.com.