The Smack Story

Since 1998 Smack Apparel has created T-Shirts for sports fans. 

This is the story of how it all began ...

Since 1998 we have been making creative, unlicensed, one of a kind shirts for the real sports fan.

Why unlicensed you ask?   It is not that we are averse to being licensed; we are just averse to the CREATIVE RESTRICTION that would come along with being licensed.  If we couldn't do “CHOKE…The Official Drink of Michigan Football” or “C.U.B.S…Completely Useless By September” it just wouldn’t be any fun (Sorry Michigan and Cubs fans)!  And what if we couldn’t make The BCS Robbery shirts for the fans of a team that just went undefeated but can’t play for the BCS Title or perhaps their team was robbed by the team they had beaten in the regular season (sound familiar Texas fans!?).  What fan wouldn't want a shirt to let everyone know how they feel about being screwed by a computer and left out in the cold, only to play in some second place bowl?  Of course some “officials” don’t like such brash shirts.  “You can’t make fun of the BCS!” ... but that is what SMACK is all about!

Hey, if the GREATEST SPORTS SHIRT OF ALLTIME had to be approved by licensing officials, the University of Miami or Notre Dame, “CATHOLICS VS CONVICTS” would have never been made! That 1988 classic was what sports is all about!
 

How it all began ...

In 1998 it all started with one idea, for one t-shirt.  

Steve Spurrier was a force that had never been seen before in the SEC.  He came in brash and started kickin’ butt right off the bat.  What made Coach Spurrier different from any coach in the game was not only that he coached his alma mater, but he also was their Heisman trophy winning quarterback, a Gator thru and thru!  He always had distain for Tennessee, Georgia and the rest of his SEC opponents (not to mention FSU).  He had hated ‘em since he was 18 and even though he was now a coach, why stop now.  If he could chuck that ol’ ball one more time, even if there was only 1:12 left on the clock and he was up by 50; he was chuckin’ it! 

He beat Tennessee and their super star QB, Peyton Manning all four years.  He loved kickin’ Phil Fulmer’s butt like no one else.  Of course, Steve couldn’t just leave it alone after victory (usually a very big one too), he always had to rub it in, or crack some joke at a Florida Alumni gathering.  Who can forget, “You know why Peyton Manning came back to Tennessee for his senior year? He wanted to be 4 time MVP of the Citrus Bowl!” For those that don’t know, the runner up in the SEC East was usually headed to Orlando for some non-headliner game that nobody really watched outside fans for those schools. 

How about “You know what FSU stands for? Free Shoes U!” after their infamous footlocker incident after the 1993 National Championship season.  Lastly, when Georgia and Florida had to play a home and home series away from Jacksonville because of renovations to the stadium in Jacksonville and Steve laid half a hundred in Athens on poor old Ray Goff (or Ray "Goof" as Steve called him).  When asked why he scored a last minute touchdown on the Dawgs to make it 52-17, Steve Spurrier wryly told the media “I think that’s the most points ever scored in Sanford Stadium!”, making reference that the home team, the Georgia Bulldogs had never scored 50 inside their own stadium, so he figured he’d do it.  Classic Spurrier! So what was that first shirt?

on the front, the famous Will Rogers' quote "Never Met a Man I Didn't Like" and on the back, "Will Rogers Never Met Steve Spurrier!" 

The shirt quickly became every college stores number one selling shirt, and was gaining more and more attention even being shown on the sidelines during ESPN and CBS telecasts and media everywhere where riding the wave of Smack Talk that was being proudly displayed on the shirt.
 

Want to see more of the great SMACK shirts ...

check out the Hall of Fame page!