Youth was served, but we owe the animals an apology
Bigfoot was among our new youth tees, but the state dog and state reptile didn’t make the cut.
It’s the nature of Stay Apparel, our unapologetically nostalgic brand, that we always have a foot in the past.
But as a boot-strapped small business just completing its first year as a full-time concern, we spend much more time on the here and now and the near future.
As we reach the intersection of one year and another, we can’t help but take stock of 2025 while working to be a better company in 2026.
More and less of Makers at the Museum
Back in February, we added Wednesday hours; we’re open 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday at the Hershey History Center.
We offer arguably the prettiest retail setting in Hershey, but generating foot traffic is a work in progress. We still hear from plenty of people who are unfamiliar with the nonprofit history center, which has been in this spot for 20 years, much less our young store.
We hosted 10 monthly Makers at the Museum artisan markets in 2025, after five in the second half of 2024. These free events have proved invaluable in introducing the public to our store, to the history center museum and property, and to dozens of talented artisans selling their unique products.
That said, 10 shows proved to be a lot, so a recalibration is in order. We’re going to eliminate the cramped indoor shows in the winter and the sweltering outdoor shows at the height of summer.
Essentially we’ll have spring and fall seasons: April 19, May 17, June 14, then Sept. 20, Oct. 18 and Nov. 11. Here’s a link to the artisan application for the spring dates.
Our hope is that we’ll make up for the reduced quantity of shows with even better quality: more vendors at each event and more ancillary activities, building on the live music, face painting, balloon twisting and the like that we added as 2025 wore on. We’ll continue to offer food trucks and hope to bring back a regular beer vendor.
We’re aiming for more of the collaboration that we welcomed in 2025, such as Wild + Free Yoga’s free class, and visits from Pennsylvania State Police troopers on horseback and from Ralphie Packard, aka “Mr. Hershey,” an F1 Aussie doodle, social media darling, and possibly the cutest canine ever.
Our September show featured appearances by several legendary members of the Hershey Bears hockey team and by representatives of the Hershey Cubs junior hockey team, including mascot Cubby, who returned in November.
Those types of activities contribute to a well-rounded show. We want more of them in 2026.
New tees
In 2025, we introduced youth versions of our popular Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful, Pennsylvania Bigfoot Believers and Ben’s Bolt designs. For Halloween, we offered identical youth and adult Keep Pennsylvania Boo-tiful shirts.
We paid homage to area hockey history with our new Dominion Hockey Sticks and Kenny Smith Sport Shop tees. We offered our first hooded sweatshirt in years.
But nothing created energy like our Three Mile Island tee, which we first introduced as a gray tri-blend ringer and then complemented with a navy cotton version.
Alas, we didn’t make good on our plans for new designs honoring Pennsylvania’s state dog, the Great Dane, and its state reptile, the Eastern Hellbender. We’ll reconsider them along with all of the other product ideas on the table in 2026.
More non-apparel products
We continued to grow into our brick-and-mortar space, expanding our lineup of non-apparel products. Among these items were an original Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful mug and curated dish towels, lip balm, hand cream, pens, notebooks, log toys.
We expanded our selection of locally produced Chocolate Avenue candles and added aerial photo prints of Hershey locations taken by Harrisburg photographer Michael Yatsko.
We’re hoping to install more shelves in our store in the year ahead to accommodate even more goodies, original and curated alike.
The road sure is rocky at times, but we continue to believe in our mission to offer only high-quality, high-value American-made products.
We’ll continue to celebrate the past while moving purposefully into the future.
You’re invited to Stay the course with us.