As the NC State men’s and women’s basketball teams made it to the Final Four of March Madness simultaneously, the excitement on campus reached fever pitch. Behind the scenes at Wolfpack Outfitters, a flurry of activity was underway to meet the skyrocketing demand for the celebratory gear.

Rich Lombardi, manager and lead designer of the Design Den at Wolfpack Outfitters, said the past few weeks have been a whirlwind.

“We are doing what we can — it’s a mad scramble to make sure that the student body’s needs are being met with the very sharp uptick in excitement that we’re kind of seeing across the board,” Lombardi said. “It’s a lot of kids on campus. It’s a lot of fans outside of the school, too. And we’re just doing what we can to meet the demand.”

Scott Brennan, assistant director of retail merchandise at Wolfpack Outfitters, said most of the products sold in the store come from vendor partners. The vendors created designs beforehand, sent them in for approval and placed orders ahead of time so that they would be printed as soon as the teams won games.

Brennan said that he, Wolfpack Outfitters staff and their vendors have been working to satisfy the requests of students and alumni on top of the initial celebratory gear premade by their vendors.

Brennan said one of the most popular requests he received was to have a Final Four shirt featuring both the men’s and women’s teams.

“That was a request immediately after the game,” Brennan said. “And we didn’t have that on order yet, but who could foresee that? So we got it on order the next day and we just got them in today.”

During the March Madness runs, Lombardi designed and printed shirts more unique to NC State and its current mantras, such as DJ Horne’s memorable phrase “Why not us?” on a shirt featuring a shrugging Mr. Wuf.

“It’s the fastest trademark licensing approval I think I’ve ever gotten,” Lombardi said. “When they saw that, they were like, ‘Yes. Go. Absolutely.’”

Lombardi said the store has also received requests from other facets of the University. One was to convert a graphic featuring five scoops of ice cream and the Tuffy logo onto a shirt for NC State Athletics after the men’s team’s tradition of eating ice cream after wins.

Lombardi said these personalized designs are important because they capture sentiments and feelings from these tournaments that can persist beyond this athletic season.

“‘Why not us’ is conceptually evergreen, right?” Lombardi said. “It continues to be true, almost no matter what. It is a sort of landmark for a great moment in the history of the University, but it also will stay relevant. … I think it is going to give the design a lot of longevity and a lot of purpose outside of just this very exciting time that we’re in right now.”

Brennan said much of the demand is coming from new fans and people who are not affiliated with NC State after both teams’ March Madness runs. Brennan said the store has received orders from across the entire country over the last month.

“It’s a story that’s kind of resonating with a lot of people, not just NC State fans,” Brennan said.

Brennan said the benefit of shopping at Wolfpack Outfitters versus other stores that sell NC State merchandise is that some of the revenue generated by the store is invested back into students through scholarships.