MU Merch: Who is Behind the Trends

If you have visited Millersville University's bookstore recently, you might have noticed their various collections of pop-culture merchandise. The manager of the University store, 2016 alumnus Mike Nitroy, and his employees work together to design creative collaborations on current trends.

Nitroy works with sales representatives from multiple companies and vendors that supply the merchandise and goes through the process of choosing a garment, graphic medium and finally a design. The University Store works with college apparel companies such as Carhartt, Disney, Champion and Under Armour to produce quality merchandise from brands students will recognize. Nitroy says that the representatives even pitch ideas based on what they know are proven sellers, "I've been ordering apparel for almost seven years, and in recent years, I've definitely gotten better about knowing which designs are going to work for our audience and which ones may not. So, I take the inspiration that they give me and choose what is going to work for us and hope for the best!"

Nitroy explains that he does his best to stay on top of the trends but admits that this is a collaborative effort, "I have students who will bring ideas and concepts to my attention that I may not have thought of, and I love that they do that." Nitroy shares that he is not afraid to ask for the opinions of others to gauge their feelings on something he is unsure about, "I'm just one person and one of the hardest parts of my job is that very often, you have to choose and order products that you personally, would never be interested in!"

When it comes to creating custom designs from an idea, Nitroy makes sure to solicit feedback from his co-workers and student employees. "I will show it to a few other people on our staff to make sure that the designer accurately created what we were all picturing. It definitely helps to have a few different people look at something that we created, because then I feel comfortable enough ordering something fully customized to ensure it will be successful," he adds.

In his experience, Nitroy has had several successful original designs that he shares as his bestselling items. He highlights MU's Barbie collection, noting that after he left, he would come back the next day with the display completely bought out.

"I'm also so proud that we have had success with designs that give back to the campus community," he says. Every October, the University Store creates a Breast Cancer Awareness Collection where a portion of the proceeds is donated directly to the Breast Health Initiativeon campus. This campaign is strongly supported by their customers. Similarly, last year they created merchandise that featured Brooks, the campus police K-9 Trauma dogwhere some of the proceeds were donated to his training fund.

"I love being creative and I love staying up to date on pop culture, so getting to incorporate it into my job is extremely rewarding and fun," says Nitroy. "The day I got to call one of my sales reps and say, 'we are interested in making a Millersville 'Eras Tour' tee' was probably my magnum opus, I'm not sure if I'm ever going to be as proud of something I create here as I was that day! There is something so rewarding about having an idea, creating it, and then having your audience see it, understand it and react positively to it."

When asked if he could drop any hints of what may come next to the Millersville University store, Nitroy says there are ideas of featuring Charli XCX's "Brat" inspired merchandise being thrown around currently. "I am just waiting to see what Taylor Swift does next, because if Taylor is doing it, then the 'Ville probably should be too," Nitroy concludes.

To purchase MU merchandise, stop by the school store or visit https://bit.ly/39HUmAC.