Local Business Gets Exposure at U.S. Open

As a producer of apparel for several local schools, sports teams and businesses, Debra Marsdale has gotten used to spotting her clothes on people around town.

“I see people at Costco with my shirt on,” she said. “There was a woman in line wearing one. I said, ‘How do you like your shirt?’ She said, ‘I love it.’ I said, ‘Great. I made it.’ It’s a fun thing.”

So when a contact at the United States Tennis Association (USTA) offered Marsdale and her staff at a chance to display their wares on a much larger scale by designing a shirt for the U.S. Open tournament this year, she leaped at the opportunity.

“This is our most well-known motif, our most recognized motif,” she said of the rhinestone-studded shirts they produced for the Open, held from Aug. 29 through Sept. 12 in Flushing Meadows, NY.

They already know people all over South Jersey wear Showcase apparel, “whereas somebody may have come from Alaska (to the U.S. Open) and bought our shirts,” she said.

Marsdale opened Showcase Graphics—which specializes in printing, packaging, ad specialties and custom apparel—11 years ago and has spent the last two at their location on Chester Avenue in Moorestown.

She and her staff made close to 900 shirts for the USTA, “which in the grand scheme of things is not a lot,” she said. But it seemed everywhere they went at the Open, every kiosk, had their shirt on display.

Staff at the kiosks told her the shirt was selling well, but she said she’s still waiting to hear back from the USTA to get the official word. In a way though, it’s not all about the money or the business.

Marsdale’s a tennis fan, and a player, and would have attended the Open regardless. So the opportunity to design and sell clothing for her favorite sporting event—and the chance to add a huge client like the USTA to Showcase’s ledger, even if only briefly—was a bonus, and an achievement in and of itself.

“Of course I want new business out of it,” she said. “But it’s exciting for me, cause I play tennis. This is the fun part of what we do … If I sold 60 percent of them there, I would think that’s successful.”

Ultimately, Marsdale hopes the work she and her staff did for the USTA is a “foot in the door” that leads to bigger and better things.

“It was our first time (with them). They were getting their feet wet,” she said. “I’m hoping we can send them other ideas.”