On Wednesday at 12:20 p.m., the desolate storefront on Guadalupe housed a few shelves and a ladder. By 4 p.m. the next day, customers streamed into the fully stocked Barefoot Campus Outfitter to check out the new store that appeared in just one day.
Barefoot Campus Outfitter owners Matt Copeland and Katy Copeland, UT business and managerial economics alumna, have 12 college apparel stores including locations at Texas State, Baylor and now UT. Wooden displays hold everything UT from Matthew McConaughey’s book to countless trucker hats and a custom t-shirt cropping bar. According to the website, the store hopes to revolutionize college apparel in a “fun, badass environment.”
Although Katy attended the University, Matt took charge of the UT location after the opening of their Texas Tech store two months prior. Matt said he hires many of his apparel experts in or straight out of college to help gear their products toward college students.
“I believe in giving young people a chance to kick butt,” said Matt. “You don’t have to be 40 years old to run something. You gotta have a good mind, a good spirit and be a good person.”
Matt brought around 20 Barefoot personnel from their headquarters and different campuses to help put the store together within 24 hours. Marketing manager Kylee Sparks said they aimed to open before the Texas vs. Georgia game this past weekend and needed all hands on deck.
“We didn’t branch out for the advertising because we were just focused on getting it open for this big Georgia game,” Sparks said. “We have started to reach out to some UT contacts to get involved in the community.”
The store primarily relies on foot traffic these first few weeks, but its location on Guadalupe makes it a perfect stop for curious students and visitors. Radio-television-film sophomore Doreen Otaru and speech, language and hearing science sophomore Balyn Keosyhavong said they appreciated the modern design of products catered to different groups.
“We were walking by, and then (Balyn said), ‘Wait, what’s that? Let’s just go in.’” said Otaru. “We walked in, and we’re like, ‘Maybe we should buy that and this.’”
