“I’ve been buying Baylor clothes for a long time,” said Billy Garrett, and now, as owner of Sterling Clothing Co., he’ll have an opportunity to sell Baylor clothes.
The original painting is by Caroline Stroud (an artist in Atlanta). We commissioned the painting through (the clothing company) Onward Reserve. They have a relationship with Caroline. She’s done multiple things for them. She does wedding art, she did some art for the lieutenant governor of Georgia. She’s a pretty well-known artist. We sent her images and she came up with her own version of that. I wanted to include the Brazos River, because that’s important, and McLane Stadium.
I wanted something different that we don’t see it at every Baylor function. We want to keep some unique Baylor items, so I thought this would be a good start. I really like it. It’s in the style of what I saw and liked. It’s not just precise. It’s a bit abstract, but it captures the moment of the sailgating. And it captures the moment of the crowd at the stadium with the boats there and just the beauty of McLane Stadium.
It was pretty much based off of (Onward Reserve’s) previous work with Kyle Field and the stadiums at Alabama and Georgia and all the stadiums they had done. They pretty much do the painting with their name Onward Reserve at the top. And what’s good about Onward Reserve, their logo is a bear. It’s not the Baylor bear but it’s a bear. So that’s kind of neat, as well and an attraction of Onward Reserve to us.
Onward Reserve handles the licensing. I did visit with Baylor to cover my bases, to just get their thoughts. I said, “I just want to make sure you’re OK with it.” I know they’ve cleared it. It was easy. We talked about what they kind of expected in certain things and if I did some licensing through other companies or come up with other ideas.
We’re going to have other Baylor things. We’re bringing in some other Baylor stuff that we’ve had custom made through a company that has Baylor licensing, so you’re going to see more and more Baylor things. We’re going to have some Texas A&M stuff, some Texas stuff, because Waco is made up of a lot of people beside Baylor. We want them in to come in and have some options, but Baylor will be our focus.
Garrett, longtime owner of Waco’s Secret Chef, said Sterling is a throwback to when Waco was home to men’s clothing stores like Shellenberger’s and Rick’s, both of which have been gone for years.
“I like locally-owned companies,” he said. “I just wanted to bring that to Waco. We did some research and found some good clothing lines that aren’t offered here with high quality items, high quality fabrics, that we can sell to Waco and target the Baylor market and just people in the community.”
One of his signature items is a t-shirt printed with an image of Baylor’s McLane Stadium, which was from an original painting that Garrett commissioned. Sterling Clothing Co. is located at Ridgewood Village, 2012 N Valley Mills Drive.
