Popular Erie Otters Playoff T-Shirt Returns

The Otters in the playoffs are also meaning big business for a local clothing line, created by an Erie man.

Besides the tickets, a big seller for this year's playoffs is the merchandise.

And an Erie man has created another limited edition shirt, just for this season's playoffs.

The t-shirts and hoodies are made here in Erie.

With the slogan "We Are Unstpbl," spelled a little different though.

They're made by Erie native R.J. Messenger, he owns Iron Empire Clothing, located on Poplar street in Erie.

You may remember, the catch phrase and t-shirts were really popular last season, when the Otters made their way through the playoffs. Even the Otters themselves snapping a picture wearing the shirts.

This year, the design is a bit different, with an Otters logo, and it's blue, as some of the otters playoffs games will be a "blue outs," "Doing this from last year, now we have a sponsorship deal with them (Otters) for next season, so hopefully we'll have a lot of stuff in play with the Otters throughout the next couple years," said Messenger.

Iron Empire Clothing will be selling the shirts throughout the playoffs.

They're selling them before the games, staring at 5:30 at the Erie Arena Sports Bar, on French street.

It's all meaning great business for one of Erie's newest clothing retailers, "It's good for the whole Erie area," said Messenger. "With us doing these shirts, it brings more awareness to us, to those Otters fans who may not have heard of us before, so that's bringing in new customers even for our normal apparel," Messenger added.

Iron Empire Clothing sold a lot of shirts through online pre-sale, with fans picking them up in the store on Friday, "I saw them online on Facebook, pre-ordered them and I'm picking them up today," said Otters fan, Tiffany Sedor. "I've had season tickets since I was like 10, so I've been going every year and I'm so excited for the playoffs I'm glad they pulled it off," Sedor added.

"I definitely think it's just as big if not bigger this year, the team is doing really well and I know a lot of people have high hopes that they'll go all the way this year," said Messenger.

One question many people ask about the shirts, why is unstoppable spelled incorrectly? "Everyone always asks why is it spelled that way? There really is no reason behind it. It's just a branding technique, rather than putting unstoppable we're actually making people ask about it," said Messenger.