Russo's Customers Display Indie Fashion Sense

Russo's staff and customers show off their T-shirts.

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After selling more than 300 T-shirts with IndieBound spirit lines such as “Eat. Sleep. Read.” and “For the Love of Books,” Russo's Books in Bakersfield, California, decided it was time to celebrate. The store invited customers to show their indie pride and socialize at the store during “Eat. Sleep. Read. Saturday.”

Manager Jason Frost used the store's Facebook account to invite customers to “come out on June 5 and show your pride for your local bookstore! Wear any of our unique 'Eat. Sleep. Read.' T-shirts and you could win a $50 gift certificate!” That invitation was followed by an open invitation in the local newspaper and, then, coverage in industry publication Shelf Awareness—which was when the bookstore really began to attract attention.

“The most interesting thing for us was getting it national,” said Frost. After the Shelf Awareness item, the store began receiving T-shirt orders from all over the United States. “We just started getting calls and e-mails from everybody,” Frost said.

Overall, the store has sold more than 300 of its T-shirts, many to local customers who did come out for the party. More than 20 showed up wearing their shirts on Saturday, and 10 posed for the group photo.

And Russo's isn't the only store using IndieBound-related T-shirts as an excuse for a party: Later this summer, Malaprop's Bookstore in Asheville, North Carolina, will be hosting a similar event.