If you can buy a shirt emblazoned with your favorite sports team, beer or band, you should also be able to show your love for your favorite State Fair food.
Now, thanks to father-and-son entrepreneurs Tim and Sam Keran, you can. Their Roseville company, Love the Fair, sells clothing highlighting more than 30 State Fair vendors, most of them food.
And the idea started, appropriately, with mini doughnuts.
Growing up in Roseville, Tim Keran has been going to the fair since he was a kid. As an adult, he always paid a visit to his high school friend, Orin Gaul, an owner of longtime fair vendor Tom Thumb Donuts.
“Every year when I get my doughnuts, I’d say ‘Where’s my T-shirt?’ and he’d say ‘We can’t sell them,’ ” said Keran. “But I kept saying I want a T-shirt, and he said the only way to get a T-shirt is to work here.”
Keran declined the job offer, but continued the banter for years. When Keran asked “Where’s my T-shirt?” Gaul normally answered with a shrug. But one year Gaul snapped back: Why don’t you make one?
The idea wasn’t as farfetched as it may seem.
Keran, who runs a printing business producing promotional items, had the knowledge to kick-start an apparel line. Gaul had no time or desire to get into merchandising, but didn’t like saying no to the customers who had been asking for Tom Thumb shirts.
“So we let it sit for another year or two, like most good business ideas,” Keran said. That’s where son Sam Keran comes in.
“I talked to my dad and said, ‘Are we going to do anything about that fair business? You keep talking about it,’ ” Sam said. “I think I just took it a little bit more seriously.”
The talks started between father and son, then included Tom Thumb, which connected them to other fair vendors, all who gave the Kerans permission to use their logos.
“And then we were off and running,” said Sam.
In 2021, there were shirts representing 10 vendors; now they’re close to 30. In addition to Tom Thumb, the shirts promote fair favorites from classics like Pronto Pup, Blue Moon Dine-In Theater, Giggles’ Campfire Grill and Mouth Trap Cheese Curds to newer vendors like Nordic Waffles, Baba’s and Sara’s Tipsy Pies.
“We kept waiting for the vendors to say no and everybody we talked to was like ‘Yes, please.’ We don’t want to do apparel. We don’t have time to do apparel,” Tim said. “All good small businesses start from solving a problem. It’s not fair that the real passionate fair people can’t get a T-shirt, so we said let’s just do it.”
Tim and Sam’s skills complemented each other like cinnamon and sugar. Dad Tim knew about the business end of things; Sam got the creative side going. Tim made calls and insisted that Sam do most of the work; Sam took care of the technical side, maintaining social media presence and supplier relationships.
“It’s a whole lot of caps for me, and I enjoy it,” Sam said. “It definitely is satisfying my entrepreneurial itch.”
For now, the business is online only (lovethefair.com), although they’re mulling looking into a booth at the fair next year. All shirts — there are myriad styles, colors and sizes available — are made to order, with prices ranging from $25 to $45 and a turnaround of about 10 days.
“Somebody called me a digital carny last week,” Tim said. “Well, I’ve always wanted to be a carny deep down. And I can’t dance or sing or cook food, so this is probably my only way to become a fair vendor.”
Nicole Ploumen Hvidsten is the Star Tribune’s Taste editor and senior editor of Star Tribune Magazine. In past journalistic lives she was a reporter, copy editor and designer — sometimes all at once — and has yet to find a cookbook she doesn’t like.
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