A Lawrence staple for many years is coming to an end today. Larry Sinks and Joe-College have finally been forced to close down due to various legal fees and lawsuits filed by the University of Kansas Athletic Department.
Joe-College has offered Lawrence residents with cheaper, humorous KU shirts for many years now and will finally be shuting down. The blame for this falls no farther than the University of Kansas Athletic Department and Lew Perkins. The discrepancy started approximately four years ago when owner Larry Sinks received a letter from Lew Perkins telling him to close down his store or he would take action.
Even though Sinks doesn’t use any form of a university logo on any of his shirts Perkins felt that the colors, designs, and slogans were disgracing the university. When Sinks refused to close his store Lew Perkins was true to his word and filed a lawsuit against the store.
After a long drawn out process it was ruled that 53 of the shirts infringed upon trademarks and copyright and that Sinks owed more than $500,000 to the university in penalties and legal fees. Eventually causing the shutdown of the business.
The obvious reasons for Perkins to file this claim was that for every Joe-College shirt sold, that was one less official KU shirt sold, and some think he did the right thing, but for most this will put a huge mark on his resume at the university.
Personally, Joe-College was one of my favorite stores downtown, and it won’t be the same without it. Every time I would go in I would come out with a smile on my face from all the clever shirts and slogans. I will never be able to experience that feeling again. I don’t know about the rest of the Joe-College fans out there, but for me every time I see Lew Perkins face flashed on TV during a game I will immediately think of what he did to Joe-College and the city of Lawrence; and next time you are out buying your ugly, overpriced, licensed KU shirt, you probably will too.
If you have a favorite Joe-College memory or t-shirt let me know down below in the comments.
