He's gone, but the money keeps truckin' in.
First there were Jerry Garcia ties. Five years later, Jerry Garcia boxer shorts have arrived. In the next few weeks, Jerry Garcia computer screen savers will make their debut. And a few months later, Jerry Garcia notecards are set to hit the stationery stores.Although the famed Grateful Dead guitarist has been dead for 1 1/2 years, the merchandising effort using his artwork is going full steam ahead.
Larry Lautzker, president and owner of Famous For Our Look, a men's specialty store in Mill Valley, Calif., said the multicolor, silk boxer shorts, which came out just before Christmas, have been selling well.
"It's amazing," Lautzker said. "When people are buying the shorts, everyone has a little anecdote - how the band impacted their lives. Everyone has a life-transforming event."
The shorts, splashed with the bright colors Garcia used in his watercolors and featuring the J. Garcia label on the waistband, sell for $29.50 - about double the price of other silk boxers.
Henry Jacobson, president of Mulberry Neckwear in San Rafael, Calif., the manufacturer of both lines of boxer shorts and a new line of Grateful Dead ties, says that love for the late musician and his band is what makes the products sell.
"People want that stuff around. . . . They want it to be part of their lives," Jacobson said. "It's an enduring thing - it was about more than the music."
Jacobson said his company shipped 25,000 Jerry Garcia and Grateful Dead boxers to stores nationwide for the Christmas rush and the same number for Valentine's Day.
"The amazing thing is that 35 percent of the inventory sold in one week for Valentine's Day at Macy's," Jacobson said. "Whether you're talking about Dayton Hudson or Marshall Field or Macy's, they sold really fast.
"One retailer, (Mervyn's parent company) Dayton Hudson, had them in 10 or 12 stores for Christmas and Valentine's Day. They're rolling them out to 30 stores for Father's Day," Jacobson added. "Bloomingdale's is doubling the number of stores they sell them in from eight to 16."
In addition, Jacobson said, he's cutting a smaller size suitable for kids and petite women.
Besides the boxers, Mulberry Neckwear also has produced 150,000 to 200,000 Grateful Dead ties that were shipped to upscale department and specialty stores throughout the country last October.
Libby Wegner, vice president of Stonehenge Limited in New York, which began producing Jerry Garcia ties five years ago, said, "We interpret different (Garcia) paintings. We created the label and the image and have grown it. The name has created quite a cache, way above and beyond his fans. His name has become synonymous with a designer label."
Wegner said the first year the company sold the ties, it did $10 million in retail sales. Last year, she estimated the sales at $50 million in 2,000 stores across the country.