Yinzer fever: Mon merchant’s ‘Ital-Yinz’ mug sales explode after TV appearance
A normally quiet Sunday afternoon was interrupted by the repeated chiming of Michelle DeHosse’s cellphone.
The New Eagle woman quickly learned that the sounds coming from her phone were notifications of orders pouring in for one of the items she sells in her Etsy shop, an “Ital-Yinz” mug.
“That was bizarre,” DeHosse said. “After the seventh or eighth (notification), I figured this got shared somewhere or someone mentioned it.”
She eventually learned her mug got a sizable boost from nationally known sportscaster and talk show host Pat McAfee. McAfee, a native of Plum, displayed one of the Ital-Yinz mugs during an appearance on the NFL Network’s “GameDay” program.
“I don’t know where he got it,” DeHosse said. “It’s been a wild couple of weeks,” she said in an interview last week. “Usually, the first couple of weeks in January are pretty quiet. Not this year.”
DeHosse, 51, is the owner of Sparkles by Shell at 246 W. Main St. in Monongahela and an online Etsy shop by the same name.
“This insanity started in 2005,” DeHosse said of her crafting shop. “This is my 20th year in business.”
The 1991 graduate of Ringgold High School was working as a legal secretary at the time, but had a lifelong passion for crafts. She wanted to buy a football-themed rhinestone shirt, but found them to be expensive. So she decided to make one.
“I bought all of the supplies, hand set all of the rhinestones with tweezers, used an iron to put it on a shirt that I liked and sold eight,” DeHosse said. “That’s how this all started. I’ve always enjoyed being crafty somehow. Even as a child.”
Sparkles by Shell, a nod to the rhinestones and her first name, moved from her home to the West Main Street location in 2012.
In recent years, her online presence has exploded.
“This was the first year my online stores blew the storefront out of the water,” DeHosse said. “All of my online stores had record sales. Everybody wants to shop online now.”
Her “Ital-Yinz” line of products sprung from a request from a customer about five or six years ago.
“A gentleman came in and saw my ‘Yinzer’ line in the window,” DeHosse said. “He wanted something to say “Ital-Yinz.’ Some of my best sellers are from customers’ requests.”
DeHosse admitted didn’t know exactly what the man wanted.
“He had to write it out for me because I couldn’t grab the ‘yinz,'” she said.
What he requested was the words “Ital-Yinz” sandwiched by the Pittsburgh skyline at the top and the boot of Italy at the bottom.
“I put it in the window and I put it in my Etsy shop and it started moving,” DeHosse said.
She has other products sporting the “Ital-Yinz” logo, too, including T-shirts, hoodies, sweatshirts and ornaments.
“They are a very good seller for me, especially during the Steelers and Penguins seasons,” DeHosse said. “We ship these all over the country. We just shipped one to Hawaii.”
The mugs were not her first time one of her products went viral.
During the week of Thanksgiving, more than 700 hoodies sporting a QR code were purchased. “When you scan it, it doesn’t say anything nice,” DeHosse admitted. “That is not something I would ever wear, but apparently a lot of people will.
“I have two rules. I’ll make anything you want as long as you don’t make me wear it, or it doesn’t bring the Secret Service to my door.”
DeHosse said she’d like to connect with McAfee in some way, but wasn’t sure how she would go about it.
“I’d send him a T-shirt, but I don’t know what size,” she said.
She loves her job and lights up when she talks about it.
“I play all day,” she said. “Whether it’s sitting in front of a computer designing, working on the embroidery machine, printing shirts, I am the luckiest (person). I really am. This is definitely not work. When this isn’t fun anymore, I’m done.”