KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A primal roar. A hairy chest. A brother in celebration.
These are the ingredients of the latest Kansas City Chiefs-playoffs meme. This one focused on Travis Kelce’s brother Jason.
Kind of ironic that the image of a shirtless man gets printed on a t-shirt but that’s how fans roll in Chiefs Kingdom.
The situation highlights how quick places are getting out merch. Think about how much Taylor Swift stuff came out this year. Do those same fans still have their “Jabroni” clothing in rotation? Are they still wearing their “Henne-thing is possible” t-shirt?
All that said, the fact is that a moment like “shirtless Jason Kelce” hits hard and burns hot in the moment.
Among the prayer candles and throwback jerseys, there are also the more timely images on t-shirts at the Bunker in Westport.
“For instance, the ‘RUN AFC’ pretty good shirt for this time of year,” Drew Barr, general manager of the Bunker, said while holding a shirt homaging RUN DMC with Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce edited in.
“We’re definitely seeing an influx of customers looking for something new for the next one,” Barr said.
Enter Jason Kelce, caught on video interacting with fans after his high profile howl to celebrate his little brother’s TD.
By Thursday the Bunker plans to get a t-shirt design in honoring that moment.
“You do have to move really fast. Like, the ideas have to come out almost as soon as the game is done if you really want to get a leg up and have the one that people really want this time around,” Barr said.
At Eileen’s Colossal Cookies in Liberty, Manager Hannah Stumpner devised another design for cookie cakes which also celebrates the moment.
After posting the shirtless Jason Kelce design to social media they’ve gotten a rush of orders, more than 50 of them, and Hannah creates them all freehand, each one taking about 15 minutes.
“I have to say this is not my first shirtless person cookie. I, like I said, the weird ones are usually what comes to me, so,” Stumpner said.
“I just saw that chest hair and I was like ‘That’s an eye-catcher right there.’ So I just kind of wanted to play off of that,” she said.
“And we just so happened to have some chocolate shavings at the shop. And I was like ‘That’s Jason’s chest hair.’ So that’s where I came up with that,” Stumpner said.
“The belly part looks like a true big belly. I mean, it looks 3D-ish to me. I don’t even know how she did it,” Kristen Uhlman, owner of the Eileen’s Colossal Cookies in Liberty, said.
“People have even reached out saying that they will drive two hours to come and get a cookie cake,” Uhlman said.
“This has been the most popular thing so far. But we have also done a lot of Taylor Swift cookies. So that’s been what is before this,” Stumpner said.
Eileen’s Colossal Cookies did get a mention on the New Heights Podcast that dropped Wednesday morning. The bakery likes it saying that January is slow for all retail and that a lot of people are eating fewer sweets after New Year’s.
The bump also extends to clothing retailers.
“His brother seems like a pretty amazing guy as well. I love their podcast,” Barr said at the Bunker. “So I think that seeing him up there celebrating his little brother was a pretty epic moment that people want to celebrate and feel like they’re a part of that.”