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GIRARD — Linda Barton’s entrepreneurial spirit is matched only by her philanthropic one.
She and her company, Girard-based Sweet Memories Vintage Tees & Candy, donates a percentage of each T-shirt sold to a worthy cause; and it all begun with a phone call she made at the end of 2019 to the folks affiliated with Good Humor ice cream.
Already in the screenprinting business and a licensed apparel maker for Minor League Baseball, Barton said when she learned Good Humor was about to celebrate its 100th anniversary, she reached out to its parent company, Unilever, with a proposal to design a custom T-shirt to mark the milestone.
Unilever agreed and, in 2020, Barton acquired the exclusive rights to create the first apparel line for Good Humor, which was founded in 1920 in Youngstown.
At the same time, she wanted to give back to her community, “so I figured ice cream and kids went together,” leading her to coordinate with Akron Children’s Hospital, which Barton credits with saving her daughter’s life when she was young.
It was the start of something sweet.
“Once I told Good Humor I was giving money back to the hospital, they called me in April 2020, right when the pandemic hit and said we love what you’re doing, can you do Popsicle?” Barton, owner / CEO of Sweet Memories, said. “And I was like, I would love to.”
The pandemic, at the same time, threw a wrench into her contract work for MiLB because of the economic shutdown. It forced Barton to pivot the company.
“When everything was paused, I thought, ‘What the heck am I going to do?’ And then I was like, I need to really make this brand (into) something that is online, so I got on Amazon (and) opened a Shopify to promote it,” Barton said. “I really thought it was just going to be one year for their (Good Humor) anniversary, and then as I was working with Popsicle, they said, ‘We love you’re raising money for Akron Children’s Hospital, are you working with Dum-Dums?’”
She said she asked them why Dum-Dums, and the response she got: Because they’re from Akron.
Popsicle made the introduction and, in 2021, Barton became a licensed apparel producer for Dum-Dums and Necco and Sweethearts, which Dum-Dums’ parent company, Spangler, recently had acquired out of bankruptcy.
A licensing agency connected Barton with Smarties and she called Tootsie, “because at that point, I realized there was a business here.” Tootsie was on board, too, and that meant apparel contracts for its other brands, from Junior Mints to Waxed Fangs to Dots to Blow Pop to Andes to Sugar Daddy.
DIVERSIFY
Barton of West Middlesex, Pa., said she wanted to diversify her line of T-shirts so she contacted a licensing company about Guinness. She said she was told she was too small for that account, but they had something right up her alley — the U.S. Army.
She started the Army line in 2022 and later went onto acquire licenses for the U.S. Navy and U.S. Air Force. A request is pending with the Marine Corps, she said.
That year, she also signed an agreement to make shirts for the National Packard Museum in Warren.
In both instances, a portion of the sale is donated back to the museum and to a moral injury program that helps members of the military suffering from post traumatic stress disorder.
Barton’s line also includes shirts of St. Anthony, St. Francis and Padre Pio with some of the sale proceeds going to the Franciscan Friars of Youngstown, she said.
Other brands in her line of shirts include Klondike and Breyers, both affiliates of Unilever; Isaly’s, which also has ties to Youngstown history; Peeps, Mike & Ike and Hot Tamales. Her screenprinting company also does T-shirts for the Akron Rubber Ducks, the Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs in Allentown, Pa., and Wilmington Blue Rocks in Wilmington, Del.
So far, Barton and her company have raised more than $31,000 for Akron Children’s Hospital, about $4,100 from the Army and Navy brands for the military moral program and about $1,200 for the friars.
SECOND PIVOT
“I realized I’m really limiting myself to just T-shirts,” Barton said after visiting some candy stores where her shirts are sold.
That led to her expanding to add candy. She acquired the building on Trumbull Avenue where her store is located in May 2022. Barton had been operating her screenprinting business there for years.
She invested more than $1 million on upgrades, including about $300,000 for a new roof, and opened Sweet Memories Vintage Tees and Candy on Feb. 10. The store did about $42,000 in business its first weekend.
When most people walk in, they’re awestruck, she said.
“They stop and stare … and when they are walking through, they’re like, ‘I remember these; I remember these,’” she said.
Inside is a candy-lovers delight.
The store, in addition to a wide array of T-shirts, has multiple candy stations, from chocolate to nostalgic and retro candy to Japanese candy, English import and soda sections. There’s also a Pez station and novelty items, like chocolate-covered bugs.
Her best sellers are the Clark Bar, made in Altoona, Pa., and candy cigarettes. The store also features puzzles and the board game Youngstown-Opoly, which Barton said is a big seller.
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