Good News York by Growth Mode Content - GNY EP.171 | feat. Bert "The Shirt" Auf from Scholars & Champs

Episode Date: April 29, 2026

Bert Aufsesser on Scholars and Champs’ 7-Year Anniversary, Vintage Syracuse Gear, and Fan Culture Host Noah Chrysler interviews Bert Aufsesser (“Bert the Shirt”), a Syracuse University alumnus from San Diego and owner of Scholars and Champs, about Syracuse fan culture and his vintage Syracuse merchandise business. Bert previews the store’s seven-year anniversary event on Saturday (open 11 a.m.–8 p.m.) featuring 25% off the whole store, giveaways from Heirloom, and refreshments. He explains how his difficulty finding unique, high-quality Syracuse apparel led him to collect vintage items and open the shop, drawing on his retail background at Nordstrom, Neiman Marcus, and Saks. Bert shares that his favorite moments are seeing customers wearing his pieces, discusses popular items like 2003 championship gear, rarer finds such as cartoon collaborations and Salting Warrior merchandise, and describes sourcing through thrifting and collectors. He promotes scholarsandchamps.com and the shop’s social media, and Noah closes by promoting Clickstream Studios’ free marketing plan offer. 00:00 Syracuse Fan Life 00:17 Meet Bert the Shirt 00:37 Anniversary Sale Details 01:27 How Scholars and Champs Began 02:11 Retail Roots and Best Moments 03:06 Syracuse Culture Explained 03:59 New Arrivals and Hot Eras 04:29 How He Finds Vintage Gear 05:25 Rare Finds and Saltine Warrior 06:41 Cartoon Collab Classics 07:13 California to Syracuse Winters 08:01 What’s Next for the Shop 08:29 Why Shop Scholars and Champs 09:27 Where to Follow and Shop Online 09:51 Show Wrap and Sponsor Shoutouts

Being a Syracuse fan, you know, a lot of my business is based upon people going to games or cheering on, you know, the football or basketball or lacrosse teams. And, you know, I think Syracuse fans really live and die by their teams. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Good News York. My name is Noah Chrysler. Today I am sitting with Bert. Bert the shirt. Bert, welcome. Thank you.

Thanks for having me. Absolutely. Introduce yourself quick. Yeah, so my name is Bert Alsessor, and I am originally from San Diego, but a Syracuse University. alumni and about seven years ago I opened scholars and champs yeah so also you told me that you have an event coming up this Saturday yeah yeah so tell me about the event as well yeah so uh we'll be open from 11 to 8 o'clock on Saturday for our seven year anniversary event it's the biggest event of the year we do 25% off the whole store which is pretty much um wow it's the biggest sale we do

the biggest discount we'll have uh heirloom there giving away stuff and then we'll also have some alcoholic refreshments for those that like to drink. Cool. Kind of a big party, yeah? Yeah, basically. It's exciting. How long is the party? And when should I show up?

You know, the store's open 11 to 8, but we'll, you know, pretty much be there. People will start trickling in around 12-1. And then if for people who have to work who want to come later, we're staying open a little later until 8 o'clock. Cool. Wonderful. So this is your seven-year anniversary, yeah? Beautiful.

In those seven years. Tell me the story of the store. Yeah, so it all started probably back around 2011. I became the Alumni Club president for Syracuse University out in Los Angeles. And I would come back to campus for meetings or a game two, three times a year. And I always wanted to wear something that was, you know, cool, unique, high quality. And I really couldn't find anything I liked. So I started collecting old vintage stuff.

I had my mom sew all kinds of stuff. And next thing you know, I had a storage facility just full of orange club. And finally I was like, I got to do something with this. I had no idea exactly what I was going to do. And then finally, I was like to have worked retail my whole life. I might as well, you know, open a store. And so that's what I did. Cool.

You worked retail. Yeah, so I worked retail my whole life. Mostly department stores. So I worked for Nordstrom and Neiman Marcus and Sax Fifth Avenue and Beverly Hills, Bloomingdale's as well. So, you know, I kind of have a good background. But I also worked wholesale and gone to trade shows and worked for, independent boutique. So, you know, I feel like I have a good gamut of, you know, knowledge

across the fashion retail world. For sure. Cool. What is your favorite part of running the store? You know, people always ask me what the best moment is. I would have to say when I'm out and about in the wild, you know, whether I'm at a game or a bar or an event and I'll see someone who bought something from my store and they're wearing it. And it's kind of like this moment where you're like, hey, hey. And then people, you know, I really get a kick out of it as do the people. They're like, hey, you just sold me this. I'm like, yeah, it looks really cool, you know. I love that. Cool. As someone who runs, you know, a store about Syracuse merchandise, I feel like you're kind of like in the Syracuse culture environment, right? What are some things about Syracuse culture,

specifically that people might not understand? You know, I feel like it's a generational thing in terms of like being a Syracuse fan. A lot of my business is based upon people going to games or cheering on the football or basketball or lacrosse teams. And, you know, I think Syracuse fans really live and die by their teams. You know, I always used to phrase it as when I lived in Los Angeles, you know, you had all the professional teams, you had the college teams. But here in Syracuse, the college team is like all of those combined. So, you know, and you all people drive from two, three, four miles hours away just to come to see a game here at the dome. Wow, that's awesome. In your store, do you have anything that you picked up recently or anything that's like on display that you're

very proud of? Yeah, I just got this jacket here. Cool. So I figured I would wear it and so everybody could see it. But this time of year you start to sell a lot of T-shirts. I really sell sweatshirts all year round. The other big emphasis lately has been all the 2003 championship merchandise. Just because we hired Jerry McNamara as our coach, so there's a lot of focus on that era of Syracuse sports at this moment. Cool. Of the merch that you collect, I'm assuming you go around into different, or actually, I don't know, what does your like merch procurement system look like?

So I always joke, you know, if I told you that I'd have to kill you. Oh, okay. It's proprietary. But I also hate when people don't answer the question. So I'll try my best to take a shout at this. So, you know, I always say anywhere you can imagine someone goes to find this stuff. I've been there to find stuff. So most of it is thrifted or comes from, you know, people who collected.

I do get, you know, some old timers who are clearing out closets and, you know, want to get rid of some stuff. So, you know, I'm able to get a lot of it that way. I do also get a lot of stuff from Rochester and Buffalo. You know, they're a little bit bigger scenes and, you know, they have, I always say they're more willing to get rid of their merchandise. So, yeah, that's kind of the summary of where I find it. Cool. If I am like, oh, maybe I'll give Bert all this stuff. Like, what is typically the most common?

And then, like, what are some like rare finds and pickups for you? Like, oh, that's really interesting. I would say the most common is the 2003 championship. Because if you think back, everybody bought a shirt from that because it's our really our only national championship. You know, but the more obscure stuff, I would say, is some of the car. cartoon collaborations. Interesting.

So that and then anything is Saltine Warrior. Those are the two that you just don't see as much, but that are very valuable and, you know, definitely something that once people see it, they're like, oh, I got to have it. Okay. This is embarrassing, but I don't know what Saltine Warrior is because I've been away. I've been, look, I grew up here, right? But I was away for about seven years and then I came back. Yeah, it was our Native American mascot.

And it was used, I want to say, from like the 50s all the way through, like maybe. the mid-80s. Wow. And then eventually it got phased away, but it's very popular. Wow, I didn't know that. Yeah. Cool, four-s-U or? Yep.

Gotcha. And there used to be a guy who dressed up and you'd see him at games. And there's still a statue in the quad up at Syracuse University. Is it really? Yeah. I didn't know that. Well, cool. Wonderful.

So you're typically the cartoon collaborations too. What is this? Can you tell me about that? Yeah. So there's tons of different ones I've seen over the evening. years, I would say the most, the ones you see the most are maybe the Flintstones, and then Looney Tunes, so Taz and Bugs Bunny. You also do see Mickey Mouse, Garfield, Snoopy, so there's a lot of different ones that were done in the 80s and 90s that you'll see kind of pop up every once in a while.

Cool. Coming from California to one of the snowiest cities in the country, what is that like? You know, it still doesn't bother me. You know, it's just kind of new. for me still, even though I've been here about 10 years. You know, I just, I find it like a novelty. And I think it's, like, fun to, like, trudge out in the snow and, like, trek around, you know. But it doesn't really bother me yet. I mean, we had a bad winter this year. But I didn't, you know, I didn't think it was that bad.

Cool. Do you have a S.U. Snowsuit? Yeah, I have plenty of Syracuse heavier jackets that I can wear. Cool. Bundle up for the. Any snow pants or anything? Like, I don't think I have any Syracuse.

snow pants, which is surprising. I feel like I should. Syracuse, we got to get on this, okay? You know, we got, I don't know, we got to get a snow pants line out. I think that'd be cool. Well, cool. I don't know. What are you excited for for the future of your business? Yeah, you know, summer's a little quiet, but every year back to school, which starts around second, third week in August through December. That's kind of my time to shine. You know, your parents weekend and homecoming and all the first football games and then basketball will start end of October, early November. But I'm just excited to continue to keep giving the masses, the cool vintage gear that you just can't find anywhere else. Absolutely. Tell me about that too. So why should people come to your shop? You know, I always tell people that, you know, everything you get at my store is unique. You know, a lot of it is pretty much one-on-one. You can't find it anywhere else. And it's very high quality. It's better than the stuff that's made now. I always joke and say, you know, it's already lasted 40 years. It's easily going to last another 40. Whereas, that stuff you buy at other competitors just isn't going to last.

And honestly, their stuff is almost the same price as fine now. So we try to be really competitive. I understand some of my stuff's a little more expensive, but it's definitely worth it. Yeah, and it's also vintage and it's unique. I mean, some of the items that you described, even in this short time here, I mean, sound incredibly unique. And I think that that's really cool. I also love your sneakers.

Look at those. Thank you. Are these S.U themed? No, they just picked these old Prada sports. So they called them like America's Cup. Cool. They look nice. And I like the pants too, man.

You looking good. Very good. Well, cool. Burr, is there anything that we didn't cover that you wish we did? No, just check us out. If you live out of town or out of state, we do have a website or follow us on all social media because that's always where we post and we get new stuff or have sales and deals like that. Beautiful.

What is that website and what are your social handles? Just Scholars andchamps.com. And we're on everything, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter. beautiful well cool ladies and gentlemen you heard it here first or maybe not first maybe you are familiar with bert and you heard it here again uh but scholars and champs dot com yeah uh or scholars and champs on social media ladies and gentlemen thank you so much for watching my name is noah christler this is good news york this is a production put on by click stream studios we are a full service content marketing agency here in the old spaghetti warehouse location uh we are central to downtown syracuse and

we do all sorts of digital marketing from video to online sales to websites and that sort of thing. You can get a free marketing plan from me. I will sit with you for about 45 minutes, learn everything I can about your business. I'll take all that information. I'll go put it together into a marketing plan and I'll hand it to you for free. You don't have to use that marketing plan with us. You can use that on your own or you could use it with us if you so choose. But yeah, you can do that by visiting call.com. Clickstreamsteados.com. You can also just go to our website, clickstreamstudios.com. Thank you so much for watching. This show is also brought to you by Get Ads on the Go.com.

Ads on the Go, Get Ads on the Go.com. It's also brought to you by Danny Tripodi, the guy behind that camera who makes it all happen. What a cool guy. There he is. Danny Tripodi.com? We've got to get you a URL, buddy. Thanks so much for watching. Have a great thing, guys.