Eagles Super Bowl run helps boost sales for small Northeast Philly business

NORTHEAST PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- Jay Pross owns Art History 101 in Mayfair, where customers in person and online have been snapping up the Eagles gear.

"We're known as Philly's authentic streetwear brand," explained Pross. "Everyone that comes in says, 'Go Birds!', when they leave they say, 'Go Birds!'."

Pross designs everything. The merchandise is all made in-house, so you can only buy their products from them.

"We've had a lot of celebrities and athletes wear our stuff," said Pross, pointing out pictures of former Eagle Alshon Jeffrey and head coach Nick Sirianni.

"Everything is limited because we have a small production, so we can only produce so much a day, but that's also what makes Art History so special is that not everybody has it," he added.

Art History 101 was established in November 2007.

"When I started, I started in my mom's basement," Pross explained.

In March 2010, they moved into this store at 7045 Frankford Avenue.

"In March 5th of '21, we had a devastating fire where we lost everything," Pross said.

Action News was there in the aftermath of the fire and spoke to Pross, understandably devastated and unsure of the store's future amid the pandemic.

Pross temporarily moved operations back to his home and rebuilt.

Action News was back later that year in November 2021 for the reopening celebration. Two years later, business is bolstered with the sports teams' successes.

"This is a true 'Rocky' story in my eyes. We lost everything in the fire, and we could have just stayed down and quit and just moved on, but we woke up the next day - me and the Art History team - and got right back to work," said Pross.

They will be working day and night through the Super Bowl.

Pross showed us some of the favorite styles ahead of the big game.

"This has been the most popular- 'It's a Philly Thing'- and this is Art History style," he said.

"We have the NFC conference that I'm wearing right now," showed Pross, who continued, "It says meet me at Frankford and Cottman."

"A lot of the shirts right now we've put up for 'back order' because on a daily basis they are selling out. So if you order on back order off the website, you'll get it because we're making them every day and what's in the store is what's in stock," explained Pross.

"We've had people saying that they're driving all the way from Wilmington, Delaware here, Cape May, New Jersey, north New Jersey. Pottstown, Allentown," said Pross. "Customers are happy. The city is happy, people are spending money, and it's great for small business."

For more information, visit: https://arthistory101.com/