Featured Alumnus: Anthony Crimmins ’01
In the Cherouny Hawk's Nest School Store, there is always a wide array of Winged Beavers apparel for sale. Of course, these items never outsell the cookies, milkshakes, or breakfast sandwiches that students line up for every break between classes. However, in early February, one apparel item managed to compete with these sweet treats—a new, in-style hat designed and manufactured by April’s featured alumnus: Anthony Crimmins ’01.
Avon Old Farms School relies on support from alumni in a variety of ways, and this wouldn’t be the first time an alum has done so by supplying the school store with merchandise. This latest collaboration between an Avonian and their school actually came about coincidentally. Lara Doyle P’12, ’14, manages the school store. She says she had just started looking to add “rope hats” to her inventory. These are hats that have a small rope on the brim and have recently spiked in popularity. Just as she was starting her search, Crimmins reached out to share he was expanding his apparel brand, and offered to supply her with a new rope hat he had been working on. “It was perfect timing,” Doyle explains. “And if I can work with an alum, why would I say no?”
The hats, white with a red rope and “Winged Beavers” stitched in blue, flew off the shelves. According to Doyle, more than 75 have been sold in just over a month. Crimmins says he and his company, StickStar, have much more on the horizon. “We’re at a point now where we’re really trying to blow up the brand. StickStar has been really well received, now it’s about how big we can get.”
StickStar is about 20 years old at this point, and the company has evolved significantly since Crimmins first began work on it while in college. He played D-1 lacrosse at Butler University, and during summer breaks began working on a lacrosse instruction business in his home state of Texas. This instructional camp garnered enough aspiring young athletes to form an official club team. That team, called Dallas Select, is now the longest-running club brand in the state of Texas. Obviously, Dallas Select’s roster and other players affiliated with StickStar needed jerseys and other club gear to compete. After some frustrations with different companies, Crimmins began manufacturing all of their apparel himself. “Our orders kept getting messed up, so we started doing it on our own. The first thing was shorts, then practice pinnies, but now we make all sorts of gear. The amount of shipping we do out of our office is insane.”
While StickStar still maintains several club teams and offers lacrosse training programs, they have grown into a go-to apparel place for club and school lacrosse programs, and are now branching further in that direction, with clothing items being created for a wide range of purposes from athletics to the corporate world. “We still really enjoy helping players. We’ve sent hundreds of kids to the D-1 level,” Crimmins shares. “But our goal now is to branch further into apparel.”
Crimmins and his company have already proven they have what it takes with the Avon Old Farms department of admission ordering a specially designed hat to offer to students on the recent revisit day.
He says he hopes to continue to work with Avon on all their apparel in the future to give back to a school that helped set him on his path. “I have a lot of pride in making Avon gear. Avon helped me develop habits that ended up being super important going into college.” He has fond memories of his postgraduate year at Avon, ranging from the joys of playing fourths soccer with Coach McElheny to the challenges of AP Spanish under Mrs. Leis.
Of course, most of his memories involve his year captaining the varsity lacrosse team including a friendly competition with Brett Garber ’03 over who got to wear the #3, and an overtime win over Loomis in the final game of the season. “We had a really good group our senior year. It was so fun. Every single player in our lineup went on to play at a higher level.”
Crimmins continues to stay connected with AOF lacrosse. He recently designed another round of hats specific for the Avon lacrosse team. “It was a great feeling when I was watching a recent game on the livestream and saw Coach Jackson wearing one of our hats on the sideline.”
While he’s been “hammering it” in his professional life, Crimmins has been busy in his personal life as well. He and his wife, Jin, have their hands full raising two daughters. They all recently returned from a trip to Greece where Crimmins’s grandmother lives. He has another upcoming visit planned: a return to the Farm, where he plans to catch a lacrosse game and meet with Doyle about what other needs she has to stock the school store.
So, to anyone visiting campus soon, make sure to keep your eye out for new StickStar gear in the Hawk's Nest. And if you can’t wait until your next visit, you can go to their website, www.StickStarApparel.com or email Crimmins at apc@stickstarlacrosse.com.