Justin Cook | The Roanoke Times

New River Valley retailers were already selling 2008 ACC Champions and pre-game Orange Bowl merchandise before the game, but Virginia Tech's win brought orders for all-new championship T-shirts, hats, sweatshirts and memorabilia.

With the Orange Bowl victory Thursday night, the Hokies not only boosted their place in history but also sales of Virginia Tech merchandise.

New River Valley retailers were already selling 2008 ACC Champions and pre-game Orange Bowl merchandise, but the win brought orders for all-new Orange Bowl champions T-shirts, hats, sweatshirts and memorabilia.

Customers started asking Friday morning about Virginia Tech, ACC champions and Orange Bowl champions merchandise, said Jenn Kaylor, clothing manager for the Tech bookstore.

It takes a few days for the store to get specialty merchandise, such as championship shirts, because manufacturers don't start printing until the day after the event, Kaylor said.

"It's not the like NFL, where teams might print championship shirts ahead of time," he said. "It's not cost-effective for college teams."

But the designs for bowl merchandise are made ahead of time, and each store has an "if-win" order, meaning a predetermined amount of merchandise will be made and shipped if the team wins, said Steve Glosh, assistant director of the University Bookstore.

A new University Bookstore and Volume II bookstore Web site was launched as soon as Virginia Tech won the Orange Bowl, featuring with all the new merchandise that would be available at the stores, Glosh said.

The shirts, hats and other items arrived in stores this week.

More popular than the Orange Bowl merchandise has been the ACC championship merchandise, said Hunter Maxwell, manager of Alumni Hall, a store specializing in Tech clothing in the New River Valley Mall in Christiansburg.

People are sometimes hesitant to buy generic bowl merchandise until after the game, in case their team loses, Maxwell said.

The turnaround is usually only a few days for merchandise with the champion's name on it, he said.

"We usually get them real quick because everybody wants them right then," Maxwell said.

Shannon Thompson of Christiansburg shopped for Tech clothes on Friday in Alumni Hall with her daughters, Courtney Burton, 16, and Madison Thompson, 7.

Thompson, clad almost entirely in Virginia Tech apparel, said she didn't necessarily want Orange Bowl merchandise.

"I just wanted to add more to my collection because of the win," she said. "I'm so excited."

She also said that since Thursday's win at the Orange Bowl, she and her husband are already planning to travel to the Sept. 5 Virginia Tech-Alabama game in Atlanta.

So far, the Tech Bookstore's most popular item have been the "Back-To-Back ACC Champions" merchandise, she said. The store still has merchandise from Virginia Tech's losing bowl bid in 2008 because "no one wants it when they lose," Kaylor said.

There is an immediate rush to buy, Glosh said, but the merchandise has a shelf life of about a year.

"It'll be very popular through the spring game" in April, Glosh said.

Tech doesn't benefit directly from the sale of Orange Bowl merchandise, said Locke White, director of licensing and trademarks for the university. The ACC receives royalty money for the bowl game merchandise, Locke said. But it does get royalties from regular Tech merchandise that sells in the wake of a big victory.

"When we win in bowls we definitely see small spikes in our royalties," Locke said.

It takes about three months for royalties to come in, he said. Tech's licensing revenue was up 44 percent to $1.9 million from $1.3 million during the 12 months between July 1, 2007, to June 30.