BUSINESS PROFILE
Photo by Vern Howell
STETSON FROST
MAKING HIS UNCLE LANE’S
NAME A BADGE OF HONOR
Three years ago, Stetson Frost, nephew of the late
Lane Frost, designed a hat with his uncle’s emblem on
it. He figured he would just give it away. Little did he
know the popularity of the hats would launch him into
the apparel business with Lane Frost merchandise in
over 400 stores nationwide.
“We do about five thousand hats a month. It just
snowballed. I just did it because I'm just a huge fan of
my uncle and always thought that I'd like something
of him, so I would assume the fans would as well,”
Stetson said. “I saw that there was some potential,
but I didn't know there would be this much potential.
I didn't know this would be my full-time job. I didn't
know that this would be all that I do. I didn't know I'd
be on the phone all the time with orders and customers
and fans. I just saw an opportunity and didn't know it
was going to do what it has done. I thought maybe
a few extra bucks here and there, no big deal. But
eventually I had to quit my day job.”
Every day the Frost family is surprised by the popularity
of Lane.
to grown men in professional sports. And Grandma
[Lanes mother, Elsie Frost] is always like ‘I can't believe
people still want stuff and still enjoy stuff.’ It's awesome
they do, but it's like ‘wow.’ It'll be thirty years next year
since he passed. That is not counting since he was
born and had his career. So the longevity of the impact
he made has pretty much been astounding.”
Stetson and the Frost family have a few stipulations for
wearing the Frost brand.
“Skill is important, but character was my big thing,”
Stetson said. “Character is very important and how
you treat the public and your fans. Because that was
who Lane was and I want my athletes to portray that.
I mean we have guys who are in the top ten in certain
sports that hit us up. But I hear that they're rude, that
they're jerks. If I hear bad things about them and I can
back it up with other instances I know about, I have no
desire to work with them. You can win the world, but if
your character is not there, I don't care.”
“We get about fifty sponsorship applications
a month. And tha