Glory Days Trophies & Sports promotes Camas-Washougal teams

Local business also supplies Little League trophies

By Dawn Feldhaus
August 17, 2017 5:30 am
Business

Dave Gray, co-owner of Glory Days Trophies & Sports, uses a heat press to apply a Camas High School emblem to a T-shirt. Glory Days also sells clothing and accessories that promote Washougal High School.

School spirit is alive and well at the Washougal-based Glory Days Trophies & Sports, where owners Dave and Barbara Gray are preparing to sell “spiritwear” at the home football games in both Camas and Washougal.

The line of spiritwear, promoting Camas-Washougal athletic teams, includes T-shirts, sweatshirts, jackets and baseball caps for adults and children. The business also sell bracelets, keychains, hair bows and baby onesies that can be personalized with local team logos.

Barbara said the line is especially popular with local athletes’ siblings, parents and grandparents.

Items in red and black or orange and black, Dave added, make nice souvenirs for foreign exchange students.

“They take them home to their family and friends,” he said. “We have sent shirts to Spain and Poland.”

“Everyone gets a kick out of the Papermaker Joe and Mean Machine logos,” Barbara said.

Many families display the local school spirit flags in front of their house, or take them to games to wave.

Names and logos can be applied to shirts via embroidered stitches, a silkscreen ink process or a heat press that uses vinyl materials.

Sports socks are available in neon green, hot pink and royal blue. The business also sells baseball belts and batting gloves.

Glory Days Trophies & Sports has been through three owners since its founders — Troy and Teresa Minder, along with Gina Lange — opened the business in 2005. The second set of business owners, Kevin and Robin Kunkel, sold the shop to the Grays, 11-year residents of Washougal, in 2014. The Grays relocated the store from Third Avenue in Camas, to 823 “E” St., in Washougal, earlier this year.

The new store location is 2,200 square feet, compared to the 1,200 square foot former site.

“We are now able to offer more variety and display items better,” Barbara said. “We are in the process of bringing our screen printing in house, which will allow us faster turn around.”

Dave, construction manager for Evergreen Habitat for Humanity, used repurposed wood to build the Glory Days counter and reception area.

The Grays create customized corporate awards, available in crystal and acrylic, as well as trophies for sports and special events. They supplied trophies for the Camas Car Show in July, and will create awards for the Port of Camas-Washougal’s “Wheels and Wings,” an exhibit of cars and airplanes that comes to Grove Field Airport on Saturday, Sept. 16.

The shop has its own piece of Camas-Washougal history — a trophy listing the results of Camas and Washougal high school rivalry football games, from 1914 through 2007. The entry for 1942 is absent, due to World War II, and there are no entries from 1944 through 1954, because there were not enough students.

“Tell me that’s not a neat piece of history,” Barbara said.

“Some alumni players have seen it,” Dave said. “They all have their stories.”

Glory Days supplies T-shirts, sweatshirts and hats for the Camas-Washougal Fire Department and East County Fire and Rescue. The Grays also create the Student Stride for Education T-shirts, using a student’s design, for the Washougal Schools Foundation and Discovery Dental event that is held in May.

The Glory Days’ mascot, “Indie,” a seven-month-old female husky, is especially popular with the younger clientele.

Glory Days Trophies & Sports is open from 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., Monday through Friday, and from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturdays.

For more information, call 360-835-7700, email anewglorydays@yahoo.com or visit www.glorydaystrophy.com.

Related Stories