Stand out from the beach store next door with a combination of tried and true styles and newer trending pieces.
Beach apparel is sure to be a big seller for many destination retailers located along the coasts — tourists often love to collect name-dropped shirts, caps and more from their favorite vacation spots.
But beach apparel is a broad category, ranging from collectible souvenir T-shirts to brand name shirts, swimwear, footwear and sun hats to name just some products in the category. Destination retailers can strike a balance between offering a wide assortment of beach apparel, while also having a niche that helps them to stand out from other shops in town.
This approach has worked well for Keith Riley-Spillane, co-owner of Rehoboth Breeze in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. He says the store focuses on carrying higher quality souvenir apparel that he hopes customers can wear for a long time to remember their time in town.
“We’ve found that our niche is with the high-quality shirts and sweatshirts,” he says. “We’re not afraid to test the waters — maybe bring in a nice pair of shorts for a season — but we usually stay in our niche.”
And the niche works. He shares that the shop often has families come in looking for matching shirts to wear for a beach picture.
Having a niche has also been helpful at Sunset Beach Gifts in Cape May, New Jersey. For just over 50 years, the retailer has served souvenirs to tourists. While the store used to sell anything and everything related to the beach and gifts, Owner Larry Hume says the shop has narrowed its focus to high-quality souvenir apparel.
 Presentation is an important aspect for Sunset Beach Gifts, which organizes its name-drop T-shirts on wooden shelves along the wall. “We’re just a five- to 10-minute drive from the heart of Cape May where there’s a lot of shopping. We have a high priority with our merchandise that products have to move quickly,” Hume explains. “With dresses, it takes more time for customers to make a purchase decision on that. So we’ve streamlined our operations to be in T-shirts, sweatshirts and hats.”
Pier Gifts in Pismo Beach, California, has also found its niche in souvenir name-dropped beach apparel.
“We do mostly souvenir clothing — shirts, sweatshirts, tank tops and some beach-themed pajama bottoms,” says Owner Nicole Custer.
Although Pier Gifts sticks to more basic apparel options, Custer always makes sure there’s a wide variety for customers.
Getting trendy with teesSome styles of name-dropped T-shirts will sell for destination retailers year after year, but it’s important to add some new designs to the mix each season.
 Sunset Beach Gifts in Cape May stocks plenty of Baja hoodies and shirts in blue and sandy hues. Custer says she is always paying attention to changing fashion trends when considering what new designs to try for the upcoming season. Blue and green T-shirts with the Pismo Beach name drop will always do well for her, but Custer is also noticing more interest in rust orange, butter yellow and some neon color tones on T-shirts.
“I’m seeing a revival with neon colors that almost reminds you of the ’80s and things perhaps grandma might have worn years ago!” she says.
In the past, Pier Gifts featured a lot of cute graphics and designs on kids’ T-shirts and sweatshirts. But offering the same T-shirt design for both youth and adults has been working quite well lately.
“We used to try to offer more cutesy kids’ apparel, but now most of our kids’ shirts have the same logo and look as the adult shirt,” she says.
Riley-Spillane says he can’t know for sure what T-shirt design will appeal most to customers for 2025. But he knows for sure that shirts from the Big Hed Designs brand will always draw in tourists. He says people love that brand for its playful, beachy designs.
“The shirt from them that’s always big for us is the ‘Crabby Guy’ and ‘Crabby Girl’ design,” he says. “We sell a slew of them.”
Customers also like that most of the store’s shirts are Comfort Colors cotton T-shirts, which are known for durability. Riley-Spillane says, “Our store is known for having a higher quality product, and that’s what people look for here.”
Appear appealingPresentation is always important when selling apparel. Riley-Spillane says Rehoboth Breeze receives quite a few compliments on how the store organizes its merchandise.
“Everything is always in order,” he says. “The employees are constantly refolding shirts, and we’ve even told customers, ‘Let me take care of that for you’ when putting shirts back. I want customers to have a good experience when they come in.”
To go the extra mile, Riley-Spillane says he found ways to make sure his store is easily accessible for people with disabilities. He explains, “I purposefully have my racks on wheels so someone with a wheelchair won’t have problems getting around. I have a child who uses a wheelchair, so I’m hypersensitive to that.”
To promote its apparel offerings, Sunset Beach Gifts will cross merchandise a shirt with a hat or sunglasses on a nice display. Hume says one of his employees has a knack for setting up apparel displays.
“She’s always putting montage outfits together in the shop, and she’ll change them up every week or two,” he shares.
Sunset Beach Gifts has most of its souvenir T-shirts on circular racks around the store. For better organization, Hume adds that each rack only features two T-shirt designs in three or four different color options at most.
He says, “When you look at the racks, they don’t look too busy and have nice eye appeal.”
Ready for beach seasonWith summertime being busy season for many destination retailers that sell beach apparel and gear, these retailers may want to consider stocking up well ahead of time. With this year’s concerns about tariffs, it’s was even more important for destination retailers to secure merchandise before peak season.
 Sweatshirts and long-sleeve shirts have bright color schemes with a name drop at Rehoboth Breeze. Hume says Sunset Beach Gifts orders most of what it needs for the peak season in the winter ahead to be prepared. The retailer likes to shop for new merchandise at regional gift shows, such as The Grand Strand Gift & Resort Merchandise Show, Surf Expo and others.
Hume adds that his team gets good merchandise ideas from vendor sales reps. “It’s always on the top of our list to keep those relationships with good sales reps lively and cordial,” he says.
Peak season runs from June to August in Rehoboth Beach, so Riley-Spillane likes to order most of the next season’s merchandise the winter beforehand. He says he was even more intentional about that this year knowing that tariffs could impact business.
“After the fall election, we ordered everything we could for the summer of 2025,” he says. “We did this purposefully, not knowing what was going to happen with tariffs.”
He notes that buying this much can be a risk, but he’s grateful that he took the risk and is unlikely to get hit by any tariff increases for this year’s summer season. “I’ll be able to sell my shirts at the same price. It’s a risk we took for this year, and I think my customers will benefit in the long run.”
He also takes a chance on new beach accessories or apparel options each year, such as a new sunscreen option, a beach towel or flip flops.
“You can’t be afraid to take risks,” he says. “But also don’t forget what puts your bread and butter on the table. For us, that’s our quality shirts and hats.”
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