Anchorage Daily News

Local and Internet-based businesses are cranking out Sarah Palin products -- from "Palin Power" maternity T-shirts to "Wonder Palin" thong underwear.

One Anchorage entrepreneur, Jim Dooley, printed about 700 John McCain/Palin shirts this weekend, delivering the first batch to the Alaska State Fair by 4 p.m. Friday.

They sold out every day.

Dooley declined to say how much money he made on the pro-Palin shirts during Alaska's biggest summer bash.

But it was enough to "pay for my turkey legs and pork-chop on a stick," he said.

Alaska Serigraphics, an Anchorage company, said it will produce pro-Palin T-shirts that will be offered for sale at downtown gift shops, possibly as soon as Friday.

"Our mama beats your Obama," reads one of the company's T-shirt designs.

The company is also producing pro-Obama T-shirts, noted John Williams, the production manager.

The buzz over Palin's selection as McCain's running mate on Friday has other local businesses and Palin advocates seeing potential dollar signs.

Trish Houser, the creator of Palintology, an Anchorage-based pro-Palin Web site, has run the site as a personal hobby for two years. She's considering putting ads on it to generate income for the first time.

"Oh my gosh, are you kidding me?," she said Tuesday.

After Friday's big news, "I went from 100 hits a day to 10,000 hits per day," Houser said, adding that she spent about 20 hours keeping the site updated over the Labor Day weekend.

Houser is mulling over potential Google ads on the site. She's also talking to a local company about printing up "Palintology" T-shirts for sale in Alaska.

Alaskans aren't the only ones cashing in.

One of the country's major Web-based T-shirt retailers, Cafe Press, said its members from around the world had created 2,310 Palin-related items for sale by 5:30 a.m. Alaska time on Friday, even before Republican presidential candidate McCain had officially announced Palin as his running mate.

"It's fascinating to see how (the sellers) jump onto news items," said Marc Cowlin, the San Mateo, Calif.-based company's spokesman. By Tuesday, at least 93,600 items mentioning Palin were for sale on its Web site. But Cowlin didn't know how many had actually sold.

Among the items for sale on Cafe Press: Pro-McCain/Palin baby bibs, T-shirts, thong underwear, political signs and bumper stickers.

Dorene Lorenz, a Seward artist who hawks some of her designs online, didn't get busy until midnight on Monday.

By Tuesday morning, she had pro-Palin T-shirts up for sale on the Web site Zazzle.

"It was purely for entertainment," Lorenz said, adding that she was disappointed that McCain didn't pick Mitt Romney as his running mate.

Find Elizabeth Bluemink online at adn.com/contact/ebluemink or call 257-4317.

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