By Lisa Balschunat
Lids, a store featuring officially licensed Major League Baseball, National Football League and National Basketball Association hats and caps in a wide variety of styles, is stocked up for the fall and winter season at The Outlets of Lake George, 1415 Route 9, Queensbury.
Hats of most MLB, NFL and NBA teams can be found on the shelves of the 1,000 square foot store. The new store also carries a limited selection of college and hockey hats.
Customers can also walk into the store, order a custom designed embroidered hat and walk out of the store with it in less than 30 minutes.
“With our in-store embroidery machine, we can customize any hat, and with most orders, embroider it right on the spot,” said Joe Refici, district manager. “If you want a team logo on the front and the signature of your favorite athlete on the side, we can do that,” he said. “If you want a local Little League team logo and your kid’s signature on the side, we can to that, too.”
Depending on the design, it takes from 5 to 25 minutes to embroider. “If the needle can go through it, we can do it,” Refici said. Customers can choose from New Era, Mitchell & Ness and other brand-name caps to have embroidered.
Additionally, the store has a graphic collection with over 1,000 designs that have been created specifically for embroidering.
Lids also embroiders local logos on hats for local teams or businesses when provided with custom design in a digital format. Refici said JPEG, PNG and PDF files work best.
For orders of 12 or more hats, the turnaround is two to three days.
In addition to hats, Lids sells professional team sports jerseys and branded sportswear by Adidas, Vollmer, Oakley, Nike and Under Armour.
Nationally, Lids has been in business for 25 years with headquarters in Indianapolis and shops in the major metropolitan areas of Chicago, Miami, Dallas and Ottawa, Canada. Lids stores are also located at Crossgates Mall and Colonie Center in Albany.
The store is open Monday through Thursday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.; and Sunday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Lids at The Outlets is open Sunday to Thursday, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Friday and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. On-line shopping is an option at www.lids.com.