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Viva Los Heels! The Merch’s new line of wrestling masks is ready for tourney season

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By Kirk Ross

If you’ve wandered down Lloyd Street and done a little window-shopping of late, you may have done a double take when passing The Merch.

Lined up along the window in the printing and gear shop’s new retail sales room are several mannequin heads bedecked with Mexican wrestling masks. Look a little closer and you might notice that one does indeed have a UNC logo. Closer still, and you can read that it is an officially licensed product.

How it came to be that a small company in Carrboro produced the first Carolina wrestling mask is a long story, with action in China, Mexico and Asheboro. Here’s how The Merch’s co-owner Chip Hoppin boils it down:

Music fans around here may recall “Viva Del Santo!” a hit tune by Southern Culture on the Skids about the legendary Mexican wrestler and movie serial star El Santo (The Saint). Sometimes, SCOTS would perform the song while a figure in wrestling gear and mask posed Santo-like and cavorted with the band and/or crowd. That bit of cultural cross-pollination helped hasten the influx of Mexican wrestling kitsch, already big elsewhere, into local culture.

In 2005, Hoppin and Tim Ross, two music fans who dug the wrestling imagery and also happened to be Tar Heel superfans, decided to make some masks for a big home game against Duke.
The appeal of the masks was evident.

“Every time we wore them,” says Hoppin, “people would offer to buy them.”

Hoppin began playing around with the design and made a few custom masks as gifts for friends. He had a few rules: You had to be a close friend, a UNC superfan and someone who wouldn’t do something that would bring dishonor to the team while in the mask. Demand was high.

“So many of my friends wanted one that I finally decided you had to be 40.”

He made about nine to start. Each took about five hours to make, so Hoppin started to investigate mass production.

At first, he wanted to work with the family business in Mexico that makes most of the world’s wrestling masks. But after a few frustrating exchanges with middlemen and dissatisfaction with design, he moved on. China was next; and though it was clearly the cheapest way to get the masks made, the design process were taking too long and the materials still were not quite right.

He looked a little closer to home and found, just down the road in Asheboro, two firms that could do the job in the materials he wanted.
“I wanted them to be comfortable. We’re using a wicking fabric that stretches in four ways.”

More importantly, he’s proud to be selling a product that’s sweatshop-free and North Carolina made.

While the design was getting nailed down, The Merch started the painstaking process of getting the masks licensed.
They finally won approval in December and went into production.

The masks are already on campus at UNC Student Stores and you’re starting to see more and more when the cameras pan the crowds during games. Hoppin is hoping that Chapel Hill Sportswear, which handles concessions at the Smith Center and other venues, also will get on board, and that he’ll then see even more of them at the games.
While in other parts of the world, wrestling masks are usually big with kids, Hoppin says, he’s shooting for the older crowd as well.

“This is perfect for the fan that wants to paint his face but doesn’t want to go to all the trouble and then deal with the mess the rest of the night.”

And although the inspiration was certainly born of his loyalty to Carolina, Hoppin knows that there are plenty of other teams’ fans that will want them. Come next fall, The Merch expects to do a healthy business with various collegiate football powerhouses. The store even has a few masks left in Steeler colors after a quick run was put together for the Superbowl.

“People want to know how I’ll feel when I see someone in a Duke mask taunting us after a loss. I’ve decided it’s not going to bother me. It hurts so bad to lose against Duke,” Hoppin says in true superfan style, “I don’t think it could hurt more.”

No matter what your loyalties, Hoppin says the idea is to add a little adventure to your fandom.

“You can wear it to the game or you can wear it around the office for a while. The idea is to have some fun.”

You can purchase an officially licensed Tar Heel wrestling mask for $30 at The Merch at 101 Lloyd Street in Carrboro or you can order online and have it shipped anywhere in the world by visiting fanaticmasks.com