UW-Whitewater Chancellor Corey A. King and Willie Warhawk were excited to visit Aropa Designs — a fixture in the community for almost 40 years. At the downtown shop, which offers custom and contract screen-printing and embroidery on a wide variety of apparel products, they were joined by co-founder Tom Spear, who started the business with his brother Tim in the back of a bar. Tom is now helped by his wife, Ann, and two of their kids, Sage and Slate. (Shout out to double alum Ann Spear, who earned a BSE in elementary education in 1990 and an MSE in reading and elementary education in 1996, and worked for the Whitewater Unified School District for more than 30 years!)

View the video here:

Every year Aropa Designs prints more than 3,000 T-shirts for UW-Whitewater to hand out when first-year and transfer students experience painting Warhawk Drive and running into Perkins Stadium during our signature Warhawk Welcome event. It’s another shining example of a local business working closely with the university and leaning into what they do best to benefit the Whitewater community.

Mascot on Main showcases community businesses and organizations like Aropa and the many positive relationships they have with the university. To view more Mascot on Main highlights, visit our YouTube playlist.

To find out more about Aropa Designs, visit https://www.aropadesigns.com/