Introducing Crofter Supply Co.

It's still a little difficult for me to believe, but this will be my fifth season covering Utah State athletics here at The Aggship. By next spring, I'll have spent more time covering the Aggies than I did on the beat at Ohio State.

I'll always hold onto those five years spent covering my childhood team in my hometown, but I'd be lying if I said I missed them. I was beaten down by the end of it, disillusioned with big-time college athletics and desperate for a new perspective. As soon as I first stepped on campus at Utah State, I knew I had found it. I dedicated nearly every waking hour to building The Aggship in that first year. If I wasn't writing or talking into a microphone about Aggie football, men's basketball or women's basketball, it was usually because I was on location taking pictures of the action. I was hooked.

I was also exhausted, because covering three different teams with oft-overlapping schedules is just too much for one man, especially when that one man is dumb enough to drive to as many road games as possible, as I had at Ohio State. It takes just a bit longer to get to Laramie or Fort Collins from Logan than it does to go from Columbus to Ann Arbor or Indianapolis. So, when the 2022-23 season ended, I decided to look for some help.

I knew as soon as I read this story that Parker Ballantyne was the perfect pick – creative, clever, passionate and ridiculously talented. I didn't interview him, didn't ask for a resume, and didn't entertain any other options. I sent him a message asking him if he wanted to cover women's basketball for The Aggship, and he agreed. We spoke to each other for the first time when we recorded our first episode together on The Aggship Podcast back in the fall of 2023.

Ours is a partnership built on a shared understanding of the world: If you make good stuff and treat people well, the rest will take care of itself. The Aggship has no marketing budget. We've grown it entirely by putting out the best product we can, free of the pop-up ads and obnoxious gambling sponsorships that plague most online outlets covering college athletics. Our prices have not changed since the site launched in 2022 and will not change as long as we have anything to say about it. Maintaining credibility and quality is far more important than making a few extra bucks by cutting corners.

That brings us to the point of this preamble. Parker and I have talked for years about potentially expanding The Aggship into the world of apparel, and we finally came to a decision this spring. A store page with our logo on a few print-on-demand shirts wouldn't cut it, and that's all I'd have time for without significantly reducing my written output. If we're going to do it, we need to do it right. So, I went back to Parker and asked him to create something new. A sister site to The Aggship, built on the same principles and free to grow on its own under his direction.

I knew he'd nail it, but seeing all of this come together, he still managed to exceed even my loftiest expectations. I'm thrilled to hand this story off to Parker for an introduction almost six months in the making.

– Patrick Mayhorn

Inspired by the people of Cache Valley, and by a certain beloved Utah State crewneck, Crofter was founded on the idea that Utah State fans deserve more. We set out to create heirloom-quality goods to be worn, fought over and handed down, without compromising on affordability.

Our designs are inspired by the culture and history of the school and the valley, and we work to make the highest quality products at the best price possible. Every design is created in-house or by a local artist, then hand-finished right here in Utah. Keeping with our commitment to Utah State fans and the people of Cache Valley (and beyond), a portion of every purchase will be donated to local causes in Logan and across the Intermountain West.

No matter their subscription tier, subscribers to The Aggship get 10 percent off on every Crofter purchase in perpetuity – just use the same email address associated with your account on The Aggship. While we get up and running, we greatly appreciate your patience and would love to hear from you about what you like, what you’d like to see more of, and what we can improve on. Crofter will always be a work in progress by design, so we can continue to deliver gear made to last at prices accessible to all.

So go on over to shopcrofter.com, check out our Standard ($18.88) and Blue Ribbon ($29) T-shirts and our snapback hats ($24-$29), and let us know what you think. Shipping is free for orders over $100.

Welcome to Crofter, your new source for heirloom-quality merch and apparel, meticulously crafted by and for the people who make Cache Valley a place worth calling home.

– Parker Ballantyne

The Aggship x Crofter Supply Co.

Check out Crofter's first collection and enjoy an additional 10 percent discount for all subscribers to The Aggship, forever.

Shop Crofter