St. Clair Surfwear Company is catching waves

Sherri DeWolf, sporting one the t-shirts from her business, the St. Clair Surf Company - Contributed Photo
Sherri DeWolf, sporting one the t-shirts from her business, the St. Clair Surfwear Company – Contributed Photo

A Wallaceburg woman has taken her passion and creativity and turned it into a new venture.

Sherri DeWolf is the founder and owner of the St. Clair Surfwear Company, which specializes in shirts for boaters and people who simply love the water.

“It comes from a special place in my heart,” DeWolf said. “I’ve grown up as a boater and have always been a summer kind of girl. It was never really about selling t-shirts, it was kind of a creative outlet for me. It’s neat how these things happen when you don’t place any expectations on it and you just offer it out there and see.”

DeWolf, who is a full-time teacher at Riverview Central School, said the idea for the company started last summer while she was spending time in Northern Michigan.

“I found I was spending all my cash in their downtown shops, which celebrated their area,” she said. “I found they had an awesome celebration of their bays and highways, the scenery and the things around there. When I left I thought, we have Lake St. Clair. I’ve seen nautical maps and I’ve always been interested in art and graphic design… and I’ve always noticed that Lake St. Clair from an aerial view, looks like a heart.”

She added: “A common terminology for Lake St. Clair is the ‘Heart of the Great Lakes’ and many of us joke and call it the sixth Great Lake. So in October I started to draw and come up with some ideas that I was thinking of. I took the actual image of Lake St. Clair traced over it, and that is where I got the angle for the heart. I put the rip curl in there and I wanted it to look subliminally like a six… so the logo incorporates the heart of the Great Lakes and the sixth Great Lake idea.”

DeWolf said she saw a lot of companies in Michigan using its mitten type shape in their products.

“There was a surf shop up there called the Wet Mitten,” she said. “They had some cool t-shirts that were based on Michigan. I thought that was something we didn’t have around here. There are a lot of us who are boaters and out on the water and near the water. You can’t really go anywhere in Chatham-Kent without being near water.”

DeWolf took her drawings to Screen Art in Wallaceburg, who transformed her drawings into a graphic, that she loved right away.

She said she started off by creating some t-shirts back in April and May for her friends and family.

“I decided to open up some orders to the public and see, a lot to my friends and boaters that I know and now it has aggressively spread,” she said. “The response has been awesome. I can see that this body of water connects people and they have a great pride for it. I like how it can united both Canada and the United States. I did a special edition t-shirt… ‘One Love, One Lake Let’s Get Together And Feel Alright.'”

DeWolf said she offers a wide range of t-shirts, hoodies and tank tops for both men and women.

Check out her website here, but check out her Facebook Page to view the complete selection of styles and colours of shirts she’s offering.

Orders need to be in by July 9 to make the next shipment.

Here are some more photos featuring DeWolf with shirts from the St. Clair Surfwear Company:

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