On July 17, Tiger Rags launched its official website, making its anticipated return to the Auburn community. Under new owners Brett and Natalie Whiteside, Tiger Rags is printing its iconic game day shirts for the first time in five years.
Tiger Rags is a 41-year-old Auburn-based company, specializing in spirit wear and is known for its iconic game day shirts. Nearly every game day shirt features the company’s mascot, Rags the tiger, depicted in bold colors and paired with humorous taglines.
Tiger Rags' game day shirts were rampant in the '80s, '90s and 2000s, but after closing their physical location during the COVID-19 pandemic, the company stopped printing them.
Brett and Natalie Whiteside, the new owners, have revived Tiger Rags to bring game day shirts back for the Auburn community.
The Whitesides are no strangers to the Auburn community. Both are Auburn University graduates who met and were married in Auburn, and now their sons attend Auburn City Schools. Brett is also a fourth-generation Auburn graduate. Their connection to Auburn and Tiger Rags began early in their childhoods.
Growing up in Gadsen, Alabama, Brett and his family would drive to Auburn to watch football games. A tradition in Brett’s Auburn experience was buying a Tiger Rags game day shirt before the game and then a score shirt after rolling Toomer’s Corner if the Tigers won.
Natalie is from Birmingham, and her experience followed “the same blueprint.” Like Brett, Natalie and her family would spend Saturdays in Jordan-Hare and load up on Tiger Rags apparel.
The Whitesides also have full-time careers outside of Tiger Rags. In these careers, they both work closely with Auburn University.
Natalie works full-time remotely with Shorelight Education, a higher education company partnered with Auburn University to help international students who want to study in the United States.
Brett’s professional career has revolved around Auburn Athletics. He worked on the Auburn University football staff for almost 15 years. Brett left Auburn Athletics and was on the staff of the University of Missouri football team. Returning to Auburn in August 2022, Brett is now Executive Director at On to Victory, The Auburn NIL Collective.
Conversations about purchasing Tiger Rags began in the fall of 2023, shortly after the Whitesides moved back to Auburn. The Whitesides knew the original ownership group (Don Walton, Charlie Gross and Jerry Rigby) before their return to Auburn. Despite their full schedules, the Whitesides believed Tiger Rags was pivotal in their Auburn experience and wanted to continue that for their children and future generations.
“I really wanted just to bring back something that was so beloved to so many people throughout the years,” Natalie said.
The Whitesides purchased Tiger Rags in February 2024, only five days after their now seven-month-old son was born.
“And I think [the previous owners’] vision was that this is something that would live long past them and it would be a brand that would survive. And in one of my initial conversations with the ownership group, I just talked about the passion that I have for Auburn,” Brett said.
Despite its prevalence in the Auburn community, Tiger Rags is “actually very small,” as Natalie described. The company operates in an around 5,000-square-foot warehouse inherited from the original owners. This warehouse hold all the automatic screen print equipment that makes Tiger Rags possible.
Tiger Rags’ staff is also small and local. The staff includes two graphic designers, one of whom has worked with the company for over 15 years, and the other is a recent college graduate who has helped transition Tiger Rags with new designs and technology incorporation.
The Whitesides are also partnering with a third designer: the original Tiger Rags artist Mike Lester. Lester created the iconic Tiger Rags tiger named Rags and has been designing the iconic game day shirts since the ‘80s.
Lester has designed four game day shirts for the 2024 football season. These shirts feature the home games against Alabama A&M, Cal, Arkansas and the first SEC matchup against Oklahoma.
“A brand wants to continue its look and feel during an ownership transition like this, and because we’ve kept some of those key employees, we’ve been able to,” Brett said.
Tiger Rags also has an operations coordinator on staff. The operations coordinator navigates order fulfillment, customer service, social media channels and support emails.
After design and advertisement, Tiger Rags employs a full-time decorator and two screen print technicians. These members embroider and screen print the shirts to ensure prompt customer delivery. Once the shirts are complete, Auburn University and the collegiate licensing company must approve all shirts representing Auburn.
As of October 2024, Tiger Rags does not have a physical location.
“So when we took it over, we said, ‘Hey, this first year, let’s get up and going. Let’s do a proof of concept to ensure that [Tiger Rags] is still meaningful to a lot of people... and we’ve had such an overwhelming response,” Brett admitted.
A physical location may be in Tiger Rags’ future, but Tiger Rags has currently partnered with the vintage clothing store The Atelier in downtown Auburn. The Atelier is currently the exclusive provider of game day shirts in a physical location.
“I think our brands align. They're such a great vintage wear company, and they're right downtown and convenient,” Brett said.
Before the partnership, The Atelier was one of the only stores selling vintage Tiger Rags shirts. Now, The Atelier sells vintage and new Tiger Rags shirts. Tiger Rags’ partnership has also attracted more customers to The Atelier.
“[Tiger Rags] brings a lot of people in on Fridays and Saturdays. A lot of the older crowd, a lot of people that were buying Tiger Rags in the 2000s, ‘90s, and ‘80s come in here,” said Beckett Chandler, manager of The Atelier.
With The Atelier partnership and Tiger Rags website, more Tiger Rags shirts, vintage and new, have been spotted on campus during game days.
Tiger Rags may start reprinting iconic throwback designs. Through reprinting classic shirts, past people who attended the games and current and future Auburn students can have another chance to buy a vintage Tiger Rags shirt.
The Whitesides teased reprinting vintage Iron Bowl shirts, including the 1989 Iron Bowl game day shirt. October 2024 will be the 35th anniversary of the 1989 Iron Bowl when Auburn beat Alabama 30-20.
Along with vintage designs, Tiger Rags will be dropping new designs for basketball games. The success of Bruce Pearl and the Men’s Basketball team, winners of the SEC Championship, has inspired the Whitesides to expand Tiger Rags’ game day shirts to basketball.
“Coach Pearl has done a great job with this program, and we’re excited about being able to start featuring some of these key matchups that we have in basketball,” Brett said.
As of now, Tiger Rags will only expand to basketball, but the Whitesides say that Tiger Rags is open to expanding to other sports in the future.
Tiger Rags is also printing their game day shirts in orange and navy, alongside the iconic white, to match the game themes. Currently, the Alabama A&M and Oklahoma game day shirts are offered in orange and white. As Tiger Rags grows, it may expand to more colors beyond game themes.
The Whitesides want to thank the Auburn Family for their continued support.
“We're a true Auburn family that's wanting to continue a great Auburn tradition and as everyone continues to shop with us, it allows us the opportunities to continue pressing this business forward,” Brett said.
The Whitesides also want to thank the original ownership group for their mentorship.
“I would really love to give the credit to Don Walton, Charlie Gross, and Jerry Rigby as the original three owners of Tiger Rags, the vision that they had and the ability to start this company from scratch and grow it into the iconic brand that it is,” Brett said. “Each of those three guys, along with Mike Lester designing the game shirts, just really are the memory makers for all of us, and so we would not be able to continue this on without their original leadership and guidance.”
Auburn fans can look forward to more opportunities to purchase game day shirts as the season continues.
Do you like this story? The Plainsman doesn't accept money from tuition or student fees, and we don't charge a subscription fee. But you can donate to support The Plainsman.
