The Coed Naked Truth
It is amazing how many people over the years, have told me the story of how Coed Naked actually started. “Two college kids from UNH went door to door selling Coed Naked shirts.” Not quite. “A college kid and his professor started Coed Naked in an entrepreneurial class.” Nope. “A college kid from UNH started selling these shirts for beer money.” Close. The only common accurate theme that people had right and that I can in fact confirm, is that a kid in New Hampshire started Coed Naked. Much to their surprise, that kid wasn’t me.
The first time I saw a Coed Naked t-shirt, I was in my sophomore year at the University of New Hampshire. I was home for the weekend and my older brother Don was wearing the shirt which said “Boston College Coed Naked Lacrosse…Rough Tuff and in the Buff.” What I remember most about that shirt is that I wanted it. And when it was accidently washed and folded and placed in my pile of clothes, I “accidently” pretended not to see it and thus it made its way back to UNH with me.
The truth about the start of Coed Naked is a bit fuzzy but this is what I know. Coed Naked was in fact started in 1986 by a New Hampshire kid who created a shirt that said, “Coed Naked Lacrosse, Rough Tuff and in the Buff,” and sold these shirts at the University of Colorado for beer money. And yes “Buff” stands for the Colorado “Buffalos.”
This kid sold enough shirts that he quit school, moved back to New Hampshire and started a business selling Coed Naked shirts on college campuses around the country. This is where I met him.
After graduating from UNH in 1990, I was so intrigued by Coed Naked that I went to work for him in June. One day in August, just 3 months later, I went to work and the doors to the business were chained shut. Coed Naked seemed to be no longer. That is a story for another day.
Sometime in the middle of September 1990 me, my friend Scott and some guy named Chas started our own business, Coed Sportswear and the first piece of business we conducted was to purchase the trademark for Coed Naked, all Coed Naked artwork and the Coed Naked customer list, all for a whopping $15000.
The rest is Coed Naked history. With a little bit of hard work and a lot of luck, Coed Naked became the most popular, the most controversial and the best-selling t-shirt of the 1990’s as we created over 90 different Coed Naked designs, had over 18000 retail doors and sold over 10 million shirts before finally retiring the line in the year 2000.
Today, and by popular demand, I am happy to announce that Coed Naked is coming out of retirement!
Mark Lane
UNH
Class 1990
