Adam Mayberry sits at the checkout desk of his pop-up shop in downtown San Jose, sporting his company’s “Finatic” tee.

The shirt design is a combination of the term “fanatic” and San Jose’s hockey team mascot, the Sharks: the shirts blend in among crowds at a game at nearby SAP Center, but they stand out, if you are paying attention.

The Die Hards Co., owned and run Adam Mayberry and his brother Ben Mayberry, is a Bay Area sports apparel company that makes apparel and accessories for fans of the Sharks, Raiders, A’s, Warriors, Giants, 49ers, and Earthquakes, as an alternative to officially-licensed products from those teams.

The shirts blend in at games because they are as close to official colorways as possible, but also stand out because they carry a sense of individuality and youth to them. One shirt design uses the popular Bay Area slang term “Hella” with the “L’s” made out of baseball bats or hockey sticks.

The brothers were born and raised in San Jose. Before NHL hockey came to the Bay Area in 1991, they had the 49ers and Giants to cheer on. Growing up playing football and baseball like many Bay Area kids do, they fell in love with the professional teams of their region.

“Being a San Jose kid when hockey came in 1991, that was a big thing,” recalled Adam Mayberry. “We grew up watching games.”

Naturally, supporting their teams meant wearing fan gear. In 2010 they decided to make their own sports apparel. With Ben Mayberry’s background in graphic design, and Adam Mayberry’s architecture degree, they created The Die Hards Co.

“On the East Coast there were a lot of companies like ours, kind of doing bootleg-style T-shirts for teams, said Adam Mayberry. “There was nobody around here that was doing it, and if they were, they might have a version that was like a 49ers colorway of their [own] shirt.”

Bootleg-style shirts are a term the brand uses to describe replicating a team’s colors without using the official logo.

“No one was really doing what we’re doing now back in 2010 when we started the company,” said Adam.

Die Hards’ shirts replicate the colors of well-known Bay Area teams, but never explicitly say the official name of the team. Their popular “Fin City” design, which uses the template of the Warriors’ famous “The City” logo, is often seen at Sharks games.

“As we’ve grown, and teams have won, more people have come out with these [bootleg-style apparel],” said Adam Mayberry.

Growing a following with mostly younger, college-aged fans, four years into their existence they applied for a grant with the city of San Jose.

The Creative Industries Incentive Fund granted the company $4,500 to move forward with their operations as a local small business in San Jose.

Following the award, they started a kickstarter campaign, where fans and supporters of the brand could donate different amounts of money towards the brand, and then receive an apparel package based on the amount pledged.

The goal was to raise enough money that they could start manufacturing products exclusively in the Bay Area.

Their initial goal of $4,500 was met within a week, and has since doubled to over $9,000 over the past year.

The company, however, encountered setbacks in the manufacturing process following the campaign.

“We were giving false hope to our kickstarter backers, where we thought it would be this day, but something would happen and delay it a couple more weeks,” said Adam Mayberry.

“Originally we intended for it to be delivered by June or July, and then we completely changed our process and then we had to give that update that it would be out by the end of September. We didn’t really ship [kickstarter rewards] until Christmas.

Leaving some fans disappointed in a small business that they tried to support, the rewards were eventually fulfilled in December.

All T-shirts made by The Die Hards Co. are cut, sewn, dyed, printed all within the Bay Area. T-shirts start at $35, which may deter some fans, but Adam Mayberry explains that Bay Area production costs keep prices at their current level, compared to the average price of officially licensed products at $25 per shirt.

“To make our shirts before, it would cost us about $7.50 [per shirt], The cost now for us is probably $11 to $13, so it is almost twice as expensive for us to make our product now, so that’s why the $35 mark. That allows us to make a normal return and cover our labor costs,” said Adam Mayberry.

Because the Die Hards Co. does not use official logos of teams throughout the Bay Area, they are legally able to print and sell these shirts that relate to the team.

The Die Hards Co., using Adam Mayberry’s architectural background, built a pop up “locker” shop next to the San Jose Repertory Theater in Downtown San Jose where their merchandise is sold until March in addition to online sales.