The Soft Shirt Place - Gatlinburg

10/30/2026

🎃 HALLOWEEN HOURS & A LITTLE GUESSING GAME! 👻

Tomorrow (Saturday, October 31st), we’ll be closing at 6PM so the Toddler CEO and his family can go and cause a little Halloween chaos!

But here’s the BIG question…

What do you think the Toddler CEO and his family are dressing up as this year? 👀

Drop your guesses below! Wrong answers are absolutely encouraged. 😂

🎃 Halloween Hours: 11AM–6PM
….. treats available until we run out, all day for those in costume!

10/04/2026

FINALLY. THEY’RE ONLINE. 🎉

You asked. And asked. And asked some more.

And we can FINALLY say it…

HOODIES AND SWEATSHIRTS ARE NOW AVAILABLE ONLINE!

We know, we know. “How hard can it be to put a hoodie on a website?”

Turns out? Mammoth task.

One thing people may not realize about our little family business is that we don’t pay an outside company to build or manage our website for us. We do it ALL ourselves.

Every product. Every photo. Every description. Every color. Every size. Every variant. Every single one of our 200+ original designs has to be added, connected and checked by us. Approximately 47 million little boxes that all have to talk nicely to each other or the whole thing falls apart…..

So when you multiply 200+ designs by hoodies, sweatshirts, colors, sizes and options… suddenly “just put the hoodies online” becomes the kind of project that makes you question your life choices. 😂

BUT. WE. DID. IT.

And we didn’t just add one option. We’ve given you TWO OPTIONS for both hoodies AND crewneck sweatshirts:

PREMIUM — Our super-soft Bella + Canvas fleece. This is the oooooh, THAT is soft stuff. Cozy sponge fleece, a more modern fit and the premium quality you already know us for.

BASIC — A more traditional sweatshirt feel using trusted brands like Gildan or Port & Company. Warm, durable and a more budget-friendly way to grab your favorite Soft Shirt Place design.

And here's the important part: Basic does NOT mean cheap.

It simply means you get to decide what matters most to you and where you want to spend your money.

Whichever you choose, you still get the most important part - original Soft Shirt Place artwork, drawn by Shawn & Ashley and printed just for you. No generic souvenir catalog designs. No artwork you've already seen in 14 other stores.

So if you’ve ever looked at one of our designs and thought…

“I really wish I could get that on a hoodie…”

NOW YOU CAN.

GO. GO NOW. 😂

And after the amount of work it took to get these things online, for the love of all things cozy, somebody please go buy one. 🤣

Hoodies. Sweatshirts. Premium. Basic. ONLINE NOW.

Just in time for cozy season.

Say goodbye to everything you thought you knew about t-shirts you buy online. The days of rough, thick mass produced and shipped from Overseas shirts are gone. Now you can buy from a small family business, where the owners are hands-on and take pride in every item that leaves the store.

09/30/2026

Another absolutely grueling day in corporate America for the Toddler CEO. 😂

First on the agenda: inventory training.

There he is, sitting behind the counter, watching Mom enter inventory into the system while eating an apple like a tiny executive who has absolutely no intention of actually helping. 🍎

Once that exhausting task was complete, it was time for his daily rounds of the Mountain Mall ….. checking in on the other store owners, greeting his fans, maintaining important business relationships… you know, CEO stuff.

Across the hall at Bearytales, there’s one particular bear in the window that Kristian stops to see EVERY time. Big smiles. Giggles. Full-on love affair.

Ashley sent Shawn and Victoria the video.

Our immediate response:

“Okay… and WHY doesn’t he have the bear?”

So Ashley went over to buy it.

Except the wonderful owner of Bearytales wouldn’t let her, she gifted it to Kristian instead. 🥹❤️

Honestly, how incredibly sweet is that?!

Proof that hard work really does pay off.

Even when you’re 15 months old and your definition of “hard work” is eating an apple, wandering the mall socializing and being cute enough to get free merchandise.

He’s going to be absolutely insufferable at his next performance review. 😂

09/24/2026

Okay, we need to correct a SERIOUS oversight. 😂

A little while ago we asked you guys to tell us which content creators we should be following, and somehow we completely forgot to tell you about one of OUR absolute favorites.

And no, he has absolutely nothing to do with Gatlinburg, the Smokies, T-shirts, bears or anything else we normally talk about. 😂

Back in January, Shawn and Victoria were taking a cruise around the Southern Caribbean when, on literally the FIRST DAY, they randomly started chatting to a brother and sister on the shuttle taking everyone from the cruise terminal to the ship.

They were Stefan and Zuzanna, originally from Slovakia but now living in Malta and Switzerland respectively.

As tends to happen on a cruise, we kept bumping into each other. A few adult drinks were had. Stories were exchanged. Friendships were made.

And somewhere along the way we discovered that Stefan was a photographer.

Except “photographer” really doesn’t cover it.

This man is RIDICULOUSLY talented.

Stefan now regularly travels all over the world, and following him is basically like getting a free ticket to places most of us may never see. His photography is stunning, but it’s the way he tells the story of the places and people he encounters that has Victoria completely hooked. She is borderline obsessed with waiting to see where he goes next. She’s even joked to him that she’s going to divorce Shawn and marry him, just so she can travel with him 😂😂

There’s also a reason behind those travels that really resonated with both of us.

After losing his dad, Stefan made the decision that he didn’t want to keep putting off seeing the world until “one day.” He wanted to experience it while he was young enough and able enough to do it, rather than wait until later and potentially discover that later never came.

And THAT we understand completely.

Life has reinforced that lesson pretty heavily for us too this year, Three family deaths in a ten week period will do that to you.

See the places. Take the trip. Make the memories. Don’t keep saving your entire bucket list for some imaginary perfect time in the future.

We’ve met a LOT of people during our travels over the years, but Stefan and Zuzanna are two who genuinely left an impression. We’re still friends, we still keep in regular contact, and we’re incredibly glad that one completely random cruise shuttle put four strangers in the same place at the same time.

So if you enjoy travel, photography, incredible scenery and seeing parts of this enormous world through someone else’s eyes, GO FOLLOW STEFAN. ❤️

We promise, this recommendation has absolutely nothing to do with the Smokies.

We just think beautiful things deserve to be shared.

https://www.facebook.com/share/18KZ1GejA6/?mibextid=wwXIfr

https://www.instagram.com/varglobetrotter?stkn=MXZxeTd6YXF3aDZscA==

09/23/2026

A little heads-up from The Soft Shirt Place!

We’ll be closed tomorrow, Thursday, September 24th, because our Toddler CEO has a minor surgical procedure and, obviously, his entire executive team will be exactly where they belong. ❤️

We’ll be back Friday as usual, ready to print shirts and take orders from our hopefully well-rested (and possibly slightly grumpy) little boss.

Thanks for understanding and send our littlest team member some good vibes! ❤️

09/14/2026

Something NEW has joined The Soft Shirt Place… and this one is a little different.

We’re excited to finally announce the collaboration between The Soft Shirt Place & Black Sheep Apparel - a brand-new passion project from Shawn that has been quietly in the works for several months.

Black Sheep Apparel is a completely different mindset and concept from anything we’ve carried at The Soft Shirt Place before. Different designs. Different attitude. Different feel.

And honestly? It might not be for everyone.

And that’s kind of the point. 😏

This is Shawn getting to step outside the box, play with a different creative direction, and build something that has its own identity while still carrying the quality you already know from us.

The shirts? The same amazing Bella+Canvas shirts we use in the store.

The quality? Still non-negotiable.

The fulfillment? Ashley has got it covered. So you already know every order is going to get the same care and attention to detail you expect from us. ❤️

Black Sheep Apparel is ONLINE NOW and ready to do its thing. 🐑🖤

👉 www.blacksheepapparelonline.com

So if you’re into something a little darker, a little edgier, a little less “everybody’s doing that”… go check it out.

And if it’s not your thing?

That’s okay too.

We’re not trying to make everyone a Black Sheep. 😉

09/13/2026

What do you think it might be?

Tell us in the comments!

09/12/2026

Ever wondered why you see the SAME shirts in half the souvenir shops around Gatlinburg?

Oh, we’re about to ruin the mystery for you. 😂

We went to the Smoky Mountain Gift Show in 2021 just because we were curious. We walked around and were honestly SHOCKED at how many companies were selling the exact same generic souvenir designs we were seeing all over town.

And yes, part of the reason is that a large number of souvenir stores are owned by the same people.

BUT THAT’S NOT THE WHOLE STORY.

There are also companies that basically let destination and souvenir shops pick a design from a catalog and then just change the name.

Same shirt.
Same design.
Different town slapped on it.

Which explains why you’ll see anchors in the mountains. ⚓️

Or pineapples. 🍍👀

Because apparently Gatlinburg is now a landlocked tropical beach destination. Who knew?

And here’s the part we’re pretty proud of:

You will NEVER find those catalog designs in our store.

We take a lot of pride in being different. We print our designs on Bella + Canvas shirts because they’re actually soft, comfortable and made to be worn, not just bought as a vacation souvenir and forgotten in the back of a drawer.

And every single design you see in our store is created by Shawn and Ashley.

No catalog.
No “change the town name and call it ours.”
No ordering 47 designs and hoping something sticks.

Just our people, our ideas, and a whole lot of time spent making shirts we actually WANT to sell.

So the next time you walk into three different shops and swear you’ve already seen that shirt somewhere…

You have.

You’re not having Smoky Mountain déjà vu. 😂

09/11/2026

Twenty-five years later, we still remember.

The lives lost. The families forever changed. The heroes who ran toward danger while everyone else was trying to get away.

September 11, 2001 changed our country forever. But it also reminded us of the incredible courage, compassion and strength people are capable of when it matters most.

Today, we remember.
We honor.
We will never forget. 🇺🇸

#911