THE TIME A DREW BREES TWEET TRANSFORMED A SMALL BOSSIER CITY BUSINESS

As Saints fans know by now, quarterback Drew Brees has announced his retirement from football. Every New Orleans Saints fan has their very own special memory of Drew Brees. Maybe it’s an opportunity encounter somewhere in New Orleans , you and your child meeting him at a Brees-hosted football camp — or where you were when Brees led the Saints to their one and only Super Bowl victory. (We thought there have been getting to be numerous more, right?)
My best Brees memory is when a virtual encounter with the football legend transformed my Bossier City business.
My wife and that i had started a touch online store selling Louisiana-themed products. It grew along the way from shipping orders from our upstairs rumpus room to a series of smaller, then larger, Bossier City warehouses. Ultimately orders were fulfilled by a St. Louis logistics company.

Here’s why there was a burst of business accounting for much of that growth.

At one point, I noticed visitors to the location had begun checking out something called a “Finish Strong” t-shirt. I had no idea what that was. a touch Googling gave me the answer: Drew Brees had endorsed the assembly of the t-shirt, with some of the proceeds getting to his Brees Dream Foundation.

“Finish Strong” had been his motto for the Saints playoff run to the Super Bowl. We ordered a couple of from the New Orleans company producing the (of course) black and gold tees. Sales were good.

Then, on January 13, 2010, Drew Brees posted to the planet on the social media platform Twitter, “For those living outside New Orleans , you'll order Finish Strong shirts online,” and listed our website.

Gulp.

Needless to mention , sales soared. on the other hand …

On Jan. 24, 2010, the Saints beat Brett Favre’s Minnesota Vikings within the NFC Championship game.

I had my phone set to ping whenever an order was placed on our e-commerce site. As time expired within the Saints-Vikings game, and as fans everywhere realized the Saints were getting to the Super Bowl, my phone exploded during a barrage of constant pinging.

We scrambled to urge more shirts. There was a midnight run to New Orleans to select up as many boxes as we could get from the supplier. Our orders were still being shipped from a Bossier City warehouse at the time, which little building was buzzing with activity.

We would stack the orders in USPS crates and put them within the front office to be picked up. you'll barely walk into the space .

One day, a postal carrier came to the front entrance , peeked in, saw the crates crammed inside the office, and immediately rotated , saying, “I’ve need to go get a much bigger truck.”

Drew Brees probably doesn’t know the lightning with which he struck that tiny Bossier City business. But he does know that tons of Finish Strong shirts were sold that year, and we’re proud to possess played some part therein .

A few years ago, we sold that business. It’s been sold again since. But we’ll always remember our virtual brush with a football legend.

Thanks for all the memories, Drew Brees.

— Anonymous

BossierNow has verified the claims during this article and respects the writer’s request for anonymity. 

— Feature photo: Drew Brees, Reggie Bush, Jeremy Shockey and other Saints boast their Super Bowl rings at the 2010 ESPY Awards, July 14, 2010 .