APS recently launched an online store where both members and the public can buy items with a physics theme.
The website opened on August 30 and has been doing brisk business since then. The store features clothing with the “APS Physics” logo, posters, brochures and physics toys and demos.
Jennifer Pirnat, APS’s membership communication program manager and administrator of the store, said that in the first month and a half they had received more than 100 orders.
“It’s about showing the fun side of physics,” Pirnat said. She added that some of the best selling items so far were the “Flirt Harder, I’m a Physicist” T-shirts and a red bumper sticker that reads “If this sticker is blue, then you are driving too fast.”
The store brings together items from different branches of APS, such as brochures about careers in physics from the Education Department, and a science kit from the Outreach Department that transmits sound using a laser. The store also carries nine different clothing designs, including the popular “Don’t Drink and Derive” shirt as well as a child-sized “Future Physicist” shirt.
“This is a benefit that previously we had available only at meetings,” Pirnat said, pointing out that until the store opened there was no way for potential customers to buy the items except at the meetings. “We would receive probably 50 emails throughout the year from people who had seen a product at the meetings and wanted to purchase it,” she added.