A clothing store in Los Angeles is raking profits for its "El Chapo" shirts. Clothing retailer Barabas saw sales of its blue shirts rise after one of the world's most wanted drug kingpin, Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, was photographed wearing it when he was caught by authorities.
"We cannot keep them in stock, and we have a lot of demand from all over," admitted Shawn Esteghbal, who designed the "El Chapo" shirts, CNN reported. Esteghbal's store is located near the Staples Center in downtown Los Angeles. They had to contend with the demand since photos of Guzman's arrest trended online. Their website even crashed, TMZ noted.
The shirt, which Guzman wore in his photo-op with Sean Penn, retails for $128 and comes in two styles - one with the blue paisley print and the other in blue paisley stripes. Barabas had the shirt in their inventory long before the drug lord's arrest.
"Once I saw it, I was like, my God, I even know the style number by heart," Esteghbal said. "The shirts are all 100% cotton satin. They are all slim fit, they have a really nice fit to them. The quality of work. The quality of stitching. It's just top of the line."
Esteghbal's brother, Sam, who co-owns Barabas, doesn't mind that their shirt is associated with a criminal. "People just always look for something unique, and they're probably thinking this is unique because that guy wears it. He could wear a $10,000 shirt or a $3,000 shirt, but he wears Barabas," Sam said, according to CNN.
Barabas makes their own clothes and distributes this to many wholesalers in several countries like Mexico, Brazil and Italy, aside from the online shop. It's a favorite retail brand of many Mexican musicians, but they don't know how Guzman was able to buy his shirt.
