March Madness has a different meaning for Gonzaga T-shirt manufacturer Zome Design

Zane Troester knows how to stir up Gonzaga fans with his licensed T-shirts. After TV show host Jimmy Kimmel joked that Gonzaga was a fake college in 2019, Troester countered with a cotton souvenir that proclaimed “Gonzaga Exists.”

“So many alums bought that shirt,” Troester said while calling from his Spokane Valley home. “It was so cool. People in our area love the shirts since they’re so passionate about Gonzaga. You see how much this team means to people here.”

Troester understands how significant the No. 1 team in the country is courtesy of an unfortunate experience with his father-in-law, Ron Noble.

“After Ron had a brain aneurysm, he didn’t recognize his wife or even know his name, but he knew the time of the Gonzaga game that night,” Troester said. “It was bizarre and remarkable. But that’s how passionate fans are in Spokane about our team.”

After recently crafting a 24-0 shirt, which marks the Zags’ perfect regular season, Troester watched as the level of excitement reached another level last Sunday.

“When the selections came out Sunday, the energy started to increase,” Troester said. “Fans here see that we’re not just No. 1, but we have a favorable bracket, which means we can be the first team to be undefeated throughout the regular season and through March Madness in a long time.”

If the Zags can accomplish that feat, it will be the first team in NCAA history a team can claim such a distinction since the Indiana Hoosiers went wire-to-wire without a loss since 1976.

“The sad part is that if the Zags lose, it’s like how can you be disappointed with a one-loss season?” Troester said. “But if they lose now, the one loss came at the worst possible time.”

However, Troester, who has been manufacturing via Zome Design since 2010, believes the Bulldogs own the most critical month for NCAA basketball teams, and it’s right there on a T-shirt.

“January, February, Gonzaga, April, May” reads one of Zome’s shirts. “It’s all because Gonzaga owns the month of March,” Troester said.

Troester’s dog, a cute West Highland terrier/poodle mix, has even gotten into the act. “We put our dog, Arlo, in one of our shirts, ‘Everybody is a bulldog at heart,’ ” Troester said. Troester believes Zags fans will get it, as in plenty of team spirit apparel if coach Mark Few’s team wins it all.

“(In 2017, when Gonzaga played in the NCAA championship game), we were in the range of 30,000 presale, but this one will be bigger,” Troester said.

That’s if Gonzaga wins it all. Troester is cautiously optimistic, like many Zags fans. He still looks back at the championship loss to the University of North Carolina as a game that should and could have gone the Zags way. He believes that the current squad will take care of unfinished business.

“Things didn’t go our way the last time we were in the championship game,” Troester said. “That’s the nature of the beast sometimes. I think if nothing weird happens, there’s no strange officiating, we can win it all.”

If Troester is correct, then Gonzaga fans will be celebrating the evening of April 5. However, no one will be celebrating like Troester, who will enjoy the start of his most lucrative run in T-shirts.

If the Zags do win it all, what will the T-shirt look like?

“You’ll just have to wait and see,” Troester said. “It will be something special. I can assure you of that. It’ll be an experience like none of us have ever had before, and what better way to commemorate that but with a T-shirt.”

Perhaps Troester can send a shirt to Kimmel to remind him that Gonzaga isn’t just real but also spectacular. “I’ll be fine with that,” Troester said.