For New Haven nostalgists, remembering a time before retail giants like Apple, Lululemon and Barnes & Noble arrived on Broadway can be a bittersweet trip down memory lane. But for Jeremy Cobden, whose family has been working on Broadway for nearly six decades, there’s no wistful longing. “The perception that family businesses have left the area is not true,” he says. “Malls are where businesses are suffering. What we have here is a great mix of family and national tenants. We need those national brands to help draw people downtown.”
Cobden is the vice president of Campus Customs, a custom screen printing/embroidery operation and a retail store specializing in Yale clothing and souvenirs—from university T-shirts to residential college ties, shot glasses to chip clips and Yale Bowl jigsaw puzzles to Christmas tree ornaments. The shop also offers a few items promoting New Haven’s famed pizza as well as other local businesses like Claire’s Corner Copia. Still, Cobden says, the classic Yale sweatshirt is their best-selling item.
Cobden’s father, Barry, started his retail career on Broadway as a teenager in the ’60s, working in the “45s” department of Cutler’s Record Shop. Starting his own Broadway business in 1975, he would later operate as many as three stores there—Cobden’s General Store, Campus Clothing and the Boola Boola Shop—before expanding into screen printing in the ’90s under the direction of his elder son, Joel.
Jeremy followed his father and brother into the family business, and for years, the three of them managed a small local business empire. “My father had very little to do with the production side, and my brother was not in the retail side,” he notes. “I was always involved in both sides of the business.”
When York Square Cinema, the next-door neighbor to Campus Clothing, closed in 2005, Barry saw an opportunity to consolidate. “He wanted to get everyone together under one roof,” Jeremy says. “He thought it would be a little more practical to run as a family business that way.” After a nearly two-year project that required extensive renovations to turn an aging movie theater into both a modern screen printing plant and a bright, spacious retail store, the family was finally together.
Of course, nothing lasts forever. Barry has since retired and relocated to Florida. Joel has also moved to the Sunshine State, where Campus Customs has a location. The brothers still operate the business together, but Jeremy is the last owner standing in New Haven. “It’s an adjustment,” he admits. “My father and I used to sit and have coffee together every morning. It was a ritual that I loved and valued so much.” He says he still speaks with his brother daily and with his father almost as frequently.
Although he doesn’t see his father and brother as often now, Cobden does interact every day with a former employee: his wife, Amy Fitzgerald. They both started working for the business as teenagers and were longtime friends before they began to date in their mid-20s. “I guess I won her over with my charm,” Cobden says with a laugh. “I was pretty persistent.”
The familial ethos at Campus Customs extends beyond the owners, he says. “We’ve had some people work here for close to 20 years, and we’ve had employees come from multiple generations of different families. This is a family business at heart, and a lot of the people who work here feel that way.”
His company isn’t alone in that respect. He mentions family-run neighbors old (Yorkside Pizza, open since 1969) and new (Cookie39, opened just this year) that stand apart from, yet also alongside, the national chains.
“The family businesses here all promote each other to make sure the area remains vibrant,” he says, having just done so. Like the chains, unique local businesses are a draw to the city, with Campus Customs proving they can also send New Haven out into the world—whether printed onto pot holders, etched onto pilsner glasses or embroidered across chests.
Written by Daniel Fleschner. Image 1, featuring the shop exterior, photographed by Dan Mims. Images 2-4, featuring shop scenes and merchandise, photographed by Daniel Fleschner.
