Seacoast Threads: Clothing brand celebrates all things York from the Nubble to the Big A

YORK, Maine — Only a local would know what it means to ski the Big A, get your degree from Boon Island Tech or watch the Nubble’s light turn green.

“The light’s always red,” said Derek Goldberg, 21, explaining how the phrase is a euphemism for carnal knowledge while parked by York’s beloved landmark.

Goldberg, born and raised in Cape Neddick, is capturing classic York’s forgotten destinations and insider sayings with his new online clothing brand, Seacoast Threads.

He launched his new brand May 1 online with a mission statement of making “a brand that captivates what it means to be a Southern Maine Local.”

“I want to showcase the places, tell the stories and relive everything that kind of makes Southern Maine so awesome and amazing,” Goldberg said.

His first item is a sweatshirt featuring “The Big A,” York’s long-gone ski company on Mount Agamenticus.

“The Big A, kind of iconic to the area. Not many people even know that exists,” Goldberg said.

The ski company once ran trails down the side of York’s 692-foot monadnock from 1966 to 1974. Goldberg, a skier himself, has put the Big A’s old trail map on a sweatshirt for sale online. The image details the various trails, including the Little Brave Slope for beginners, as well as the expert trails, Killiwump, Germonio and War Whoop.

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Goldberg is proud of the start he’s had, having ordered 50 Big A sweatshirts and only having six left. He said he gave away six or seven but sold the rest, and not just to family and friends. Many of the names on orders are ones he does not recognize from people in York, as well as places farther away like Saco, Maine, and from out of state.

“People that are from Massachusetts that are like, ‘Oh my God, I used to ski that mountain,’” Goldberg said. “I don’t know who they are. They loved the sweatshirt.”

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Goldberg gets many of his ideas from his parents and extended family who grew up in York and know its history. His father owns a local business, Pine Hill Excavation, and his uncle Eric ran for selectmen in March. He believes he does not have a single family member that lives outside of the York-Ogunquit-Wells area.

“I started percolating ideas with my dad and my mom. They have all these stories,” Goldberg said. He also got encouragement from his uncle, who owns a promotional company Good N You wear, also named for the localism “good ‘n you?”

“It’s something that my uncle says, and a lot of local people say that too,” Goldberg said. Good N You products will also be on his website soon.

Coming soon: Boon Island Tech shirts

Other products in the works include Goldberg’s Boon Island Tech shirts, which he said are named for the fictitious college lobstermen have joked they attended. Boon Island’s lighthouse is visible to lobstermen laying their traps in the Gulf of Maine, located about six miles from York’s coastline. Goldberg saw a shirt with the phrase “Boon Island Tech” in a picture his father posted on Facebook, worn by one of his friends at a reunion.

“The lobstermen, they didn’t go to college,” Goldberg said. “Boon Island Tech – they’re always on the ocean. It’s kind of a funny little play on it.”

Goldberg’s ideas also include making T-shirts to commemorate now-closed restaurants like Einstein’s of Ogunquit. Other euphemisms he may turn into T-shirts include going to the Nubble to “watch the submarine races,” which, like seeing the red light turning green, is essentially impossible, he said.

“I want to recreate a shirt that stands for that funny little saying people used to have,” Goldberg said.

Celebrating the locals

Goldberg also hopes to use his platform to showcase local people who deserve the spotlight for acts of kindness and charity. He plans to interview prominent locals and highlight them as “Seacoast Legend of the Month,” sharing their stories on the Seacoast Threads social media.

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Goldberg is currently finishing his bachelor’s degree in business while also working for a hotel company running social media. He said he is unsure how far he will take Seacoast Threads, if he will sell in stores or ever open his own shop. The first few dozen sales, however, have him eager to see how big the brand will grow.

“I wanted to develop a brand that showcases all that stuff that’s maybe no longer around,” Goldberg said. “I’m happy with what it’s done so far.”

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Clothing brand celebrates Southern Maine from the Nubble to the Big A