Local, the original product line that features the outline of Lake George, held a ribbon-cutting ceremony this morning, June 19, to launch their second Local store. The new business is in a shop overlooking Lake George at the Village Mall on Canada Street. The long and skinny Lake George silhouette, with its distinctive hook formed by Tongue Mountain, has become a regional icon found on all sorts of merchandise — baseball caps, t-shirts, tumblers and key chains. Lake George silhouette decals are a standard on cars throughout the region.
The ubiquity of the design can be traced back to the work of Matt Peterson and Domenick Pfau, both 2010 graduates of Bolton Central School. Pfau’s sister Sara, since 2007, has been creating jewelry based on the Lake George map. In 2011, Pfau and Peterson, while students at the University of South Carolina, began designing tank tops using the Lake George silhouette.
They screen-printed their designs on items with dorm rooms, parents’ kitchens and garages for their production space, and they sold their product from car trunks and a website. The popularity of the design encouraged them to expand their product line, and in 2014, they opened a retail shop, simply called Local, in Bolton Landing.
Pfau says the popularity of their products is evidenced by the number of imitators selling knock-offs of their designs. “We are the original,” Pfau says. Peterson and Pfau began planning the new store in January and were mostly set to go before the global pandemic halted in-person retail. With retail once again open, they are ready to welcome customers.
Local has taken the Lake George Region/ Southern Adirondacks Health & Safety Pledge. With the pledge, they commit to following safety guidelines and procedures set by the CDC, New York State Department of Health and regional health offices to keep customers and employees safe during the global health emergency. As with all businesses in Lake George, customers must wear a mask to enter.
The new Village store will expand their market and better serve their Southern customers, Pfau says, as the winding drive up to Bolton along Route 9N “has been an issue” for many shoppers. Peterson and Pfau plan to keep the store open year-round. Currently, the Village store is open seven days a week, from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.
