Sweat Shirts

by Christina Brooks

My gym is in the process of changing its name again. First it was sold and recently it has become affiliated with an international chain.

So along with changing the signs and the colour scheme, there are a lot of branded shirts, hats and towels that have to go. To clear the decks of all this merchandise, one corner of the main floor has been turned into a boutique. This is a little annoying, the equipment that was there has moved up two floors but I figure it won't be for long.

Over the last week I and some of the other patrons have wandered over, fingered the merchandise and some have parted with some hard earned cash for a little bit of nostalgia.

But last night a couple of the patrons perusing the racks almost made me stall the cross-trainer I was on. These two had just finished their workouts. They'd purchased a couple of protein drinks and were wandering about the racks, fingering the merchandise. Then one of them stipped off his shirt, and tried on one of the blue tees from the rack. He primped and posed in various pieces of glass then removed the shirt and put it back on the hanger. Then he did it again with a white tee.

All the while his friend was discussing the various merits of the shirts. Then guy number two decided he needed a new shirt as well and also stripped off and tried on a couple of shirts; again returning the shirts to the hangers.

When the girl came over and told them that she needed to close the till for the night, they told her they wanted a couple of shirts. And proceeded to get clean, folded tees from the shelves.

I won't be purchasing anything from the boutique - I don't know where its been.