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BUSINESS DIME BUSINESS WORDS. Dylan Murphy Retro College Cuts Ballplayers live in their hoop shorts on and off the court. Two former Division I players have decided to change the game and elevate the culture of basketball shorts to an art form by resurrecting the most iconic styles in college basketball history. Tis is their story. Well, the founders of Retro College Cuts have you covered. If you're like us, you live in your basketball shorts. You get home from work or school, and the first thing you do is put on a pair of your favorite hoop shorts because that's who you are. You are a ballplayer. If there's one thing that always seems to elude you though, it is the fact that you can't find quality retro game shorts of your favorite teams. "People get nostalgic when they see a piece of clothing from a past great team," says "Dave,"one of the brand's co-founders, who spoke to us on the condition of anonymity because the site he runs, www.retrocolleg- ecuts.com, doesn't exactly fall under the scope of his 9:00-5:00 technology research firm gig. "We kind of call ourselves 'cultural anthropologists.' We go out and we dig. We try to bring back these artifacts that are associated with these great teams. And for us, that's what resonates with the cus- tomer." Through their website, authentic retro col- lege shorts and t-shirts have been revived. The shorts of 17 classic teams (as of press time), which includes greats such as the '79 Michigan State Spartans, '95 UMass Minutemen and '89 Seton Hall Pirates, are all available for purchase. There was a time when the company's founders used to buy authentic game-worn college shorts off eBay, simply because they weren't available anywhere else. But then the bidding war would start, and in typical eBay fashion the price would skyrocket. But out of that financial hit came the realization that there was in fact a market for this product – authentic, back-in-the-day shorts with that thicker, heavier, quality feel. Sitting alongside his future co-founder and former Division I teammate at the 2011 Sweet 16 in Newark, they decided to go for it. "It just was cool," says Dave. "From a design standpoint, I don't really have a fascination with jerseys. I wasn't going to get a lot of utility out of wearing a jersey. But I wear shorts to play basketball, I wear shorts to run in, I wear shorts at the gym, I wear shorts around my apartment, and for me it just seems like this was something the market was missing." It was a no-brainer, except neither part- ner had any real retail or licensing expe- rience, especially concerning the NCAA. They eventually brought in an advisor from a major sneaker brand, who had worked in their collegiate department and licensing group, as a minority owner. But they still controlled which team shorts to sell. "It's a little guess work, a little gut feel," Dave says. "We spent our lives growing up in basketball, so we're pretty passion- ate about the product. That's one of the reasons why we went down this path and are doing what we're doing. So we look for teams that resonate with people." Thus far, the most popular teams have 22