CAMPBELLSPORT, Wis. - Drive from one end of Campbellsport, Wisconsin to the other and you won't lay eyes on a clothing store...except the one at Campbellsport Building Supply.
"We've got Judas Favre shirts," proclaims owner Joel Fleishman, as he holds a green number four T-shirt with the yellow name "Judas" on the back. "We've been very busy."
For a walls and windows guy, Fleishman and his employee Jason Strobel outdid Ralph Loren anticipating one of this fall's Wisconsin fashion trends.
"In the first 24 hours we sold over 300," says Fleishman about the day Favre signed on with the Vikings.
Since registering the web domain name judasfavre.com, Fleishman and Strobel have sold more than 2000 shirts, some shipped as far away as Iraq, Germany, Denmark, and Sweden.
"It's an international sensation," boasts Fleishman.
The sensation is not all his.
Like bitter former lovers, Packers fans have been wearing their emotions less on their sleeves than on their bellies and backs.
"Benedict Brett," reads one shirt available online. "We'll never forget you Brent," reads another.
Al Castro, a laid off graphic designer from Hudson became a member of Wisconsin's newest clothing industry when he started shipping out shirts with "Fourget Favre" printed on the front.
"I appreciate what he did for the Packers," says Castro, "but he's not one of us anymore."
The mail tells Fleishman and Strobel Brett Favre still has his supporters.
"You guys are the most unintelligent morons in the world," reads one e-mail recently. "You are nothing but blood sucking leaches," reads another.
Fleishman and Strobel were surprised when not a single bar or retail outlet in Green Bay would agree to carry their shirts.
Sales have been strong elsewhere in Wisconsin, but the pair surmises Favre had too many personal contacts in the city of Green Bay for fans to put on a Judas T-shirt.
"They grocery shopped with him and they gave him a high five once at a bar and they do not want to be any part of it."
But down the road at the Boars Nest bar, count bartender Tammy Backhaus as conflicted.
She wears "Judas" on her back, while admitting if Favre walked through the front door she'd still buy him a beer.
"Hell yeah," she says before remembering the TV camera in her bar. "I mean heck yeah, I would."
Not unlike Favre himself, Wisconsin's T-shirt entrepreneurs spotted an opportunity and ran.
"In a down economy there's always ways to make money. You just got to find it," says Fleishman.
