Winter Springs, USA - Hip Christians proclaim their faith with WWJD bracelets and T-shirts emblazoned with "Jesus is my Homeboy."
But Will Broome didn't see much cool merchandise out there for Jewish kids.
The teenager mentioned that to his dad, and a new business was born.
Larry Broome - with some creative input from his 14-year-old son Will - has created KewlJu, a line of T-shirts and jewelry marketed online to young Jews.
Broome calls it "21st-century Jewish gear." The product line includes black T-shirts and red tank tops that say "Hot 4 Hebrew" and "KewlJu" - a more hip version of "cool Jew" that Will says is "not so ordinary. It's not boring."
The Broomes have sold about 200 shirts at $15 to $28 each and 1,000 Lance Armstrong-inspired blue bracelets, at $3 each, that say "Chosen."
"There's Christian T-shirts, bumper stickers, that kind of stuff out there," Broome said. "I think that they just see that and say 'Hey, we're happy to be Jewish and we want to show our pride in kind of a cool way.' "
Broome, who separately sells broadcast equipment, is stepping into a territory overwhelmingly dominated by Christian products, on which Americans spend $4.5 billion a year.
Christian retailing has become increasingly mainstream. The initials WWJD (What Would Jesus Do?) decorate everything from bracelets and T-shirts to mugs and pencils. Major retailers such as Wal-Mart sell Veggie Tales videos and The Purpose Driven Life, a Christian self-help book by Rick Warren, a Southern Baptist preacher.
But there has been a void in the market for other religions, including Judaism, said Lynn Schofield Clark, a University of Colorado professor who has researched media, religion and young people.
Hip clothing aimed at Jewish youngsters "is an important step," she said. "It's a way for them to be present and publicly visible in a way that's not always so easy for Jewish teens."
Other entrepreneurs have begun to discover the untapped market. Chosen Couture sells tote bags that read "The girl's got chutzpah!" and T-shirts with slogans including "Yo Semite," "He'Brew, The Chosen Beer" and "Jew.Lo."
Brooklyn native Sara Schwimmer, who started the company last year, said she grew frustrated with a marketplace that seemed almost exclusively aimed at Christians.
"The mainstream retailers just don't cater to the Jewish demographic," said Schwimmer, 28. "I think Jews and Judaism have had a certain image over the years. I'm very interested in sort of, like, changing perceptions. You know the Jewish characters we see portrayed on television, in the movies, that are always like sort of the nebbish, dorky characters . . . . The fact is, there are hip Jews out there."
Larry Broome hopes to target even more of them. He's planning a line of workout clothing and trying to get more exposure for his products, which are printed by a company in the North and distributed by relatives in Massachusetts.
Recently, he sent a T-shirt to actor Adam Sandler, "hoping he just wears it on the street sometime and someone takes a picture of it." Sandler's public-relations firm confirmed it received the shirt but hasn't yet passed it along to the actor.
Broome may have more luck with the Israeli Bobsled Team. The team of Jewish athletes, which includes former San Francisco 49ers tight end John Frank, agreed to partner with Broome after he contacted them with the idea of designing promotional clothing and accessories. Broome hasn't finalized designs, but he plans to incorporate the team's bobsled logo and nickname, "Frozen Chosen."
Team brakeman David Greaves of Canada said KewlJu products have a lot in common with the Israeli athletes, who are trying to compete in the 2006 Olympics as Israel's first bobsled team. Israel hasn't had many athletes compete in the Winter Olympics, Greaves said.
"It's neat marketing for Jews," Greaves said. "He is just wanting people to wear with pride something that's fun and fashionable and Jewish, and we're sort of telling a similar story. We're wanting . . . people to know we're proud to be Jewish; we're proud to be Israeli."