By Ross Sullivan, Staff Writer

Juniors Payton Savage and Evan Wienert have claimed themselves to be “big dogs”– important people – of the Outer Banks,  and now with their start-up T-shirt company,  anyone else can be one, too.

“Evan came up with the idea of making a website featuring all the legends and big dogs of the Outer Banks and that’s how it all started,” Savage said.

T-shirts sold by the company bear the logo “Big Dogs, On Scene” inside of a surfboard frame.

“We got the ‘on scene’ part from lifeguarding because when you’re a lifeguard, you’re always ‘on scene,’ but we’re not just lifeguards, we’re big dogs, too,” Wienert said.

This past year was their first year beach lifeguarding, with Wienert guarding in Kill Devil Hills and Savage in Nags Head. It was their summer jobs that inspired them to begin their company.

Their biggest advertising platform has been Instagram, where they feature favorite local surf legends that they have deemed to be big dogs.

“(Payton and I) have been surfing since we could swim,” Wienert said.

Wienert and Savage don’t plan to stop merchandising with regular T-shirts and tank-tops. In the future, they plan on releasing stickers, hats and long-sleeved shirts for the winter.

“We have a lot of big dogs – kids around the Outer Banks wearing the Big Dogs merch,” Savage said.

When Wienert and Savage began making the shirts, they used a stencil to spray paint them. Now they have upgraded to a printing press, which they bought using the profits from their original shirt design.

“The printing press is just so much easier than the stencil and spray paint,” Savage said.

Big Dogs has made a mark on Instagram as well as at First Flight. Wienert and Savage decided to team up with the FFHS Surf Club for more endorsement and members. Now, they have twice as much “Big Dog power” to teach the Outer Banks groms how to shred.

Sophomore Ross Sullivan can be reached at 22sullivanro96@daretolearn.org.