About Us

NON-STOP SINCE 1896

Lawlor's has truly been "Non-Stop…Since 1896!  The Lawlor’s family retail business began more than a century ago in 1896, when current owner Pat Lawlor's Great Grandfather Nicholas Lawlor, an Irish immigrant, opened up a bicycle shop in Lincoln, Nebraska called Lawlor Cycle Company.  Pat Lawlor follows in the footsteps of brother John “Bubba” Lawlor, Father Mike Lawlor, Grandfather John Lawlor and Great Grandfather Nicholas.

In 1995, Pat Lawlor, who had been working as a youth worker for 10 years, was asked to join Lawlor Sporting Goods to take over it’s struggling screeprinting division (known as “the company loser” by Lawlor's employees).

From 1995 to 2000 Lawlor’s Sporting Goods struggled due to numerous large national sporting goods stores entering the Lincoln and Omaha markets.  Ironically while Lawlor's retail sporting goods sales struggled, it's screen-printing and uniforms sales were booming.   In 2000, Lawlor’s made the difficult decision to close its three retail sporting goods stores in Lincoln and Omaha.

In the fall of 2000, the only part of Lawlor’s that remained was Pat’s company, Lawlor’s Custom Sportswear.  Despite operating out of a small industrial warehouse in Millard with only 3 employees & a manual t-shirt press, Lawlor's Custom Sportswear grew rapidly due to it's loyal customers and hard working staff.   In 2005, Lawlor's purchased a 20,000 square foot retail and manufacturing facility in Omaha at 84th & J Street.  Lawlor's has grown to 32 employees and now operates one of Omaha’s largest screenprinting & embroidery businesses.  Lawlor’s is officially licensed to produce apparel for Nebraska, Creighton, Nebraska Omaha, Omaha Storm Chasers, Iowa and Iowa State.  Lawlor's also specializes in game site sales at Nebraska Omaha hockey games, Lancer Hockey games and many Creighton sports events events. In  2010, the Omaha World Herald referred to Lawlor's Custom Sportswear as "Omaha's 'Go To' store for fan apparel for all of Omaha's teams".

In 2011, Lawlor's Custom Sportswear was named the Nebraska Retailer of the Year in recognition of Lawlor's "being a business that made a comeback from difficult circumstances".

During the 116 years Lawlor’s has been in business, the most important family asset has always been the Lawlor family tradition of making sure customers are happy…just like Great Grandfather Nicholas did in 1896.