The T-shirt bears no explanation whatsoever and that’s what makes it a thing of beauty: Just two arches that most any resident of Lower Alabama will recognize, strategically placed to invoke the nickname of a regional landmark.
“If you know, you know,” said Joseph Vogtner, one of two brothers who formed Nutria Rodeo, the company behind the design.
Many eye-catching designs have drawn on the iconography of Mobile: Azaleas, battleships and cannons abound. Skylines topped by the spires of the RSA Tower and Renaissance Riverview Plaza Hotel have become a staple in recent years. But Nutria Rodeo Trading Co. has had a breakout hit with its take on the Gen. W.K. Wilson Jr. Bridge – better known for around 40 years now as the “Dolly Parton Bridge,” for fairly obvious (and yes, puerile) reasons.
Garrett Smith of Red Beard’s Outfitters in Spring Hill said he stumbled across Nutria Rodeo on Instagram and decided pretty quickly to add the company’s designs to the collection of local art and clothing his store sells. “I wanted one that would make people talk,” he said.
He said that when Red Beard’s participated in a “Christmas in July” market this summer, the shirt was easily “the most photographed item” on display. “The ladies loved it,” he said.
That’s true of his store’s staff as well. “I’ve got a couple of employees that it’s their Thursday shirt,” he said. “They wear it every Thursday.”
While doing brisk business at Mobile’s most recent downtown art walk, Joseph Vogtner and his older brother Matt explained where they were coming from. It starts with the name.
Joseph and Matt Vogtner pose at a recent downtown Mobile art walk with some wares from Nutria Rodeo Trading Co., a company they developed as a creative outlet. Joseph, left, wears a shirt inspired by Mobile's historic De Tonti Square neighborhood. Matt, right, wears one referring to the Lower Dauphin Street (LoDa) entertainment district. (Lawrence Specker | LSpecker@AL.com)
The Nutria Rodeos were an actual thing. In the ‘60s, the Gulf Coast was plagued by an invasion of nutria, a large non-native rodent species capable of doing serious damage to wetland ecologies. The Mobile County Wildlife and Conservation Association instituted a yearly hunt in which hunters swarmed into the Mississippi-Tensaw Delta to lay waste to the local nutria population. Mobile being Mobile, it devolved into a swamp-based party complete with a Nutria Queen and everything.
Eventually good sense took hold and the nutria-control business was handed over to a resurgent alligator population.
Matt Vogtner said that as hokey as the concept was, he found it inspirational.
“The Nutria Rodeo was around to preserve the physical ecosystem,” he said. “We wanted to do something to preserve the cultural ecosystem.”
He works at a medical technology company, while his younger brother is in insurance. The Nutria Rodeo Trading Co. is something of a hobby, a creative outlet. The Vogtners said their second most popular design is probably a classically styled “Take the Causeway” tee. Smith said he particularly likes the “Fly Brookley” shirt: Its throwback ’70s look evokes “Close Encounters of the Third Kind,” a movie filmed partly in the hangars at Brookley Field. They also do designs focused on specific neighborhoods within Mobile: At the art walk, Joseph Vogtner was field-testing a De Tonti Square design.
But the Bridge stands out.
“That was one of our first ones to put out there, and it’s been one of our most popular,” said Matt Vogtner.
For other designs and more information, visit https://thenutriarodeo.com/. Most T-shirts are $24. Select designs also are available locally at Red Beard’s Outfitters and G Harvell Mens Clothier.