Tourism group's new online shop lets you wear your LI love on your sleeve  

Discover Long Island wants consumers to discover its new online retail store. 

The area's official tourism promotion agency on Monday launched a line of Long Island-branded merchandise, featured on its website under a newly added "shop" section. 

On sale on the site, shoppers can find a variety of items including T-shirts, baseball caps, sandals, winter hats and water bottles costing up to $35. A pair of rainbow-colored sunglasses with the word "Long Island" printed on the side is priced at $10, while a white sleeveless tank emblazoned with the words "Discover Long Island New York" is priced at $25. 

The initiative was designed to enhance positive perception and community pride throughout the region, Kristen Jarnagin, president and CEO of Discover Long Island, said. 

 After the recent launch of the group's "BeLONG on Long Island" campaign, "We were inundated with requests for Long Island-branded attire and merchandise," she said. 

“We immediately recognized the need to align with other Long Island retailers to offer visitors and residents the opportunity to proudly wear their love for Long Island and to enjoy unique and locally sourced Long Island products, ultimately building local pride in the beautiful place we call home." 

The sale of the new merchandise is a "potential revenue stream" for the nonprofit organization, which obtains most of its funding from a hotel and motel “bed tax” collected by Nassau and Suffolk counties, Jarnagin said. 

Discover Long Island obtains additional revenue from fees from its 800 members. It does not accept donations. 

To promote the new initiative, Discover Long Island partnered with locaLI bred, a Huntington-based subscription box company focusing on locally made products. 

As part of the company's fall subscription box, customers will receive a co-branded LocaLI bred and Discover Long Island box filled with about eight fall-themed products by local artisans. 

Some subscribers, at random, will also get an item from Discover Long Island's new retail collection. All subscribers will get an informational brochure about the tourism group. 

For LocaLI bred co-owner Haile Geller, a native of Loudonville, New York, who fell in love with the Island when she married a Long Islander and moved here six years ago, her business' partnership with Discover Long Island was a natural one. 

"Discover Long Island's mission is very similar," Geller said. "They want to get people thinking about Long Island as a destination where things are always happening, as a cool and awesome place to be. Being able to do our part to support that, for us, it's very special."