Route 6 Exit Renumbering Inspires Product Line

Filed Under: Other News

The state’s renumbering of Route 6’s exits may have escaped the attention of many commuters confined to home during the past year.

But not Kathleen Giorgio, who seized the opportunity to launch a new product line. 

After receiving an enthusiastic response from Red Nun Exit 11 products last year, Red Nun owner Mike Giorgio’s wife Kathleen spun the idea into a standalone concept called EXITMERCH. 

Based in Harwich, EXITMERCH is a line of merchandise and apparel from stickers to trucker hats to tees to can koozies and more. Giorgio and her business partner Mike Silvester worked with local artist/designer Mary Catherine Starr to create a few variations of the exit logo – including a Cape variety, a Bay State variety, along with the traditional simple numbered exit. 

The new exit numbers reflect the distance from the beginning of Route 6, on the Massachusetts-Rhode Island border. Annoyingly, for some travelers and the countless businesses that have carried the same exit numbers on directions for years, the exit numbers are not consecutive as the previous exits (numbered 1 through 12). For example, the former Exit 6 is now Exit 68 and former Exit 7 is Exit 72.

“Exit 11, for example, was my beacon, growing up, since I used to come to the Cape from Boston when I was in college,” said Giorgio, who describes her business as a “side hustle,”  as she is a full-time social worker in Barnstable Public Schools and also helps out with public relations and marketing for The Red Nun. 

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EXITMERCH is selling directly through its website (exitmerch.com) and social media (@exitmerch) as well as wholesale to retailers. Additionally, they offer co-brand options and are in connection with hotels, restaurants and retailers who wish to combine branding for their own custom lines.