KYLE BEERY | SPORTS EDITOR

Saturday’s men’s basketball game against No. 6-ranked Villanova is slated to be a “white-out.”

The idea is to have all Butler faithful inside Hinkle Fieldhouse decked out in white — filling arenas in one solid color is something that can often be seen for big games around the country.

The local t-shirt company 19nine originally approached the university’s licensing and trademarks department, according to company co-founder and business strategy representative Aaron Loomer about providing the Dawg Pound student section with their “Butler Vintage Tony Hinkle” t-shirt.

The white t-shirt features a throwback Butler logo and wordmark, a shirt that Hinkle himself can be found wearing in many old photos.

He said the company has had the license to sell Butler apparel for about two years and they have been waiting for the opportunity to connect with the Dawg Pound.

“This is an idea that has been going on for a couple months,” Loomer said, “and I’d say we finalized on the Villanova game  probably about a month ago, and that’s when we decided to actually do it more than just a Dawg Pound event and try and do an entire white-out for Hinkle Fieldhouse.”

19nine started in 2011 with a focus on making apparel for charity events, and Butler was the first collegiate licensing deal they got.

“That’s really where our company came into focus with providing officially licensed collegiate apparel,” Loomer said.

The shirts are available for sale at the Hinkle Fieldhouse Spirit Shop as well as on the company’s website, 19nine.com.

Lommer said they sold out of stock a few hours after putting them for sale online and  after getting new shipments they have continued to sell at a high rate.

“It’s been a couple of really long nights,” Loomer said. “Sales have been way more than we thought.”