Inside Lake George’s most popular bumper stickers and decals

PHOTOGRAPHER: Erica Miller

Symbolic Lake George stickers sold at The Lake George Shop on Canada Street in Lake George on Thursday, June 20, 2019.

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If you’ve been on the road in the Capital Region, you pass by them more often than you pass a Stewart’s Shop.

Drivers sporting oval bumper stickers reading “LG” aren’t Lady Gaga listeners or strong advocates for large-sized soft drinks.

They’re fans of Lake George.

And drivers with a vertical white line on their windows don’t have a crack in their windshield. They love Lake George, too, and specifically the look of its shoreline.

The two types of stickers are a hit among residents and tourists alike. The oval design is the most popular car magnet and decal in many local gift shops including Steamboat Co. Gift Shop, according to owner Carron Dingman. At locations like Gift World and Lake George Shop, customers are more fond of Lake George’s shoreline, a design that’s seeing a bit more traction in recent years. Decals that feature the lake’s outline, although they have become available at numerous gift shops in the area, are a hugely popular item, according to employees.

And the design started at the Bolton-based shop Local.

Sara Pfau designed the logo overseas and decided to partner up with her brother and store-owner Domenick Pfau in 2012 to sell the logo as jewelry, on t-shirts and, of course, as decals. The shop sells sizes from 3.5-inch decals for phones to a 16-inch version, priced from $2 to $10.

More: Your guide to summer on Lake George

“Even though we have a line of over 100 products, and some products have come and gone, our decal has remained virtually unchanged because of its popularity and demand,” Domenick Pfau said.

Pfau said that since starting by selling out of the trunks of their cars, he estimates he’s sold an upward of 12,000 decals.

“It’s humbling to see what we originally thought was a simple product for our friends and community, and a fun way to make some extra beer money, take off to become a part of so many people’s lives,” Pfau said.

Pfau has seen the decal in as far down as Florida and as far to the west as Colorado, but has customers sporting Local in Israel, Tokyo, Hawaii, Machu Picchu, and the South Pole in Antarctica.

And, although it may not fit on a car, the Local website offers a 5-foot-long, $100 white decal for larger surfaces like sliding glass doors. The website even asks customers, “What better way to greet guests at your door, than a 5ft outline of Lake George detailing every nook, bay, and island?”

The answer: There is no better way.

While Local’s design is already a fixture of the area, other locations that don’t specialize in stickers are also becoming hotspots for the product.

The Lake George Association, a lake conservation organization which has been protecting the lake since 1885, is doubling as somewhat of a sticker store.

Pat Dowd, LGA director of communications, said his organization sells two stickers: one of the lake outline and an oval “Euro-style” sticker with “LGA” in the center surrounded by LGA’s slogan, “Protect the water. Educate for the future.”

Dowd said both stickers, which cost “less than a cup of coffee,” regularly sell out and the outline sticker has sold so well that LGA is ordering a second version in a larger size.

But Dowd isn’t just in it for the sticker sales.

“The stickers, of course, raise awareness about the Lake George Association and about the work that we do, but we also believe that our members and friends want to show that they love their lake, and it’s a good way and an inexpensive way to show that,” Dowd said.