The University of Hawaii athletic department is set up to score off the merchandising of new head football coach Norm Chow.

Two local firms, Maui Bay Shirt Company and L&L Drive-Inn, have reached agreements to share proceeds from T-shirts and other items playing off the coach’s name, and the school is planning its own line of merchandise, people involved said.

All this before Chow settles into his campus office next week.

Maui Bay, through its Buti-Groove subsidiary, had $25 "Chow Time" T-shirts on sale before the Dec. 21 official announcement that Chow would succeed Greg McMackin. UH Board of Regents members and Gov. Neil Abercrombie had the shirts for his announcement-day functions on campus and at Washington Place. BJ Sabate, one of the owners of the company, said "between 600 and 700" T-shirts had been sold as of Tuesday and additional lines, including hats and pennants, are planned for outlets on Oahu and the neighbor islands.

L&L has "Chow Down" T-shirts for sale on its website, hawaiianbarbecue.com, for $15 and will begin selling an initial allotment of 500 at its stores Thursday. L&L’s Walmart Keeaumoku St. branch will give away plate lunches to customers with various spellings of the Chow surname (Zhou, Chou, Chao and Chew) and valid ID between 10 a.m. and noon Thursday and will sell the shirts for $10 there, said Bryan Andaya, the firm’s chief operating officer.

Sabate said proceeds will go to buy season tickets for distribution to youth organizations and others. He said the company also plans to develop a shirt for a planned downtown rally Jan. 11. Andaya said money from L&L’s shirt sale will be donated to UH athletics with the company underwriting the cost of the shirts.

"Basically, any royalties that would have otherwise been paid to my dad for the use of his name will be donated to UH," said Carter Chow, an attorney who represents his father. "Dad is not looking to make any money off this, but if people are going to use the family name then, obviously, he wants the UH football program to benefit," Carter said. "We’d like control over what’s out there so that we know it is being done in good taste and benefitting UH."

Since the currently introduced T-shirts do not carry UH-registered logos, the school said it has not been involved in negotiations.

But the school’s merchandising arm has been working with designs that include T-shirts with the "New Normal" emphasizing the "Norm," UH officials said.

A UH licensing official declined to say when the items might be available.

Carter Chow said, "We are excited the way he (Norm) has been embraced by the fan base. That’s one reason why this job is so special and why we’ve said from the beginning that it is about more than just football."