ABOVE: D&S Trophies Owner Sara Cyphers holds one of their shirts made for a limited time, specially for the holiday season, next to a display center filled with others.

FAIRMONT – Spreading holiday cheer however the customer would like, D&S Trophies has customizable offerings and items especially for the holiday season.

D&S Trophies Owner Sara Cyphers said they customize a variety of different items.

“We sell custom T-shirts, sweatshirts, clothing items, jackets, cups,” she said. “We do laser engraving. We do a lot of corporate companies as well, just do their decoration of their clothing items or gift giving or add specialty needs.”

Currently, they have two graphic designers in-house who work with clients.

“You tell us what you’re looking for, and we set it up,” Cyphers said. “We do a lot of sending proofs and things back and forth to customers to make sure that it is personalized the way they would like it.”

With the holiday season and gift-buying fast approaching, Cyphers said they’re bringing out some specialty items.

“We have the cutting boards that you could put a family recipe on,” she said. “You could personalize Grandma’s cake pan with your family name on it. A lot of cups are going in and out of here around this time of year. Clothing is always the biggest one.”

With clothing being the biggest, Cyphers said they have some already-designed shirts with a mix of festivity and humor.

“We do a run of holiday shirts with funny sayings on them, or Christmas things on them,” she said. “We have those out now because obviously you’ll want them before Christmas.”

As for how they choose what to offer, Cyphers said they have to keep a keen eye on what’s in and what’s out.

“We go with the trend of what people are ordering, and lean that way. For a long time, the muted tie-dyes were in, and we still do see some of that, but they’re kind of going out. Some more muted colors are coming in, like the neutrals. Grays and whites and blacks are coming back more popular.”

What’s most popular around the holiday season for Cyphers is anything with school spirit.

“It’s a good gift to give for grandmas and grandpas as well as children and then students in school,” she said. “Nice, easy gift Dad can stop in and pick up for Mom, for the kids to give. I would definitely say our school attire, we probably turn over three or four times during the holiday season, starting now.”

This means they often sell out and have to restock their front display shelves of these items three or four times.

To help with all of this demand, Cyphers said they got three all-new embroidery machines within the last two years, weeding out the old ones along the way.

“We have a brand new laser that is about a year and a half old as well,” she said. “We added the hat press about a year ago, replacing some older equipment that still worked well. The technology changes so quickly that that’s just keeping up with the times.”

When it comes to starting the process on a specialized item, Cyphers said anyone interested should put feelers out right away.

“Can’t control shipping. We can’t control inventory levels and things like that. So the sooner we get started on it, the better. If it’s something we have in store, we certainly will do that right up until the day of. We obviously want to accommodate everybody’s needs. We never say cut off. We always say no guarantees after a certain point.”

D&S Trophies is also contributing to community events during this season, as they will be a part of the downtown shopping event, Merry and Bright, on Dec. 5.

“It’s a huge night for us,” Cyphers said. “We have hot chocolate down here. Santa comes down, and the reindeer are coming back this year. We have carolers, we have hay rides, and all of the participating businesses downtown are open till nine o’clock. We have basket drawings and things like that.”

For more information, visit dstrophiesmn.com/

*This article ran in the Sentinel’s Home for the Holidyas section on Nov. 26, 2025.