Not only is Obama-themed clothing still in, it's hotter than ever.

"We were quite honestly worried that shirt sales would drop off dramatically," said Daniel Fox, owner of Skreened on N. High Street. "Fortunately for us, quite the opposite happened."

Skreened had its best sales day "by quite a margin" Wednesday, Fox said, adding that more than 90 percent of the sales were Obama-related.

Customers can order shirts from the store or its Web site. Some of the more popular Obama shirts have slogans such as "Voldemort Can't Stop Barack" and "Wizards for Obama," playing off a Harry Potter theme.

The designs are continually updated, including new post-election shirts, Fox said.

He's not sure how long the shirts will remain popular, but he's hoping they will become Christmas gifts. He said he doesn't see it as a fashion trend in the traditional sense.

"It seems to be deeper than just a trend or a fashion," he said. "It seems that people are really looking to identify themselves with an ideology."

On the other end of the political spectrum, Fox said, sales of John McCain/Sarah Palin T-shirts have been "awful." Compared with thousands of Obama-related pieces, Fox said, he sold about 20 McCain/Palin shirts during the entire campaign season.

"There was a Palin spike," he said. "Most of them came after Palin joined the ticket."

Obama-themed clothing consistently has been at the forefront of sales, Karen DeMarco, a spokeswoman for Zazzle, an online custom T-shirt seller, said in an e-mail.

McCain always has been a distant third, but after the election, DeMarco said, the company's Obama T-shirts outsold McCain shirts 10-to-1, in part because of a "huge" jump in Obama sales.

"There has been some interest in Palin, in terms of 2012, but Obama's definitely outselling," she said.

Other retailers tell similar stories.

Ryan Vesler, owner of Homage Clothing, a Columbus company offering retro-themed merchandise online, sold an Obama T-shirt design to Urban Outfitters that was distributed nationwide. The design has a vintage twist -- it's for Obama's first campaign for the Illinois Senate.

"Putting Obama's face on a shirt became redundant after a while," Vesler said. "We wanted a fresh take."

Vesler said he was stunned at how popular Obama shirts had become.

"I think it has a lot to do with the way Obama has involved youth in his movement," Vesler said. "Youth is always interested in fashion, and you bring those things together."

A company associated with the Obama campaign likewise is reporting brisk sales.

Greenville-based Tigereye Design is a supplier for official Obama apparel. Political program director Justin Hemminger said he couldn't release numbers for the campaign store, but did say Tigereye retailer Democraticstuff.com posted its best sales day Wednesday.

"We expected it would go on for at least a honeymoon period after the election," Hemminger said. "We didn't expect to drop off completely, or shoot up the way it did."

The store has about 80 T-shirt designs, including some with the post-election "Yes We Did" slogan, but Hemminger said he's not sure how long supplies will last after Wednesday's high volume of sales.

"We had put quite a dent in the inventory," Hemminger said. "We'll probably run out soon."

The store is running a clearance sale on Obama-related merchandise because it was thought that demand would drop off.

"It was a good kind of wrong to be," Hemminger said.

The election contributed to the retailer's best sales year by far, Hemminger said.

"A lot of people are trying to line up collectibles to mark what a historic election this was, and that's what we're here for," he said.

mharding@dispatch.com