- June 12, 2025
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When Winter Garden was becoming a destination place for both locals and out-of-towners about a decade ago, two friends noticed there was no merchandise in local stores that promoted the city. Will Blaine and Andy Crabtree set out to change that with the creation of A.B. Newton & Co.
Ten years and about 40,000 “I love Winter Garden” stickers later, the Winter Garden artists operate a successful and constantly expanding company that honors their beloved city. Blaine, Crabtree and A.B. Newton are celebrating a decade of churning out T-shirts, mugs, postcards, maps, stickers and other fun merchandise.
Crabtree had the idea of the company for years before getting together with Blaine and implementing it. When coming up with the name, the two settled on a name from Winter Garden’s history and paid tribute to the man who helped form the city as the first mayor, first merchant and first newspaper publisher.
“I had heard of A.B. Newton the actual man and I thought it would be cool to do something going back to that,” Crabtree said. “With A.B. Newton, we don’t use his likeness, just his name. The old patriarch guy with the mustache is something we created.”
Both he and Blaine have art degrees, are longtime friends and come from families with deep roots in Winter Garden. Blaine’s great-grandfather, Thomas Mann, owned Mills & Mann department store on downtown Main Street, and Crabtree’s grandfather, Bob Kerr, was the owner of a marine mechanic shop, also on Main.
The pair partnered with Tri & Run of West Orange and sold their first Winter Garden T-shirts on consignment. Those did well, so they produced more, adding mugs and wooden signs and setting up a regular booth at the Winter Garden Farmers Market. The company’s e-commerce was started by a third partner, Matthew Peacock, who joined a few years later and actually was the one who suggested they hand out the “I love Winter Garden” stickers for free.
“It’s a great ice breaker at the farmers market,” Crabtree said. “(We say) ‘Hey, do you want a sticker?’ and then you find out their story.”
The partners brainstorm ideas over lunch, and sometimes those thoughts become merch sold at the market and online.”
One item that has grown in popularity is the map series created by Blaine.
“I remember doing the Winter Garden print and both Andy and Matt saying that could work,” Blaine said.
The map highlights points of interest, including the West Orange Trail, West Orange High School, the West Orange Country Club and Winter Garden Village at Fowler Groves.
Market-goers loved the map and wanted to see other areas represented, so Blaine got busy with more maps. He eventually branched out to include the Disney theme parks, and, since he loves to travel, he created maps of large cities all over the country. More than 40 cities and towns are represented. New Orleans debuts this week, and by summer, Kansas City, Denver, Seattle, St. Louis and Minneapolis will have their own maps.
“The thing about the city map is it’s local,” Crabtree said. “There are a lot of easter eggs that only the locals know.”
Blaine’s favorite A.B. Newton pieces are the maps, partially because of the excitement of discovering locations in other cities and partially because his family accompanies him on his traveling research adventures.
MERCHANDISE EXPANSION
In the last year, the company has adapted its designs to put on other products, such as pillows, tote bags, tea towels and wine tumblers.
Recently, the city of Orlando celebrated its 150th anniversary and the Orlando Solar Bears hockey team requested a special jersey design to commemorate the achievement. The two created a jersey with A.B. Newton Orlando map image and added brightly colored sleeves depicting citrus.
“It was a great honor,” Blaine said.
He and Crabtree attended the game at which the jerseys debuted, and they were given their own with their names on the back. The design was so popular it sold out online and at the Kia Center the day of the game.
Crabtree admits the map prints do evolve over time.
“Someone might say, ‘Orlando is great, but you missed this coffee shop that has been there 50 years,’” he said.
Along with the mainstay A.B. Newton merchandise, there sometimes is an occasion to produce a quirky design. When a black bear ambled through historic Winter Garden a few years ago, the company put out a T-shirt featuring a black bear with “I love WG” on its backside. Because Winter Garden is a dog-friendly city, the company has products featuring a dog.
When Florida Man became a novelty, the partners produced a series of items featuring their version of the character in Sasquatch form. There also are landmark and collegiate series plus merchandise featuring mountain bikes and golf carts.
Crabtree and Blaine place a focus on celebrating local and are open to suggestions from customers.
Crabtree enjoys seeing his designs become favorite products, like the T-shirt with the words Winter Garden written in orange in the shape of citrus.
“We don’t really know what will sell,” he said. “That’s the good thing about the farmers market. We put things out there and see what sells. If someone sees something and says, ‘I like that, I wish it was green,’ we’ll make a green.”
Because they print everything in-house, it’s easier to experiment and make small changes here and there.
Returning this year are the popular wooden Christmas ornaments that took a hiatus last year. Each year features a different local design, such as the yellow caboose, water tower, stacked orange crates and clock tower.
The business partners agree on the long-term goal of having a brick-and-mortar store downtown as the company continues to grow.
“A.B. Newton now employees about 15 people, both full time and part time,” Crabtree said. “That includes designers, shipping and fulfillment, farmers market staff, bookkeeping, marketing, social media and website. Without our staff, A.B. Newton would not be where we are today.”
