A ‘Rocky Shop’ has opened next to the Art Museum

This isn’t an exact science but German tourists visiting Philadelphia love Rocky. So do the Portuguese and Polish.

That’s according to Philadelphia Visitor Center Corporation president and CEO Kathryn Ott Lovell. On Thursday, a French man got off a tourist bus dressed in a full gray sweat suit, ran up the 72 Rocky steps, and when he finished he proposed to his girlfriend, she said.

That’s who the new “Rocky Shop,” which opened Thursday, is for. The shop is part of a new Visitor Center outpost next to the steps of the Art Museum that opened this spring. Sylvester Stallone, who has talked about how meaningful the steps are to him in the past, came up with the idea years ago, calling Mayor Jim Kenney with the pitch for a store.

The outpost offers an assortment of licensed merch from the Sly Stallone Shop. Visitors can get silky boxing robes and trunks to let others know of their “Italian Stallion” status — through giant gold or black lettering, of course — or grab a knitted hat for the cooler months so everyone knows what your favorite boxing movie is.

What does the Visitor Center get in return? Stallone gave $100,000 for the project and the Visitor Center gets a percentage of gross sales in the first year to help fund the operation of the relatively new outpost, which doubles as an information center with maps and tickets to other attractions, and is open every Thursday through Monday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. There’s other merchandise in the store from local vendors as well, including pillows and totes.

Before you roll your eyes, Ott Lovell would want you to consider another approximation: The Rocky Steps with the statue at the base are believed to be the second most visited tourist attraction in the city, drawing an estimated 4 million people a year. Again, there’s no exact data but it would appear people love the Liberty Bell and Rocky.

As a lifelong Philadelphian and lover of Rocky, Ott Lovell is skeptical of just how many haters the statue has.

“This is where I come back to tourism, which is our mission,” she said. “We have to embrace this and we should be proud of it because everything that Rocky stands for is emblematic of us as a city and as individuals.”

Stallone commissioned the statue for Rocky III in 1982 and almost immediately debate ensued over where to place it. It spent some time in South Philly, then storage, before finally returning to the Art Museum, but in a less central location.

And for all the people who say the city could do better and lift up real Philadelphia fighters, there are plenty who have a close relationship with the movies.

» READ MORE: In a city renowned for boxing, these 10 fights were among Philadelphia’s biggest

Philadelphians have recreated Rocky’s running montage in Rocky II in the Rocky Run, writers have weighed in on what the franchise gets right about Philly, and local NPR member station WHYY found enough material for a six-episode podcast looking into why so many relate to the titular character.

As the shop got ready for opening, Ott Lovell said she heard from a family that said they wanted merch because Rocky III was one of the last movies they saw with their father before he was killed.

“It’s not like they think Rocky is Philadelphia,” said Ott Lovell. “They have their own relationship with the character of Rocky that is unique and separate from our relationship, and unique and separate from his relationship to Philadelphia.”