Boston Celtics fans weren’t the only ones happy that the team’s Tuesday night game 6 win was a blowout.

The big lead, which gave Boston its first NBA championship title in 22 years, gave Scott Herman and his staff at Experience in Design a head start on the 20,000 or so T-shirts they printed to commemorate the win.

“We’ve been at it since 12 o’clock last night,” Herman said Wednesday. West Haven-based Experience in Design, contracted by an out-of-state company that has a licensing agreement with the NBA, went to work even before the Celtics clinched the title, and continued printing shirts through most of Wednesday.

“We were actually fortunate because it was such a blowout,” Herman said. “We were able to get maybe a 30 minute jump” on production.

The Celtics topped the Los Angeles Lakers 131-92 in Game 6 of the NBA finals Tuesday night at the TD Banknorth Garden in Boston. It is the franchise’s 17th championship title.

The two types of shirts being made in West Haven-one hailing the Celtics as champions, the other with simply the team logo on it- will be shipped and sold at Wal-Mart stores throughout New England, including the northern part of Connecticut, Herman said.

“It’s all licensed merchandise,” he said. The company specializes in custom screen printing and apparel and, when it’s not working on large orders for NBA, Super Bowl or Uconn championship wins, does work for area schools, businesses and sports teams.

The company, founded 25 years ago, began doing licensed sports team apparel for major championships about a decade ago.

At Modell’s Sporting Goods in Hamden Celtics fans began shopping early Wedsnesday, in search of team gear, said store manager Jennifer Guillotin.

“We’ve had quite a few,” she said. The store typically sells Celtics merchandise and as of Wednesday afternoon, was awaiting a shipment of NBA championship items. “we’re anticipating merchandise,” she said. “They’re trying to rush it to us as fast as they can.”

Modell’s stores located In the Boston area were given a priority when it came to receiving championship items, she said, due to enormous demand there. The chain’s Boston-area stores began selling merchandise almost immediately after Tuesday night’s game ended, she said.

Area sporting goods stores tend to see a big increase in business after major sports championships.

In the past year, Greater New Haven retailers’ bottom lines have been boosted by fans eager merchandise after the Boston Red Sox won the World Series in October, and the New York Giants won the Super Bowl in February.

But Celtics fans who headed to the Sports Authority store in new Haven in search of NBA championship merchandise Wednesday were out of luck. The retail chain determined that only its stores in northern Connecticut would stock championship items, since demand was anticipated to be greater there, said David Potterton, operation manager of the North haven store.

“We did not get any Celtics gear at all,” he said. The store typically carries a few Celtics hats and T-shirts, but will not receive any championship apparel.

As of Wednesday afternoon, though, it hadn’t seemed to post a problem. Only one of two customers had come in searching for items, Potterton said.

We haven’t had many people looking for it, to be honest,” he said.