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OAKLAND — It’s a little after 11 a.m., not long after the doors open at Marshawn Lynch’s apparel store in downtown Oakland, when the man himself plops down on a couch in the middle of the action.

Lynch is no longer a football player, not at this moment anyway. But there are increasing signals he will soon unretire. He visited the Raiders’ facility last week and, reports said, told team officials that he wants to play again. It looks like a match made in East Bay heaven: The Raiders could use a running back — as well as some goodwill from Oakland season-ticket holders after announcing they’ll bolt to Las Vegas for the 2019 season.

Lynch, 30, would still need to wriggle out of his Seattle Seahawks contract, but even his mom is allowing herself to envision the five-time Pro Bowl selection soon playing for the Silver & Black. “I’m a Raider girl,” Delisa Lynch told SiriusXM Radio. “You tell me how I should feel if it does happen.”

For now, reminders of his previous employment abound. A TV screen along one wall airs a highlight reel, an endless loop of him smashing over defenders, which is to say it looks a lot like his former Sundays.

As with his previous job, Beast Mode doesn’t do much talking here. But it seems that whatever words escaped his mouth during his NFL days are now emblazoned on high-end T-shirts. The one that says, “I’m Just Here So I Won’t Get Fined” — his immortal ode to Super Bowl media day — is one of the store’s top sellers.

But the most important thing to know about the Beast Mode Apparel store isn’t what’s said here or what’s sold here. It’s that it’s here at all.

Lynch opened for business at 811 Broadway in Oakland because it’s smack in the heart of the hometown he holds dear. The store sits 107 feet from the Oakland Convention Center and now, a year after it opened, either place suffices as starting point for the city.

“This is where he’s from: This is the birth of Beast Mode,” said Brije Gammage, the director of events for Lynch’s charitable foundation. “It’s just like a hub for everything. It’s a tourist site. It’s a family location. It’s just become like a one-stop shop.”

As reports mount that Lynch could trigger a trade to Oakland, it’s worth a reminder that he’s already here. Lynch was born in Oakland, attended Oakland Tech High School and played his college ball at Cal — as close to home as he could get.

It’s this kind of commitment to his roots that make the comeback rumors so plausible. ‘The Town’ is his extended family.

The seven people on staff at the Beast Mode are from his childhood, including Gammage, who is his cousin. (Brije is the sister of Josh Johnson, the Oakland Tech grad and New York Giants reserve quarterback, who is also in the Beast Mode fold). His sister, Marreesha Sapp, was also at the store during this visit.

Even the clothes are local. Lynch comes up with some of the designs on his own and then leans on Oakland-based designer, Hingeto, to execute the plan.

In the off hours, the store hosts events to promote promising Oakland talent, such as a recent gallery for a young artist. Former Warriors guard Baron Davis held his Black Santa event here, a toy giveaway for low-income families.

The Beast Mode flagship store also serves as kind of a capitol building for the Fam 1st Family Foundation, a charity that focuses on mentoring children. It was founded by Johnson and Lynch, and has grown to include Marcus Peters, the Kansas City Chiefs cornerback, who attended McClymonds High School in Oakland.

“He’s connecting with the local small businesses that grew up in Oakland,” Gammage said. “It’s like everyone is networking and thriving together.”

Gammage does the talking here in the Beast Mode store because that isn’t exactly the proprietor’s forte. Lynch, when he is here, is so unlikely to engage customers that a sign in the window warns grown men not to bother asking for selfies.

“It’s like a bug repellent,” Gammage said.

Little children stand a chance to get some Lynch time, whether they’re ready or not. Consider what happens from time to time when Lynch sees youngsters strolling past his storefront.

“He’ll see some kids walking down the street and he’ll say, ‘Hey, come here! What do your grades look like? How is your report card?” Brije said, laughing.

“And the kids are like, ‘What?” He’s good at startling people.”

Negotiating a comfortable alliance between Lynch and overzealous fans is a significant part of Gammage’s job, and not an easy one. The fascination with all things Marshawn Lynch has yet to abate.

“I’ve had women come in here screaming. … They’re so excited and they’re grabbing him,” Gammage said. “That’s what will make him run out the back and bee-line for the next car.”

When the Lynch-to-the-Raiders rumor first found legs, Brije got a flurry of calls from customers wanting to know if the boss was making a comeback.

That doesn’t happen at The Gap.

“Of course, we get phone calls. ‘Hey, is Beast Mode there?” Brije said, laughing again. “I’m like, ‘Come on. Really, guys?”

As it stands, Lynch is still under contract with the Seahawks after retiring following the 2015 season. His meeting with the Raiders this week was done with Seattle’s permission. The Seahawks would still have to release Lynch or trade him for the Oakland native to wind up in Silver & Black.

In the meantime, Lynch sells clothing. They describe the items here at Beast Mode Apparel as “ath-leisure wear,” which, roughly translated, means this is understated fashion, not grungy workout gear. One sweatsuit is designed so that it can even be worn into an office. As a shop owner, Lynch is just here so you can look fine.

The most popular item in the store’s short history is a shirt that reads: “Beast Mode Oakland. Established 1986.” (Lynch was born in Oakland on April 22, 1986.)

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Lynch might be hands-on when it comes to creating the merchandise, but his itinerary is unpredictable. Sometimes, he’ll ring you up behind the cash register. At other times, Lynch just hops on his bike and takes a spin up and down Broadway. One passerby recalled seeing Lynch popping wheelies right in the middle of the street.

“People will poke their heads in and say, ‘Uhh … did I just see Marshawn Lynch riding by on a bike?” Gammage said. “I just say, ‘Maybe. I don’t know.'”

A customer who visited here last October said Lynch had a Ping-Pong table set up on the sidewalk. The two-time NFL leader in rushing touchdowns was taking on anyone who wanted a piece of the action. She said the smoke in the air was, um, distinctively organic. Lynch did some talking that day, making a loud and prodigious takeout order for Chinese food. (Feast Mode?)

But it’s not just fun and games. Last month, Lynch parked a barber’s chair in the middle of the store and offered a free haircut to any kid with a GPA of 3.0 or better. The event was such a hit that the did it again four days later.

“Doing haircut means changing lives,” said Victoria “Vice Cutter” Thompson a hairstylist and Oakland native, who did the honors on March 27. “It’s impacting the futures of young men and women, helping them feel confident in their day and confident in getting better.”

Beast Mode Apparel has been a different kind of place from the start. By the time it opened on Feb. 5 last year, there was already a line around the block. Some of the people were from Seattle and said they’d driven all night to be part of the grand opening. (Lynch opened a second location, in Seattle, last September.)

The store is small, but it’s come to be a bit of a hot spot in the heart of Oakland. For football fans, there is now a “there” there, to put it in Gertrude Stein terms. Gammage said they’ve had customers from New York, London and Paris.

“We’ve had people say, ‘We’re on our honeymoon, so we came down here,”’ she said. “It means a lot because it’s a representation of us. It’s like we have a family, a black-owned family business.

“And we’re thriving. And expanding. And we’re making it happen together.”