Rusty Waters Apparel

Congratulations to Rusty Waters Apparel ! Today in the New York Times, there is an awesome article about T-shirts and city pride.

In the article, Catrin Einhorn writes about both GLUE, the Great Lakes Urban Exchange and Youngstown's Rusty Waters Apparel. GLUE is a new group dedicated to bringing post-boomers together to work for the health of post-industrial cities in the Great Lakes Region and Rusty Waters Apparel is a clothing company from Youngstown, Ohio.

Rusty Waters Apparel was started a few years ago by Dominic Gatti, Adam Chizmar and Kate Butler. The purpose of their T-shirt company is to promote life in rust belt cities and to bring attention to the cultural strengths of the rust belt region.

The New York Times article describes in some depth the Rusty Waters Apparel design that depicts the upside down Home Savings and Loan building located in downtown Youngstown. The article also quotes designer Kate Butler's explanation of the symbolism of the shirt, "The fact that it's upside down signifies the struggle that Youngstown has gone through, but the birds are flying right side up, symbolizing hope."

Einhorn points out that the T-shirt makers know that their merchandise will not cure the deep-seated problems of their cities, however they do see the marketing of the designs as a way to fight against powerful stereotypes. The T-shirt makers also see the designs as part of a public relations campaign for their cities, often one more authentic that official public relations campaigns.

I think I'm going to order another one for myself now before demand exceeds supply!