Oct 2, 2008

T’s with ‘tudeBy Kevin JoyColumbusDispatch.com

Wearing civic pride on your sleeve (or torso) just got a whole lot hipper.

Yes, it’s finally fashionable to declare an unabashed love of Columbus, sending a kitschy message to your Los Angeles friends: Y eah, I’m from Ohio — what of it?

A growing crop of area artisans, some using only a silk-screen printer and an Internet connection, are creating T-shirts with a satirical (yet loving) take on regional identity.

Think cassette tapes and cornstalks; or lightning bolts, surfers and smokestacks. Alpacas, perhaps.

The image might vary, but the message remains constant.

“You’re saying: ‘Hey, it’s Columbus. This is where I live,’ ” said Gabriel Roth, who created the “C-Bus” T-shirt in late 2005 as a nod to the city’s shortened nickname.

“It’s like when people wear a sports-team shirt — another way to represent yourself.”

Roth, 26, has sold more than 5,000 “C-Bus” shirts through the part-time venture Columbus Urban Threads. He signed a deal last week to start selling the shirts at Port Columbus gift shops, where they’ll begin appearing in a few weeks.

The upscale T-shirts boast snug, chest-hugging dimensions, with soft-fiber blends that put department-store three-packs to shame. Some brands tout sweatshop-free domestic labor, organic cotton and bright colors.

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