Today we’re releasing a tee in collaboration with our friend Nick Heller, perhaps better known by his handle @newyorknico. Nick has had a keen eye on the streets of New York for a while now, showcasing the diverse talent and personalities of the people that make our home city so unique. We wanted to find a way to show that without this diversity, in race, religion, gender identity, sexuality, and backgrounds of all type, New York City just wouldn’t be the same. The illustration on the tee by Chris Wilson is of the modern day melting pot we’ve come to know, punks and hip-hop heads, hassids and women in burkas, coexisting together.
We also chose to use the now classic New York tourism slogan: “I Love New York.” The instantly recognizable I ❤ NY design, created for the campaign by the legendary designer Milton Glaser, celebrated its 40th anniversary this year. The often imitated design, which Glaser expected to only stick around for a few months and did for free, is now available on everything from mugs and sweaters to phone cases and sunglasses.
The release of this shirt happens to coincide with the 91st annual Feast of San Gennaro. The feast is a massive street fair with food, music, and carnival games celebrating Italian culture, and takes place literally right outside the door of our NYC shop. Ahead of the official release of our collaboration, Nick managed to convince a couple of carnival game workers to include some shirts as a prize for their “Italian Bowling” game. From what we hear, the game wasn’t so easy to win. If you didn’t manage to win one at the carnival, the tee shirt is now available on online with all proceeds going to the New York Legal Assistance Group.
To help protect and promote the diversity that makes this city great, all proceeds from the shirt will go directly to the New York Legal Assistance Group. NYLAG is a nonprofit law firm that provides free civil legal services to low income families. NYLAG represents thousands of New Yorkers every year dealing with everything from tenants’ rights, discrimination, domestic violence, immigration, and LGQBT+ protection. We salute NYLAG for the help they provide, and the hope they give to those facing legal crises of their own.
We love this city, we love it’s spirit, and we know that by banding together to protect each other, it will continue to grow greater every day. In recent times of adversity, when those who would attack our neighbors try and spread their hate, we’ve been proud to stand shoulder to shoulder with our fellow New Yorkers to support each other. Regardless of race, religion, creed, birthplace, or any other attribute which some would like to target, when you live in this city you become a New Yorker. And we love New York because we love all our fellow New Yorkers.