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LA Trendsetters Hawk the Vote
Yesterday's Women's Wear Daily reported that T-shirts bearing political messages are more popular than ever. Online sales outlets and political websites fuel this body-as-billboard trend. The article also mentions LA's own Sean Bonner and the sixspace Gallery downtown.
WWD reports:
"Also benefiting from sales are Web sites, including CafePress.com, that service organizations that don’t have the time and wherewithal to court their own retail accounts. San Leandro, Calif.-based CafePress.com will ship more than a million political products this year, more than double their numbers from last year, said co-owner Maheesh Jain.
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Sean Bonner, owner of the Sixspace Gallery in downtown Los Angeles, is one of the sellers pushing conventional boundaries. Two days after Vice President Dick Cheney told Sen. Pat Leahy on the Senate floor to 'Go f--- yourself,' Bonner created a T-shirt with the directive that is one of the top six sellers on CafePress.com. He said he is not surprised that he’s sold more than 1,000 T-shirts in one month.
'It’s a direct quote, and people can take it however they will,' Bonner said."
At CafePress.com, two pro-Republication shirts are among its top six sellers, including one reading Firefigthers For Bush. The three most popular shirts at New Jersey-based ChoiceShirts.com favor Republicans.
Bush supporters can also shop at the GeorgeWBushStore.com, run by Louisville, KY-based Spalding Group, the official licensed supplier for Republican presidential nominees. It has already sold out of size medium and extra large womens black V-neck T-shirts adorned with a large W on the sleeve.
Los Angeles-based boutique Intuition has already reordered the Inprint lines vintage-inspired high-end T-shirts, selling out of 50 units last weekend. The $60-to-$80 T-shirts include slogans such as Bush and Kerry is My Homeboy.
Its very hard to find designers who are creating pro-Bush T-shirts, said Jaye Hersh, owner of Intuition. As a store, we definitely want to try to represent all of our customers.
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