The Red and Black

Issue date: 9/4/08 Section: Variety

Media Credit: JIM DIFFLY Pictured is a comfortable Obama t-shirt that can be purchased at Obamarad.com, Agora and Dick and Jane's. [Click to enlarge]

A group of local musicians is hoping to make Georgia bleed blue this November.

Ryan Lewis and Matt Canada, guitarist and drummer for The Buddy System and Jeff Griggs, of Je Suis France developed Obamarad.com as a Barack Obama T-shirt company that donates 25 percent of sales to Georgia's Obama Campaign for Change.

"People don't think about states like Georgia," Griggs said. "But more and more people are realizing that Georgia is in contention this year to switch to Democratic."

The designs, which are printed on American Apparel T-shirts, cost between $10 and $12 dollars online and are available in Athens at Agora and Dick and Jane's for $15.

"People love them, they're so soft, and they're selling really well," said Airee Hong, owner of Agora.

Obamarad provides a fresh look to typical political campaign shirts that are currently available to the public. Likewise, the shirts target a younger crowd, something that Lewis thinks others fail to do.

"For the most part, political shirts are lame," said Lewis. "We wanted to be different and make band inspired T-shirts."

What also makes Obamarad an interesting T-shirt company is that all of the profit goes directly to the campaign. That means when someone spends $12 on a t-shirt, $3 goes the campaign, while the rest goes towards manufacturing costs. In other words, Obamarad is not making a single cent.

"The money is going to Obama's pocket, not mine," Griggs said.

The shirts have garnered more attention lately as Lewis wore one while on a US tour with The Buddy System.

A boutique in Richmond, Va. recently started selling the shirts, and Obamarad has received orders from shops in other various tour stops.

Likewise, the shirts received the Obama campaign's approval when Lewis visited the regional Obama headquarters in Charlottesville, Va.

"One of the staff members saw my shirt and was like 'Where did you get that, I want one,' which was very cool," said Lewis.

The shirts, available in four colors, feature the word 'Obama' in large vintage-vibed lettering. Griggs said that Obamarad has sold more than 100 t-shirts in a short time and is selling more every day.

"Sales have been picking up slowly but surely, especially with the Democratic convention and all of the press with that," he said.

Obamarad uses no paid advertising, relies entirely on word-of-mouth and encourages people, if they love the shirts, to positively promote them in any possible way. The site plans to add more designs as they can afford it and as time allows.

Additionally, Obamarad is an entirely localized production, using Canada's printing company, Satisfactory printing, to create the graphics.

"It's important to have local support, as Athens is important to all of us, said Lewis. "You don't have to be anyone special to do something, that's why Athens is so great."

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