Since creating the #TacomaStrong T-shirt campaign in March, the owners of T Town Apparel, a Tacoma screen-print and embroidery shop and production company, have sent more than $28,000 to fellow local businesses.

That means fans of nearly 150 Tacoma and Pierce County businesses have bought some 2,800 T-shirts for $20 each, with $10 going directly to help local businesses. Each one features “#tacomastrong” on the back, in T Town’s typeface.

The Red Hot, the popular beer bar and hot dog restaurant on Sixth Avenue, was Pat and Gail Ringrose’s first client for this clever venture, which, like so many entrepreneurial solutions to the COVID-19 crisis, was born of a desire to support the city that has supported them.

“Stronger than ever when we all stick together,” says the Tacoma Strong motto.

Two weeks before mandated by the governor, the Ringroses closed their year-old Proctor retail store, T Town Apparel Co., where they sell Tacoma-themed T-shirts, sweatshirts and other garb. In February, they had introduced a new design with the phrase, “Don’t Seattle my Tacoma,” immediately embraced by the Grit City. Still, said Gail, a sweatshirt was not worth the risk.

Fortunately they already had an online store, but the loss of walk-in traffic would hurt, fiscally and emotionally. They cut staff at their production facility in the historic brewing district, too, leaving all operations to just the two of them.

They worried how the business they took over just a decade ago would survive.

They work with corporate clients on custom screen-printed and embroidered clothing, but those jobs had slowed down considerably. They worried equally about their fellow small business owners, who had supported them over the years with orders big and small.

“All of these companies have stood by us for the last 10 years,” said Gail in an interview. “We should be able to help do something to give back.”

They had the printers, the time and existing infrastructure. They had relationships with dozens of businesses already, many of which — like The Red Hot — had been forced to close.

“These are places in Tacoma that everybody loves. Who doesn’t want a Red Hot shirt?” asked Gail.

She called co-owner Chris Miller and pitched the idea: Send your favorite logo design and T Town will take care of the rest; for every shirt sold, The Red Hot will get $10.

He instantly agreed and they have since sold some 400 Red Hot shirts, by the Ringroses’ estimate.

T-SHIRTS FOR TACOMA

“We still believe a shirt can change the world,” Gail wrote in a March 22 Instagram post that alluded to the small business campaign.

A week later, she shared the link to the brand-new Tacoma Strong online store with the goal of raising $20,000, and in under 24 hours, T Town had sold more than 100 shirts.

T Town invited businesses to reach out directly, and they also emailed their database of customers. The requests flowed in, especially from businesses with whom they didn’t yet have a working relationship. Now the goal is $50,000.

“We haven’t turned anybody down,” Pat told The News Tribune. “We’re still getting three to four businesses sending us an email or a Facebook message, just thanking us for what we’re doing and wanting to be added to the store. Every day, we’re still adding more and more.”

Though plenty of bars and restaurants have joined, the industries run the gamut from the vintage boutique Urban Squirrel to a law firm, salons and yoga studios to an eyelash extension shop and plenty of doggy day cares.

“I’m always surprised,” said Gail. “People just want to help out. They don’t really care if the logo is crazy or whatnot — they just want to keep supporting you.”

Many customers place orders for five or six shirts, added Pat.

The Ringroses, both now in their 50s, joked that they are no spring chickens and have created an intense workload for just the two of them, despite the pandemic. They have a backlog of businesses’ shirts to upload to the website, and they now find themselves busier than they were pre-COVID.

“It’s like, wow, we just created a lot of work, but you know, it keeps us out of trouble for sure,” joked Gail. “We’ve been kind of the little mini Amazon shirt printers for a few years now, but never on this level.”

Customers are so eager to receive their T-shirts that they have bombarded the couple with emails inquiring of their order.

Gail said she hopes they understand that they, too, are a small business, and printing 150 different designs, on different colored shirts in different colored ink, differs from their typical workflow.

When they build an online shop for a school fundraiser, for instance, they accept orders for a set period of time and then print everything all at once before moving to the next project. The Tacoma Strong campaign was set up as a pre-sale with an anticipated June 1 ship date of the shirts themselves.

That way, they have been able to write checks — ranging from $20, or just a couple of shirts, to hundreds of dollars — to participating businesses every Monday, currently their favorite day of the week.

“We’re not paying these businesses’ mortgage,” said Pat, “but we get so much appreciation from them even if it’s $100. We get emails up and down just thanking us for what we’re doing. They appreciate the support no matter what the amount of support is.”

“There’s so much pride in Tacoma,” said Gail, noting the growth of the Tacoma-themed merchandise sold at the Proctor location and the recognition of the bold serif T Town logo, which she designed. “It’s always been our forward thinking of keeping Tacoma awesome. We were doing Tacoma stuff when it wasn’t cool. We still pushed it and pushed it.”

To see the city’s businesses suffer through this crisis, well, they just couldn’t bear to sit back and watch.

“We didn’t really think of ourselves during this one,” continued Gail. A T-shirt isn’t exactly a gold mine, and yielding $10 of the sale leaves the Ringroses with a sliver of profit. They also have two rents, including their warehouse and production space on the University of Washington Tacoma campus.

Nonetheless, the success of these online stores during this crisis comforts their fluid plan for the future.

“We just thought, we gotta do something, and if we all go down, we’re gonna go down together. We’re gonna pull together and get through this.”

TACOMA STRONG STORE

▪ T Town Apparel, ttownapparel.com

▪ Details: Browse the Tacoma Strong online store; $10 of each $20 sale goes directly to the participating business.