Headline News that’s Good for You

In yet another attempt to bring smiles to recession-wary locals, Florida Street company Headline Shirts is using cotton and cartoons to introduce a new series of San Francisco-themed t-shirts. If you’ve eaten a taco, ridden a bus, or looked skyward in this city, you’ll appreciate the Ts featuring the 22 Filmore crashing into a fire hydrant and the “I (image of bike tire where stolen frame once was) SF.” I paid Headline creative director Jake Ginsky and Chris Gorog, the founder of parent brand Revel Industries, a visit yesterday and walked away with my own wish list.

missiontaco_wht_w_443 The company, which I first noticed for their SMS-driven Reactees and “America-Everyone Hates Us Now!” shirt that Villians sold during the last days of the Bush administration, said that the provocative nature of their work has gained more acceptance with people speaking their minds in the midst of the administrative change. Still, Gorog said it’s imperative to him that the company’s wares are positive as “T-shirts are an inexpensive way to improve your spirit in these down times.”

With 20 top end menswear stores predicted to be out of business by the end of the year, Gorog said Headline Ts have been the most recession-proof of his three lines (which include the mid-market menswear line REVL and the top-end Gythamander). The California-produced shirts, which include “Party like it’s 1929″ in a Dirty Dancing-inspired font, are sold everywhere from Canada to Japan and printed with eco-friendly inks.

muni_orn_m_443-2 The four-person Headline crew (with specialties in design, technology and operations but who all work on customer service) will move above Weird Fish on Mission Street in July, where they’ll remain founding members of the “Mission Garmentos Association,” a nod to their relatively lengthy experience (and survival) in fashion retail.

Ginsky and Gorog are honest about mistakes they’ve made. It seems that the 53 steps required to produce a men’s buttondown makes for a very intricate process, and a $2,000 mold used to create a belt buckle featuring a running horse yielded only six belts. When asked about advice for other clothing upstarts, Gorog said he’d advise securing a quarter of a million dollars, expect growth to take three years, and plan to go out every night to promote it. (The continual personal promotion of the brand helps in a major way and is a lesson that another local shirt designer, WilloToons founder Willo O’Brien, demonstrates brilliantly.)

Still, they’ve established a set of products between the three lines that’s diverse enough to keep them afloat and have a ball while doing so. Because, as Gorog said, “If you’re not having fun, you should at least do something that will make you more money.”