How do you know you live in a bike city? Look at the t-shirts

bike t shirts at Miss Street Fair-14-13

Lots of people, lots of bike t-shirts.
(Photos © J. Maus)

How do you know you live in a bike city? One of the many ways is to look at the inspiration behind the objects created by people who live there. In the case of Portland, many local arts, crafts and products are inspired by bicycles (that’s what spurred me to do BikeCraft years ago).

Case in point was the Mississippi Street Fair on Saturday.

As I walked the busting street (it was packed!), I couldn’t help but notice the number of bike t-shirts being sold by vendors. Check out the selection below (keep in mind, this wasn’t even a bike-specific event. It just exemplifies the extent that bicycles permeate Portland culture)…

bike t shirts at Miss Street Fair-16-15

This one completes the difficult “Portlandia Double” maneuver with a bike and birds on it.

We like to start ’em young around here.
bike t shirts at Miss Street Fair-15-14

A nice play on “Keep Portland Weird.”
bike t shirts at Miss Street Fair-13-12

bike t shirts at Miss Street Fair-2-1

Moustaches are so hot right now.

Wish we could have done this on the Portland sign near the Burnside Bridge.

bike t shirts at Miss Street Fair-5-4

bike t shirts at Miss Street Fair-3-2

My favorite… inspired by Portland’s bike lane characters!

Jonathan Maus (Publisher/Editor)

Jonathan Maus (Publisher/Editor)

Founder of BikePortland (in 2005). Father of three. North Portlander. Basketball lover. Car driver. If you have questions or feedback about this site or my work, contact me via email at maus.jonathan@gmail.com, or phone/text at 503-706-8804. Also, if you read and appreciate this site, please become a paying subscriber.

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Dave
Dave
13 years ago

Great shirts! If we weren’t able to attend where could one go to purchase such a shirt?

Anthony
Anthony
13 years ago
Reply to  Dave

Yah, a lot of those shirts are by kidcomet…

Spiffy
Spiffy
13 years ago

great shirts! I tried to make it but got delayed by toddler time zone…

q`Tzal
q`Tzal
13 years ago

Want a shirt that has a cartoon of PDX’s streotypical fixie hipster with the words:
“I was riding fixed gear in Portland
Before anyone invented the wheel”

Hopefully it would popular enough to make fixies mainstream thus finally crushing their hipster cred.

A.K.
A.K.
13 years ago
Reply to  q`Tzal

Fixies became mainstream when Wal-Mart started to sell them for under $200: http://www.walmart.com/ip/Mongoose-Detain-700cc-Men-s-Street-Bike/15711162

q`Tzal
q`Tzal
13 years ago

In PDX & NYC perhaps fixies are past the point of being a hipster accoutrement but in the rest of bike hatin’ Murica the average joe isn’t even aware of what a fixie and just sees a bike with no extras at all that costs too much for what Mall-Wart usually charges for an equivalently size bike.

Once everyone is aware of the hipster sheen of elite coolness of the fixie they will have some socially positive archetype to aim for in the bicycle scene nationwide.
Once that jumps the shark bicycles will be mainstream; sooner rather than later.

captainkarma
captainkarma
13 years ago

I never got the mustache and bike thing. it’s so 2010. Maybe the first half of 2011. But its over. Do you hear me? OVER!

A.K.
A.K.
13 years ago
Reply to  captainkarma

Tell that to all the dudes I saw at Bunk Bar the other week, I think they missed the memo.

captainkarma
captainkarma
13 years ago

I vote for “Keep Portland Geared”. Hope it was copy-lefted.

mark ginsberg
mark ginsberg
13 years ago

the bike lane shirt and the other organic one’s are Kid Comet, she is my sister in law, we own a bunch of her shirts and love ’em. try here: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Kid-Comet/211912998822847

mark ginsberg
mark ginsberg
13 years ago

better kid comet link for the non-facebook crowd: http://kidcometorganic.com/

Chris
13 years ago

Where can I get the “Buckcycle” shirt. That’s freaking awesome!

roger noehren
roger noehren
13 years ago

The “Buckcycle” image is on display in one of the Everett Street Loft galleries, in the middle of the block on the Everett side.

“Put a bike on it” is the (not so new) “Put a bird on it”. New Seasons has bikes on everything too – coasters, aprons, tote-bags, purses, note books, lunch boxes….

Chris
13 years ago

Thanks for the lead Roger.