By Gus Saltonstall
Earthquakes move fast but the T-shirt business in New York City might move even faster.
An Upper West Side shop has garnered viral attention online for having an “I Survived The NYC Earthquake” T-shirt in their window less than 15 minutes after the quake shook New York City on Friday.
“This is the fastest merch turnaround I’ve ever seen in my life,” america’s lounge singer wrote on X on Friday. The post has been viewed more than eight million times.
this is the fastest merch turnaround I’ve ever seen in my life pic.twitter.com/Y06Pl36g58
— america’s lounge singer (@KrangTNelson) April 5, 2024
The store behind the quick-thinking piece of business is Big Frog Custom T-Shirts at 2244 Broadway, between West 80th and 81st streets.
The T-shirt shop has operated on the Upper West Side for four years. Big Frog also happens to be the purveyor of our West Side Rag merchandise, which we chose due its local roots.
The store’s owner Kerry Colley, who had the idea of creating the earthquake shirt, told West Side Rag that it’s been a wild few days for the business.
“We probably had it up in the window in 12 minutes and then we sold 6 in the next 10 minutes,” Colley said, within the still-busy shop on Monday morning. “It just has not stopped since.”
Colley said they sold around 1,000 of the shirts over the weekend, which take around two minutes to create.
One of those customers was Hei Lun Cha, who was visiting from Boston but made sure to add a trip to Big Frog Custom T-Shirts in order to get the earthquake apparel.
Colley emphasized that the vast majority of customers coming into the store were inquiring about the earthquake T-shirt.
“Right now, everybody is coming in for that shirt. There was about a two-hour wait on Saturday, about 70 people in line, it was overwhelming,” Colley said. “I thought we would sell 10. I had no idea this was going to happen.”
There are also now tote bags available with the same “I Survived The NYC Earthquake” message.
Subscribe to West Side Rag’s FREE email newsletter here.
Awesome. Good for this guy.
Well…they are in the custom t-shirt business…
“I Survived” t-shirts are very original. Wished I had thought of it.
YAY for our local businesses!!!
NYC earthquake was weak. Only shook for apx 20 seconds. No books fell off the shelf. Do better. 2 Stars. Will not recommend.
Now he needs to come up with one (probably matching?) that says “I survived the 2024 Eclipse”.
How would one not survive an eclipse? I think a t-shirt saying “I got mooned in 2024” would sell well.
Brilliant!… ” I survived the 2024 Eclipse.. Yawn! “
I look forward to the “I Survived the Proliferation of Weed Stores in My Once Quiet Neighborhood“ shirts
Hey! It was a Joisey kwake! Typical . . .
That’s so Boring!
No thanks…👎
Yay for this small business!