"Rest In Peace" T-Shirts: Detroit businessman says crime, R.I.P. brand, are profitable these days
(CBS) DETROIT - The owner of a Detroit t-shirt business says most of his ideas aren't selling - and the only one that really is, involves shirts with the pictures and names of crime victims, and which also say R.I.P.
Marvin Lovejoy, who runs International T-Shirts on the city's northwest side, tells CBS Detroit it's because crime has gotten so bad.
"We started the business to do family reunion t-shirts, schools, churches and other businesses," said Lovejoy. "In the past 11 years, R.I.P. has taken over the business."
Lovejoy said the Rest in Peace T-shirts often include a crime victim's photo with their nickname, birth date and date of death. He said the shirts - worn at vigils, funerals and demonstrations - fill about 85 percent of his orders these days.
"As we speak, there are customers in here now ordering R.I.P. t-shirts, ordering for the past two hours since you called," he told the station. "The business is more ran like a funeral home now instead of a t-shirt shop because every time someone gets killed or murdered, our phone rings or people come in to get R.I.P. t-shirts made."
Lovejoy said he even gets repeat customers.
"Oh yeah, that happens. We had two people come in sometime and say someone just got shot and killed on whatever street, and then they come right back and say someone got stabbed and shot in the head at a lounge, or something like that. It's like oh my God, we get it all the time," he told CBS Detroit.
Lovejoy also said, sadly, he doesn't expect to see a slow-down in R.I.P. orders any time soon.
"They're killing people in Detroit almost every day. Someone gets shot or murdered in the city of Detroit, and the violence and murder rate is escalating higher and higher daily," he said.
Lovejoy acknowledged it's a tough business.
"When the people come in, you can see their demeanor is sad because they lost a loved one or a friend or a relative. So, we try to put a smile on their face to satisfy them by printing off the shirts that they want," he said.