Don't Hate The 918

Thousands of people are showing their pride in Tulsa and Oklahoma by wearing T-shirts made by a Tulsa business. What started as a small idea has turned into a big dose of T-shirts singing the praises

Wednesday, September 12th 2007, 12:10 pm

By: News On 6

Thousands of people are showing their pride in Tulsa and Oklahoma by wearing T-shirts made by a Tulsa business. What started as a small idea has turned into a big dose of T-shirts singing the praises of T-Town. And as News On 6 anchor Craig Day reports, you may have noticed their T-shirts all over town. â€œI love Tulsaâ€, â€œI'm Down With T-Townâ€ and â€œDon't Hate The 918.â€

The shirts with a pro-Tulsa and pro-Oklahoma theme are flying off the racks at Dwelling Spaces on South Detroit in Tulsa's Blue Dome district.

"I need to buy a present for a friend and I thought about these T-shirts. I thought they would be perfect you know,â€ says customer Jami Fullerton.

The T-shirts are made by a Tulsa company called Louis and Cluck. Steve Cluck is one half of that duo. Along with Zuri Louis, they started printing the T-shirts about a year ago.

"I made the first original I heart Tulsa shirt for a friend of mine who was leaving to go to India and I just wanted to give her a great souvenir from Tulsa," says Steve Cluck.

Everyone else saw it and wanted one too and the business was born.

"What's funny is one leads to the next, like I was wearing â€˜I heart Tulsaâ€™ around and then someone kind of snickered and said something and I said â€˜Hey Don't Hate The 918.â€™ And then that was the whole next shirt," says Steve Cluck.

Louis and Cluck has sold 5,000 of the T-shirts in less than a year at five area locations. The T-shirts have been in People Magazine and on the LA Times web site. Popularity is growing and growing. Growing because the simple, unapologetic love of Tulsa and Oklahoma struck a chord with many people.

"I think people really wanted to say how much they love Tulsa. We have a lot of pride in our community and the shirts are a way to show that," says Steve Cluck.

So if you speak Okie, and love Tulsa, Louis and Cluck has a T-shirt for you.

The company will celebrate its first year in business soon. The â€˜Don't Hate The 918â€™ Louis and Clark birthday party will be held Saturday evening October 6th at Dwelling Spaces at 119 South Detroit.

For more information, visit Louis and Cluck's My Space web site.

Watch the video: Showing Your Pride