The genesis of WearPittsburgh began on a car trip from Erie to Pittsburgh some time ago.  I was returning from Erie, and had picked up a t-shirt for my wife and was thinking about the lack of really good tees that were about Pittsburgh.

I’ve been a Steelers fan ever since I can remember.  I used to wear a number 12 jersey when I was small, and would pretend to throw touchdown passes to Lynn Swann and John Stallworth while watching the Steelers triumph over the Browns, Oilers, and Bengals.   I loved to visit Pittsburgh in my high school and college years, and hoped to relocate there once I graduated from school.    After a brief stop in Philadelphia, I came to finally come here to stay in 2001.

Traveling over the years has taken me to many wonderful places and cities that have great qualities and appeal for a variety of reasons.  No matter where I visited, however, ever felt like home the way Pittsburgh did.  It’s the place of hundreds of bridges, countless neighborhoods, and boundless energy and pride that is nearly unmatched anywhere else.  Like anything, it has its faults and its idiosyncracies.  Many of them are funny, some are sad, but all are what make Pittsburgh unique and sets it apart from other places.  And are all part of the reasons why I love living here.

The road to creating WearPittsburgh was a long one, but couldn’t have been done without the help of local professionals who helped create the website and helped with the graphical designs of the initial products.  Many of my favorite websites also were inspiration for some of the tees, and I hope you will read them and enjoy them as much as I do.

WearPittsburgh, in essence, is my love letter to the city of Pittsburgh.   The designs you’ll find as part of the WearPittsburgh product line will be unique, funny, and are directly inspired by the people and places that make up the region.   My hope is that they will allow you to show, in your own way, how fond you are of the place you call(ed) home.

Mike Woycheck

Founder, WearLocal

November 22, 2007