A Brief History

Urban Profile T-shirts began 1994 in Detroit, MI about a year or so before the first Million Man March. At that time, we noticed a lot of people wearing badly printed Malcolm X knock-offs, or T-shirts with "Ghetto-Style” Loony Tunes Characters. (Buggs Bunny smokin' a joint? C'mon now.) We believed we could do a better job, so we came up with a few concepts, had them printed, and gave them away to friends. We were truly overwhelmed by the positive responses. We made more and more T-shirts with various messages, and sold them to local clothing stores in the area. Eventually, we began selling T-shirts at various African fairs and festivals in Detroit, Chicago, and Ohio. Finally, this website was created.

Steve and Zen gettin' busy at the 2000 Detroit African World Festival

UrbanProfile.com is here for a couple of reasons:

1) There are hundreds of T-shirt websites on the Internet, but only a handful are dedicated to African American culture. We are working to be the most complete and comprehensive source of African American t-shirts.

2) Only quality T-shirts will be sold here. How often have you purchased a T-shirt, only to find out that it doesn't survive more than a couple of rounds in the washer and dryer before unraveling, cracking, or fading? (We hate that.) If properly cared for, T-shirts should last for years, not just a few weeks or months. Once again, only quality T-shirts will be sold on this website.

3) We have run across a number of other African American T-shirt designers just like ourselves. We are all small business owners, and we all search for the best way to make our work known and get our T-shirts out to the public. UrbanProfile.com is an opportunity for all of us to join forces and display our designs collectively. We are adding new T-shirts to this website regularly.

Stephen Harvey
Proprietor
Urban Profile T-Shirts and Sweats