'Chicago Stronger' T-Shirts Inspire Backlash, Are Later Pulled by Chicago Apparel Company

chicago stronger Apparently learning nothing from this idiot up in Toronto, Chicago-based apparel company Cubby Tees commemorated the Blackhawks’ trip to the Stanley Cup Final in a way that hit a collective nerve among Bostonians.

The company began selling T-shirts adorned with the phrase “Chicago Stronger,” an obvious play on the “Boston Strong” rallying cry that united the city in the aftermath of the marathon bombings on April 15.

“We love Boston and support/admire its people,” read part of the shirt’s description on the Cubby Tees website, “but don’t believe that the homicidal lunacy of two disturbed locals has rendered its teams invincible. This is about hockey, this is about O-6 pride, this is about the Cup.”

As expected, the shirts were lambasted in both social and mainstream media, leading the company to eventually pull them from the shelves of its online store. That was not before they posted a quite lengthy explanation, though, basically stating that the shirts were meant as a slight at those attempting to profit from or misappropriate the “Boston Strong” phrase (though by selling these shirts, that’s exactly what they were doing).

Here is an excerpt from the company’s statement (you can read it in full by clicking here):

“Anyone who believes that the shirt mocked those injured in the horrible events of Patriots’ Day regrettably missed our point and did not read/process our accompanying commentary; nowhere on the shirt’s face (or within its subtext or motivation) did we take aim at the victims or make light of the incident — nor would we ever. The design poked fun at the embarrassing self-congratulatory branding of the tragedy, and its inappropriate adoption by SOME BOSTON FANS AS A MINIMIZING SPORTS ANTHEM, not the sad reality of that day’s mayhem.”