(Photo: Natalie Rinn)
Shirts & Destroy – a company that releases tee shirts designed by local artists, tattooers and bands – has closed its Greenpoint store and is leaving the city.
Ryan Begley opened the brick-and-mortar version of his online shop two years ago, but had to close it earlier this month due to – you guessed it – a rent hike. Two of them, actually: one at the shop at 293 Manhattan Ave. and the other at his Lower East Side apartment.
The good news: Shirts & Destroy will continue releasing its ultra-cool tee shirts through its online store, as Begley has decided to buy a house where he’ll store all his merch.
“It was actually less money to have a house outside the city,” he told us. “There’s a huge basement so everything is getting moved in here.”
Shirts & Destroy creates limited-edition tee shirts by collaborating with a wealth of talented types within the tattoo and underground music worlds — including tattoo shops like Kings Avenue and Greenpoint Tattoo Co., bars like St. Vitus, artists like Thomas Hooper, and beloved hardcore and metal bands such as Integrity and Despise You.
In fact, if you dig the work by David M. Cook that we highlighted in our weekend gallery roundup, you can order it in t-shirt form. Shirts & Destroy announced a line with Cook just yesterday.