WE MADE A SHIRT Y’ALL!!

JESUS SAVES CUZ HE SHOPS WITH COUPONS!

Get it?!! Yeah, you get it! I grew up in the church. Episcopalian. We had our faith but we also had a sense of humor about things. Reverent sermons yet at the perfect time, a bit of irreverence. My leaders were all incredibly intelligent people who lead with humility and humor so their message was received less like medicine, more like a morsel of wisdom. This is why I cross lines myself when it comes to comedy.

Years ago, I walked by a car with a Jesus Saves bumper sticker as I was headed to the grocery store. Immediately an idea formed. I thought it could be hilarious if Jesus was a frugal shopper who sometimes didn’t follow the rules. He’d be the kind of guy who’d go to a 10 items or less aisle with more than 10 items and on top of that… he’d have coupons!! Cuz he could save all this money but had no regard for time. And you’d forgive him. I mean, the man did a big thing for the forgiveness of our sins, least we could do is return the favor a just a touch. Then the easter egg ideas started to hit. Instead of 10 items or less, it’d be 12 cuz of the disciples. There’d be fish, bread, and wine along with other tidbits I’d eventually think of.

The big obstacle, however; I CAN’T DRAW!!! The Lord blessed me with a nice singing voice, a flare for the dramatic arts and an affinity for comedy but he did not give me the gift of practical art. Enter my buddy Richard Lee Warren, a kind southern gentleman with the gift of true artistic ability. I commissioned him for this and we got to work. If I understand correctly he grew up in the church as well so he had contributions of his own that were perfect for what we were trying to achieve. Very first move was sending him an email with details of what I was trying to do and a couple pictures for reference. One main thing: I wanted it to feel like it came from the 70s. Another: I wanted it to feel crowded, like Jesus was really holding up a lot of people. One inspiration was the painting from the opening of Good Times

Another big thing was I wanted Jesus to look super happy as if he was oblivious to the exasperation he was causing, so Rich came up with a first draft of the cashier and christ

An incredible first try but I had a vision in my head of Jesus and wanted it to be perfect. So I took a pic of myself with the coupon as I saw it.

Rich took that and ran with it and had himself a night of inspiration, creating…

It’s spectacular but a little more spread out than I wanted it to be and though the full color fits a 70s vibe I wondered if the screenprinting process would make it look simply like a box got put on a shirt. Ever the fan of a more organic presentation I was hoping it might look like Rich drew the piece of art directly on a shirt, so I asked him to do a black and white version that would allow the shirt’s color to fill in the blank spaces. We chatted a bit about what could be in customer’s hands and which easter eggs might be readily seen. He sent back this…

It’s perfect. Plenty of things for folks to find, from the fish and bread to the name of the wine. Rich came up with O Positive. This is my blood!! Love it! He also came up with the box of Tide, subtle red sea reference! Dig it! And he came up with the ointment and put the hole in Jesus’ hand. I pitched the nail polish remover and asked him to make it so the word polish is smaller than nail and remover so it reads almost like nail remover. He killed that. And I pitched the Hi-C pack in the dude’s hands but it’s Red-C cuz we both were on the Moses plane. He also got people bunched up on each other like the Good Times painting. It’s specatcular. Next step was going to my buddy Ladell Griswold Preston who has a screenprinting setup. He has his own clothing line and helps people with marketing. I picked banana cream for the first shirt color, we’re hoping to diversify, but the cream with a brown paint gives it that era appropriate look I was going for. Ladell added the Jesus Saves in an excellent font and came up with this…

I love it! Hope you might too!! We’re selling them and I can mail for 30 dollars a pop. That’s $25 for the shirt and $5 for shipping in the US. I have yet to have an international order so if you’re out of country and want one, please bear with me as I find out how much that costs. For in country buys though, $30 gets you the whole deal. And when you get one I’m asking folks to take pictures of themselves in the shirts. The grand plan is to make a collage through this experience and hopefully it is littered with people who enjoy something my friends and I created. There will be more shirts to follow but this is the first and I will forever be proud that we came out swinging. If you have any inquiries or wanna buy, I’m a Venmo, PayPal or Zelle kinda guy and you can reach me at gotoguy@mattmerchant.com with your order, address, or questions and comments. Thank you to anyone who’s supported! Much love to you all!!

If you like Rich’s art as much as I do and want to commission your own piece, he can be found at:

Instagram: @oakmoonart or @richardleewarren

If you like the screenprinting as much as I do and want to enlist Ladell’s help, he can be found at:

Instagram: @unidistribute or @king_griswoldmfc

FAQ: Thank you to Kim Barnsdale from Instagram for asking some pertinent questions that got this section started!!

1) Are there any other colors? At the moment, with apologies, no. This lovely cream is all we got.. for now. I made a modest first buy and am hoping to sell it quickly so new options could be explored. Hit me up with color requests and we’ll start with popular choices! I’m thinking a mint green? I’d love to venture a color that resembles a light red wine but we’re concerned about how clearly the image might appear on darker fabrics. I’ve gotta believe a white ink on a black shirt could show up and other choices could be explored. This is collaborative!! Lemme know if there’s a color people are dying to wear!!

2) What sizes do you have? At the moment, I’ve got S,M,L,XL and XXL. My own brother who wants to support is a 4XLT so I’m exploring options for the big fellas and will hope to have some 3XL and 4XL options for folks come the next batch.

3) Do you make them in a women’s fit or are they unisex? At the moment, they’re unisex. It’s the most universal way for me to try and get these out there. I’ve been told I’m funny, never been told I’m a fashionista so there’s a learning curve with this and hopefully in due course I could have some options in women’s cuts that are more flattering for folks.

4) Do you ship to Canada? I WILL FIND A WAY!! Please be patient with me for now. So far I’ve only had requests to mail in the U.S. and that shipping has come out consistently to 5 dollars a pop. Hence the 30 dollar charge. I’m getting 25 for the shirts wherever I am and then shipping is added. If Canadian shipping is exorbitantly more than 5 dollars I’ll finally have found out how much more and will add that to the existing 25. I assure you I’m trying to find the cheapest way to get things to folks that feels like it will actually get to folks. So far USPS has treated me well and if they don’t mail out of the states I’ll hit a FedEx or the like. Stay tuned and I’ll try to build a bit of a pricing chart for folks who might live out of the country in which I live.

5) How do we pay you? I’m a big Venmo fan! Also have PayPal and Zelle if either of those help:

Venmo: matt-merchant-3

PayPal: @midmerch

6)Do they come in different colors? THEY DO NOW!!! Look at my parents being adorable models with my mom wearing the new Mauve/Blue combination and my Dad in the original Cream/Brown combo. We also have a light grey on grey mix that is a bit more subtle than the others. Take your pick, pick all three and reach out to me!

7) Did you ever get those bigger sizes? I got one for my brother! 4 XLT. Yup, they’re not as frugally priced as the smaller stuff. Go figure. But it came out nice and he even wore it to church where the pastor laughed and loved it! Gotta love Episcopalians. We’re like catholics but with logic and levity.

Stay tuned for further updates!! Thank you all for supporting!

Much love gang!!