During Brood X’s time underground, a lot has changed in Cincinnati. We’ve elected two new mayors, built a soccer stadium and became collectively obsessed with a hippopotamus.
Since opening in 2014, Cincy Shirts has been reflecting Cincinnati’s cultural shifts via apropos tees referencing the likes of Graeter’s, Skyline Chili and, of course, that hippo. The local T-shirt shop now is highlighting another Cincinnati infatuation: The Great Cicada Comeback of 2021.
“At Cincy Shirts we are always looking for new trends to put on T-shirts as well as nostalgia,” says co-owner Darin Overholser. “The new brood of cicadas are both a hot topic in the news and have a nostalgic aspect. Everyone has a cicada story or some memory of the last time they were here. We decided to do some tees, and they have been our second highest-selling topic right now behind our (Major League Baseball Players Association) tees.”
In the collection of 10 shirts, shoppers can find a variety of cicada fashion, perfect for any season. One shirt proclaims “Here for a good time, not for a long time” around a colorful cicada. Another is like the classic Batman signal, but instead of the bat — you guessed it — there is a cicada encased in the yellow light. Gotham (or Cincinnati) is calling for a small but incredibly loud hero.
Cincy Shirts also has teamed up with WEBN-FM to offer a retro cicada design.
“They have a loyal fan base who is eating them up,” Overholser says.
Overholser says that Cincy Shirts is working with Snappy Tomato Pizza on a new design that features the pizzeria’s 1980s jingle about putting cicadas on their pizzas.
“WEBN released the jingle as a joke, (but) people really thought Snappy Tomato Pizza was putting cicadas on their pies,” Overholser says. “Of course they weren’t, but that just led to another legendary cicada story in Cincinnati. When people are talking, that’s when we are there to put it on a shirt.”
The cicada shirts are $15-$25, and all designs can be seen on Cincy Shirts’ website.
Cincy Shirts has locations at 1301 Main St., Over-the-Rhine and 2709 Observatory Ave., Hyde Park. For more info, visit cincyshirts.com.
This article appears in Apr 1-30, 2021.