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(Friday, July 1, 2011) ~ The Pottstown Mercury

Two Pottstown businesses share the honor of being chosen to commemorate the infamous Triangle Shirtwaist factory fire in New York City in 1911.

Ink and Essence and Lifewear, Inc., both union shops, were selected to produce and screen print a commemorative shirt marking the tragic death of 186 garment works trapped by owners who locked the doors to keep union organizers out of the building. On the shirt front is depicted one of the classic photos of the building on fire. On the back are the names of the women who died 100 years ago.

Lifewear bears the distinction of being one of the very few union shirt manufacturers in the United States today. The company, located behind St. Aloysius Catholic Church and school, is majority female owned, according to company president Dave Bartman. "In addition to making tee shirts, sweats, mock and real turtle neck shirts, we are the exclusive manufacturer for Howie Bedell's Protect-all line of underwear for major league baseball teams. It is a specialty underwear that protects the players from getting brush burns when they slide into a base," Bartman said. "At this point, we're the only people making underwear in the USA, as far as we can tell. All the other manufacturing has moved to other countries," he said.

100 Years Later: Remembering the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire

Another specialty line that Lifewear offers is flame retardant shirts for electricians. "We're making them in both long and short sleeve versions for a customer in another state," Bartman said. As a matter of fact, Lifewear does business from one corner of America to another, providing unions and other organizations and businesses who have a social conscience with 100% USA manufactured clothing.

It was through their dealings with unions that Lifewear and Ink and Essence first worked together. Though a much younger, only 12 years old, Ink and Essence is also unionized under Workers United (SEIU).

"The first job we did with Lifewear was for a political rally in New York. An electricians union bought their shirts from Lifewear and because of our proximity, had us do the printing. Then the shirts were trucked to New York just in time for the rally, "Warren Holohan of I&E recalls. "That was the beginning of a very productive relationship."

Over the years the two companies have cooperated on reprinting an Andy Warhol portrait of Justice Brandeis, done teddy bear shirts, done shirts for the Tea Party before anyone knew who the Tea Part was, Universal Health Care of CNN (appearing on CNN and other news outlets when they covered the rallies), and of course, the Triangle factory fire.

"Although they're just shirts, sometimes some of the spirit of what the represent is carried along. Putting the names of all those women who died - you almost felt like as long as we keep saying their names, keep remembering, they won't be completely lost," Holohan said.

Ink and Essence offers screen printing and embroidery from their High Street location across from the old New York Plaza.

According to co-owner, Sean Holohan, "We've been very blessed to have made it through the past couple of years and to be showing signs of growth this year. I attribute that to our having put in the automatic press a little over a year ago and the economy improving somewhat. But probably more important, I think, it's because we really like what we do and we believe in the power to reach people through this medium. We have fun at work and people see that and want to be a part of it. And we want them to have fun with us".