A Michael Jackson fan sports a t-shirt memorializing the pop star. (July 3, 2009)
LOS ANGELES -- At least one t-shirt maker in Los Angeles has been cranking up production of silkscreen designs that commemorate the life and death of Michael Jackson in anticipation of a massive public memorial in the king of pop's honor Tuesday at Staples Center.
Jimmy Jam of Jimmy's Jam T-Shirts in South Los Angeles said he's planning on peddling a few of his own designs outside the barricades that surround the center downtown. Jam says business has been brisk not only for his own Jackson-themed tops, but for big-volume orders from outside freelance designers who want to capitalize on Jackson's death and the subsequent memorial.
"An hour after he passed people were blowing my phone off the hook placing orders," says Jam. "There are orders coming from Seattle, St. Louis, all over the U.S."
He says the pop star's passing and the planned memorial are making entrepreneurs out of disparate people -- young men, college students, senior citizens -- who are bringing in their own Jackson designs and ordering up 100-and-more silkscreen t-shirts from Jam's shop. He says many of them plan to be as close to Staples Center as they can Tuesday in order to peddle the cotton wares.
"These are people who don't normally do that kind of thing," Jam says. "There's so much economic activity being generated from Jackson. It's feeding people. It's keeping a lot of youth who might be out trying to sell drugs or doing gang banging to be diverted. It's allowing people to have a decent, honest hustle."
It's not immediately clear how police will deal with unlicensed vendors of t-shirts and other memorabilia outside the Staples Center barricades, but Jam says he's already been shooed from Hollywood Boulevard after he tried to peddle some Jackson designs to tourists. He adds, however, that street-corner peddlers are thriving in South Los Angeles, where makeshift operations have been set up outside county offices, utility satellites and on the corner of Crenshaw Boulevard and W. Slauson Avenue.
Jam says he's selling examples of his own designs for $10 to $20. Some of his shirts include likenesses of Jackson with the words "never can say goodbye" and, "In our hearts he will live forever."
Jimmy Jam of Jimmy's Jam T-Shirts in South Los Angeles said he's planning on peddling a few of his own designs outside the barricades that surround the center downtown. Jam says business has been brisk not only for his own Jackson-themed tops, but for big-volume orders from outside freelance designers who want to capitalize on Jackson's death and the subsequent memorial.
"An hour after he passed people were blowing my phone off the hook placing orders," says Jam. "There are orders coming from Seattle, St. Louis, all over the U.S."
He says the pop star's passing and the planned memorial are making entrepreneurs out of disparate people -- young men, college students, senior citizens -- who are bringing in their own Jackson designs and ordering up 100-and-more silkscreen t-shirts from Jam's shop. He says many of them plan to be as close to Staples Center as they can Tuesday in order to peddle the cotton wares.
"These are people who don't normally do that kind of thing," Jam says. "There's so much economic activity being generated from Jackson. It's feeding people. It's keeping a lot of youth who might be out trying to sell drugs or doing gang banging to be diverted. It's allowing people to have a decent, honest hustle."
It's not immediately clear how police will deal with unlicensed vendors of t-shirts and other memorabilia outside the Staples Center barricades, but Jam says he's already been shooed from Hollywood Boulevard after he tried to peddle some Jackson designs to tourists. He adds, however, that street-corner peddlers are thriving in South Los Angeles, where makeshift operations have been set up outside county offices, utility satellites and on the corner of Crenshaw Boulevard and W. Slauson Avenue.
Jam says he's selling examples of his own designs for $10 to $20. Some of his shirts include likenesses of Jackson with the words "never can say goodbye" and, "In our hearts he will live forever."
