QUEENS — A Long Island City resident is helping neighbors show off their neighborhood pride.
Designer Stuart Lowitt operates Wear LIC, a line of Long Island City-focused t-shirts that he designs featuring the neighborhood's name, zip code and some with images of local landmarks.
He started selling the shirts online about three months ago, and will be peddling them at the LIC Flea & Food starting June 11, when he also plans to extend the line to include Long Island City baby onesies and shirts for dogs.
"I love the area so much," said 49-year-old Lowitt, who moved to the neighborhood seven years ago and said he started the project after he was unable to find something similar being made already.
"I did see some [LIC] shirts out there but they were not as exciting as I hoped to represent the community," he said. "How come we don't have anything that's representing our neighborhood, which is expanding, which is growing?"
Lowitt designs the shirts using a silk screener in Manhattan.
The shirts, which cost $24.99 each, include one featuring the 718 area code, others that include the words "Long Island City" with images of the well-known gantries on the waterfront and another for Pride Month with rainbow lettering.
He plans to expand the number of design options, which will be made available on the Wear LIC website soon, he said.
