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Company Pulls 'Chicago Stronger' Shirts After 'Twitter-Lynching'

By Quinn Ford | June 14, 2013 2:32pm
 The Lakeview-based "Cubby Tees" shop has pulled its "Chicago Stronger" shirts after angry backlash.
Company Pulls 'Chicago Stronger' Shirts After 'Twitter-Lynching'
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WRIGLEYVILLE — A Lakeview-based apparel company has pulled its "Chicago Stronger" Blackhawk T-shirts from shelves following an angry backlash from Bostonians claiming the shirt was insensitive.

Cubby Tees created T-shirts featuring the phrase "Chicago Stronger," a take-off of the "Boston Strong" motto created in the wake of the Boston Marathon bombings.

In a statement, the company claimed it made the decision following a "good new-fashioned Twitter-lynching" from people angry at the irreverent use of a motto meant to remember victims of last April's terrorist attack.

But the company said it intended the shirts to be meant as satire to highlight the "tasteless exploiters" who first adapted the motto "Boston Strong" to New England sports teams.

"Anyone who believes that the shirt mocked those injured in the horrible events of Patriots’ Day regrettably missed our point," the company said in a statement.

"The design poked fun at the embarrassing self-congratulatory branding of the tragedy, and its inappropriate adoption by SOME BOSTON FANS AS A MINIMIZING SPORTS ANTHEM, not the sad reality of that day’s mayhem."

The statement linked to the supposed original description of the shirt that appeared on the company's website which has since been removed.

It described the current Stanley Cup Finals match-up as an "epic battle between two great teams."

"We love Boston and support/admire its people, but can't stomach this use of the nation's sympathy or believe that the homicidal lunacy of two disturbed locals has rendered its teams invincible," the description reads.

The shirts are not the first time in the NHL playoffs Bostonians have seen a take-off of their motto. Some Maple Leaf fans sported "Toronto Stronger" signs when Toronto faced the Boston Bruins in the first round of the playoffs.