Port City Clothing Company is primarily made up of Nina & Alan but we have loads of help from our friends, family, associates, old bosses, college acquaintances, Wilmington locals... well you get the picture, there are ton of people that have, and still are, helping us along our journey.
We both received our Bachelors of Fine Arts in Graphic Design from the University of Akron in Ohio in 2007. I know, I know...Ohio!?... It’s like NC’s arch nemesis BUT you can’t forget your roots! Everyone has to start somewhere and our ‘somewhere’ was Ohio. With a background in art & graphic design, we slowly began dabbling with screen printing throughout college. We started how everyone starts... bought a screen printing kit from our local art store, read the instructions very carefully and completely failed a few or so times! Don’t worry, we got it all figured out ...eventually!
Alan started doing some design work at a screen printing shop after college & we learned very quickly the ins & outs of printing the perfect shirt. We bought our first 4-color screen printing press and all the other essentials needed to do it right and haven’t stopped since! So where does Wilmington play a part in all of this? Well... basically WE LOVE WILMINGTON! We came here every year for vacation and just really never wanted to leave.
So one summer, we packed our bags and came to stay permanently! Being here and experiencing all of Wilmington’s history has sparked our creativity. So we’re creating some fun t-shirts to celebrate this exciting city. Wilmington has a very rich past in film history, starting with the film Fire Starter in 1984 so many of our shirts will reference movies that have been filmed here like Empire Records or even the show Dawson’s Creek (gotta love the Creek!).
Thanks for supporting Wilmington!