Selling the D fits business owners to a T

The message is simple, but the meaning is clear: If you're wearing this shirt, you probably like Detroit.

It's a sentiment that's becoming increasingly profitable for small-business owners like Matthew Zebari and Patrick Duggan, owners of Down With Detroit, an online business specializing in D-branded merchandise.

Zebari and Duggan, an IT consultant and a graphic designer, respectively, founded the business in 2006, but the brand has grown more recognizable in recent months after the pair made an advertising push.

Both went to college in Chicago, where they enjoyed wearing clothing that represented Detroit. At that time, Zebari said, there were few options, essentially licensed sporting merchandise and items made by the venerable Detroit brand Pure Detroit.

Since then, Zebari said, “It's been growing and growing and growing.”

Zebari said they have expanded the site's offerings recently to include such items as buttons, clocks and magnets. The Down With Detroit website offers more than 1,000 items.

“The ads seem to work really well,” Zebari said. “We do a lot of organic advertising through search terms and Facebook.”

These days, he said, the company is selling about 50 shirts a day, or more than $3,000 in commission and about $10,000 in revenue a month.

Also amping its profile is Mighty Detroit, a year-old line that recently revamped its website and product offerings, said founder Robbie Biederman, an art director.

Along with partners Aaron Singer and T.J. Ferrara, Biederman operates an online business that sells several Detroit-centric T-shirts. All three are Detroit expats; Biederman and Singer live in New York.