Philly Phaithful T-shirts score 'wit or witout' winning teams

DAN HERSHBERG, 31, from Northern Liberties, is a diehard Philly sports fan who landed a job right out of college, creating highlight clips for ESPN's late-night shows.

But after two years, he was pining for his hometown.

"Bristol, Connecticut, is not a place where you want to spend your 20s," Hershberg said.

"I'd get out of work at 2 or 3 a.m. when there's not much opportunity to socialize in Bristol. I hadn't seen a living, breathing woman in a long time."

Hershberg had an epiphany. "I thought, 'Why not go back to the city I'm from and move into my parents' house and start a Philly sports T-shirt company?' "

The year was 2008, but Hershberg wasn't just flowing with the floodtide of fledgling Phillies fanatics spawned in the fervor of the World Series championship.

"Lots of folks jumped on the Phillies bandwagon," Hershberg said. "But I was trying to relate to Phillies diehards who had been there for a long time, through all the losing, before they became good," he said.

Hershberg's first (and still favorite) Philly Phaithful tee features a graphic of the Broad Street and Pattison Avenue signs.

"If you wear that shirt outside Philly, most people don't know what it means," he said. "It's the ultimate Philly Phaithful shirt."

That tee is still going strong along with one that reads "Schmidt Happens" on a graphic of Mike Schmidt's sunglasses, nose and trademark mustache.

Hershberg began hawking his shirts by pounding the sports complex parking-lot pavement.

"Philadelphians respect hardworking, blue-collar people," he said. "I worked the crowd with a beer in my hand, a backpack full of shirts and a menu of every shirt I had in the trunk of my car.

"If someone wanted a shirt, I'd go get it out of my trunk. When you're 25, it seems like the best way to do it. However, it's not a sustainable business model."

Hershberg soon developed his phillyphaithful.com website and set up his showroom on 4th Street near Brown as a man-cave where fans could watch a game on a big screen TV while eyeballing the shirts.

Along with best-sellers like his "Ruthless & Toothless" Bobby Clarke tee came reminders that sports fame is fleeting.

Hershberg's clearance bin houses a surplus of his "It's Always Shady in Philadelphia" tee featuring LeSean McCoy on a (gulp!) kelly-green shirt and his "Uncle Cholly says it's hittin' season" tee showing Charlie Manuel during happier times.

While waiting for times to get happy again, Hershberg has added nonsports Philly icon tees including "Best Friends Forever" featuring a soft pretzel and a mustard bottle, and "Wit Or Witout You" with a graphic of an onion.

Like the sports tees, you have to be Philly Phaithful to love 'em.