South Philly Review

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Over the past few years, there has been an increase in the amount of bikers darting through traffic during the daily commute. From rolled and taped right pant legs, to over-the-shoulder messenger bags, this hip, new biking community has created its own unique fashion.

Marc Hummel’s designs have seemed to fit right in.

“We were just kind of goofing off one day … We wanted a tandem bicycle and we thought it would be cool to buy a tandem of our own. We thought it would be a kind of funny way to raise money for it,” Hummel said of the birth of “b minus,” his Point Breeze-based screen-printed T-shirt business.

As freshman at Rowan University, Hummel and friend Leah Cipolla began doodling and gave birth to the signature print of their company, a hand-screenprinted T-shirt with a tandem bike and the slogan “Bicycles are for Lovers.” Now the company — minus Cipolla who has since moved to Olympia, Wash. — features a line of bike-centric T-shirts.

“We’ve been donating 75 percent of the proceeds between Neighborhood Bike Works, the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia and the campaign to complete the Schuylkill River Trail,” the 16th-and-Federal-streets resident said. “And I think its important as a biker in Philly, if there is a way to make the biking experience in Philly better, it’s our responsibility to act on that.”

Set to graduate with a bachelor’s in English and a minor in studio art from New Jersey-based Rutgers University this June — which he transferred to in 2005 — Hummel biked to school across the Ben Franklin Bridge since moving to Philadelphia, including pedaling from the South Philly home he moved into two years ago.

“I think [biking in Philly] is getting better, it can be pretty rough,” Hummel, 25, said. “I think you just have to have a lot of experience to say it’s safe, there are a lot of things you have to learn like avoiding single lane streets is the best way not to piss people off. It is really hard, but once you have a good route it is easy.”

Though biking is a huge part of his life, the completely bike-centric line of apparel was an organic business growth rather than a conscious decision. After creating their pet project to raise money for a tandem bike, the unique design hit a chord with the local culture.
“They just fit in with the neighborhood it seems,” Hummel, whose shirts are carried in three South Philly retail locations, said. “I think it’s a popular neighborhood, this part of the city, for startups to start a retail spot and there is a lot of young people that live here.”

“b minus” apparel is sold in Bike Revolutions Boutique, 711 S. Fourth St., Nice Things Handmade, 1731 E. Passyunk Ave., and Girl. Bike. Dog., 23rd and Bainbridge streets. With the large biker culture in South Philadelphia, it became obvious “b minus” had hit a niche market.

“We had one that was not a bike theme, it just said, ‘Clap Your Hands,’ in a cool type face Leah had made, but there wasn’t an easy way to relate to it. Bikes, people get it right away, our style fit the aesthetic appeal of bikers for some reason. [The original shirt] sold far and away the best,” he said.

“b minus” integrated itself into the biking culture, and in turn has had its hand in improving it for all Philadelphians.

“I just think raising the visibility and the work that [the organizations we support] do is one of the best ways to make [biking] safer,” Hummel said. “It is a cultural/driver awareness thing rather than actual facilities issue, maybe.”

Born in Pittsburgh, Hummel moved to New Jersey when he was in junior high school. Though he attended college close to home, he needed to stretch his wings and moved into Philadelphia to experience life on his own.

“I always wanted to live in this city and it’s so close, I thought, if I can swing living not with parents, I should,” Hummel said.
Schoolwork went well, but he needed another outlet outside of academia.

“It was more of like we liked making projects together, there was a lot of creative energy there. We were having fun doing it and we wanted to be distracted from our schoolwork, and it was kind of good distraction for us,” Hummel said of his collaboration with Cipolla. “[‘b minus’] was something to devote our time to, on accident, but something else would have happened anyway.

We just sort of, we thought we were in high school, we thought of ourselves more as B-minus students, not quite a C not quite a regular B.”

And so the company was founded and continues to hand print silk-screened designs out of Hummel’s 16th-and-Federal home. With graduation approaching, he hopes to move the concept into a new phase.

“I want to collaborate with local artist on a design that you can completely customize: There will be a background you can choose and then a range of items, range of bikes, range of accessories, and it will be screen-printed by hand and all drawn by different people,” Hummel, who has stirred up interest about his concept but not signed any specific talent to the idea, said.

With a college course load, Hummel could only devote his spare time to his bike-themed duds but is looking forward to increased energy put into “b minus” while he also pursues a personal project. One further area of possible revamping is his allocation of donations.
“My idea is to focus on one nonprofit for maybe six months or something, it’s a little more tangible, and then you can just write a check to them after six months,” Hummel said. “That way we can promote each other and I can expand it past just bike organizations.”