About the Strong Athletic Nonbinary Crew Neck Muscle Tank
The Inspiration Behind the ENBY Shirt Design
Strong Athletic created this design after requests came in from nonbinary members of the Strong Athletic Community. Once we received a good number of requests we decided to move forward in making this shirt for all of the members of our community, all of the athletes and people who are active, who play sports and who also want to tell the world that they are gender non-conforming. We had a lot of options for what this shirt would say and also what the design would look like. Some people wanted the colors yellow, white, purple and black of the the nonbinary flag, others wanted the colors pink, white and light blue of the trans flag, while some people didn't feel connected to either flag. Some people use the hyphen in non-binary, others drop the hyphen and keep it as two separate words while others use a single nonbinary all as one word. Some use gender non-conforming and others use ENBY. The thing that seems to bring everyone together is that you don't have to go by anyone else's rules and that you get to identify as you please, which is the spirit of the design. Ultimately we decided on simple white ink, so that the statement would stand out to others reading the shirt.
If you're wondering what took Strong Athletic so long to make this design, the reason is simple really. The founder of Strong Athletic, Nadia Kean, never actually created the first design, her friend Cristen Perks did. Cristen had heard Nadia call her teammates a "fine group of strong athletic women" a zillion times and so she finally put the three words "Strong Athletic Woman" on a shirt and gave it to Nadia as a gift. Moving forward, people wanted to wear Strong Athletic, but not everyone identified as a woman and so they requested that designs be created that were not dependent on gender. The designs "Strong Athletic Skater" and "Strong Athletic Queer" were a result of these requests. When Strong Athletic started to get requests for a "Strong Athletic Nonbinary" design we were happy to add this to our lineup.
One thing was important to us, there is a fine line between being inclusive and taking ownership of something that you are not. Strong Athletic is a queer-owned company, and the majority of everyone who works for Strong Athletic is part of the LGBTQIA2S+ community. That being said, we are not a nonbinary-owned company. We created this design because we were asked to and in doing so we are ensuring that Strong Athletic remains an inclusive brand that stays true to our values. In creating this design we hope to support nonbinary athletes who must navigate a world that is so binary. We hope that ENBY athletes know that they are included as part of the Strong Athletic community and that Strong Athletic has their back.
One of the reasons we're so excited for the release of this tank is because 100% of the profits from every shirt is donated to Pull for Pride for their Share the Platform Grant. In fact, the profits for this shirt were donated in advance as soon as we released the shirt. To learn more about Pull for Pride or to make a donation directly to their amazing organization, click here.
About the Bella Canvas Crew Neck Muscle Tank that we Print on
The Bella Canvas Crew Neck Muscle Tank, style number 3483 has a unique style from your average tank top. The reason this tank is called a muscle tank is because the armholes are a bit larger than your average tank top. The basic look of the tank has the appearance that you took your favorite t-shirt and cut of the sleeves right at the perfect place so that the fabric covering your shoulders is thicker. If you wear a garment under this tank, such as a bra, a binder or an under-tank, some of the fabric might be visible under the arms. Strong Athletic carries many different styles of muscle tanks, so we recommend that you don't assume this one will fit like another of our muscle tanks. Make sure to check out the size chart. The hem of the shirt goes down to the upper thigh area, so you won't find any crop tops with this shirt. The neck line is a traditional "crew neck" which means that it has a circular neck line and no collar. Crew necks are very common on most t-shirts. These t-shirts are preshrunk. This shirt was assembled at a WRAP facility.
The words Strong Athletic Nonbinary and the Strong Athletic logo are printed in white ink on the front of the muscle tank. The Strong Athletic logo is printed on the back of the shirt near the collar, between the shoulder blades. This shirt was printed by hand in Austin, Texas by Amanda at the Austin Screen Printer's Coop. The Strong Athletic logo was created by Angel Ortega of Garzig Design based in South Austin, Texas.