Who are we?

Seattle Shirt Co. is a high end, tourist driven, retail store specializing in awesome Seattle apparel and gifts.

We also have a great selection of sports gear from our local teams including the Seahawks, Sounders, Sonics, Mariners, and Kraken.

We strive to have new merchandise constantly and always give the customer what they're looking for.

We carry everything from affordable hoodies and t-shirts to shot glasses and mugs to funny signs and home décor.

Every step taken as a company is to bring Seattle Shirt Company to a higher level and provide the best products and best service to the tourists of Seattle.

Our History

Jay Ashberg's father, Al Ashberg, started selling t-shirts and printed t-shirt transfers out of his denim jeans store in downtown Kansas City, Missouri in 1978. In 1989 Al opened up his first store in Seattle at 6th and Pike while “chasing” the Final Four College Basketball Tournament and named the store Souvenir Shirts. His son Jay, then a 24-year-old young man, went to work for Al that store managing and in 1992 Al and Jay together opened their flagship store on the corner of 1st and Pike. The name of the store was changed to what everyone now knows as the Seattle Shirt Company. 

In 2002 Jay took a huge step and mainly bought the business from his father. In the middle of 2012, after 34 years of operating the business with heat transfers, Jay decided to change the business model and reinvent and reinvigorate the Pike Street store. Jay upgraded the store and changed it to a store where shirts are already preprinted and ready for purchase, thus abandoning printing transfers onto T-Shirts in the store that had become the trademark of the business. By the end of 2014 this proved to be a wise and successful move.

Seattle Shirt Company expanded and opened a 3,500-square foot store on Seattle's Waterfront at Pier 55 in 2013. The store became a hit and equally as successful as the 1st and Pike store within the first year of operation. With the leadership and expertise of our management team in the purchasing of products, the new preprint business model has led to a very successful formula. Jay's belief is that the secret to success is that the customers and the employees have to be happy. If one of those elements is not in place then the success of the company will suffer. The ultimate goal is to provide customers with a pleasant atmosphere to shop, along with very cool and interesting merchandise at a fair price. 

In order to continue growing, in the spring of 2017 the Seattle Shirt Company opened a new location on the Waterfront at Pier 56 called The Seattle Shop at 56. The new store has a different name, logo, color pattern and look, but still offers the same level of customer service and amazing merchandise. The philosophy is to carry the same vendors but with different Seattle inspired designs and colors, ultimately giving the tourists of Seattle more shopping choices. In Spring 2019 The Seattle Shop had a grand reopening because it added over 2,000 square feet of shopping to the store. The Seattle Shop is now our largest location and looks to become one of our busiest.

Seattle Shirt Company ventured outside the city and opened in the small Bavarian themed mountain town of Leavenworth, Washington in the Spring of 2018. The Leavenworth Shirt Company was immediately successful and the entire company enjoys having a store a few hours away from the city to tell the tourists who come to Seattle to take the drive to see. In the winter of 2020 Icicle Creek Clothing was opened down the block from the original store in Leavenworth and has given the opportunity to bring in even more Leavenworth items. The company is proud to continue to grow and branch out into new and exciting places and help everyone to get the perfect gift to bring home to remember all of Washington.