A little trip to the Yamaguchie to Support the USPS

Back in 1963, the U.S. Postal Service debuted a brand new mascot – a stylized drawing of a letter carrier, a mascot named “Mr. Zip.”

Although you don’t see Mr. Zip that often today, he’s still associated with the U.S. Postal Service.

But, unfortunately, the Postal Service has been under attack by Donald Trump throughout his presidency.  He has claimed – without any relevant facts – that the Postal Service is being taken advantage of by Amazon, because billionaire Jeff Bezos owns Amazon, and Jeff Bezos owns the Washington Post, and Trump hates the Washington Post, so naturally Trump takes his anger out on the Postal Service.

Then came the issue of mail-in voting, absentee voting, if you will.  Trump detests it, he claims that mail-in voting is rife with fraud.  Yeah, no.

So when Trump installed a Trump mega-donor, Louis DeJoy, as the new Postmaster General, DeJoy did everything in his power to wreck the Postal Service.  He cut back on delivery times, he told letter carriers to leave the mail in the post office instead of doing last-minute deliveries.  He had sorting machines disassembled and destroyed.  Trust me, DeJoy’s been moving up the “Trump Crooked Crony” list.

We now get to current days.  My FB friend Ken Screven (the legendary WRGB broadcaster) posted a photo of his neighborhood’s letter carrier – a carrier who was wearing a distinctive custom-made T-shirt.

I asked where it was purchased.

Ken told me it was from a store on Lark Street, Yamaguchie.  Yamaguchie specializes in custom T-shirts and custom-printed woodblocks.  And they do quality work.

I drove down to Yamaguchie’s storefront.  I asked if they had any more of the custom-printed Postal Service T-shirts.

They said that they were printed one at a time.

I gave them my T-shirt size, paid in advance, and asked them to print me one.

Yesterday, they told me the shirt was ready.

Okay, another trip to Yamaguchie.

The store owner was there, and I have to tell you, the guy is as friendly and accommodating as they come.  The shirt was ready.

I tried it on.

And I even modeled it.

That’s right, kids, that’s Mr. Zip.  Along with a very special envelope for the President.  Or the President’s kids, I mean, a surname is a surname.

And if you don’t think the message got through loud and clear…

Maybe the message needs the addition of a little birdie.

Oh, and as a bonus, the owner of Yamaguchie told me they had just printed a custom run of Black Lives Matter face masks.  $2 later, a Black Lives Matter face mask was in my shopping bag, along with my new cool blue T-shirt.

Yeah, I’m definitely good with this.

If you would like to order this shirt, or any other shirt from Yamaguchie’s product lines, visit their store at 221 Lark Street.  They’re also on Facebook at @Yamaguchie518, and on Instagram at @Yamaguchi.bigcartel.

Oh yeah, that’s 221 Lark Street in Albany.

And Mr. Zip knows that location as 12210.

FTC Note: At no time did I request or receive any discounts or payments for this blog post with relation to the T-shirt featured.  The blog post was written independently and without compensation or remuneration from either Yamaguchie or any other product or clothing line.