Fatherhood comes first for dad who created charity T-shirt line

special to viewSummerlin resident Eric Deal creates a customized T-shirt using his Family Dude iron-on. Deal is selling the shirts and donating a portion of the proceeds to three charities. Advertisement

Meet the Family Dude. He's your everyday father, sports buddy and adviser, and he's also the anchor for Eric Deal's T-shirt line, Kindredgear.

The Family Dude not only celebrates fatherhood, but a portion of the T-shirt's purchase price helps three charities -- the Shade Tree, the National Fatherhood Initiative and the Harlem Children's Zone.

"I made the Family Dude to show that you can be a dad and still be cool," said Deal, a Summerlin resident. "You haven't lost your dude-ness."

Deal plans to create other characters to add to the line, which initially launched in late 2007 under the name Zazzle. But it also used a print-on-demand company, which increased costs. Deal had modest success there but decided to cut out the middleman and revamp the line.

It's a one-man shop right now, done with the help of his significant other, Veronica Henry. Their dining room is dominated by a machine that allows Deal to do his own print-on-demand jobs. It is a heat-press machine, using screen-printed transfers.

The T-shirts are available only at kindredgear.com and cost $24.95. So far, they are sold only in adult sizes, but a kids' line is in the works.

Deal's colleagues are fans of Family Dude.

"As a husband and father of a 4-year-old daughter, I'm happy to see a T-shirt line dedicated to reinforcing the idea that we need to change the perception of fatherhood," Bruce Brewton said.

"My father passed on a commitment to service to his children, and now I manage the nonprofit he started, Urban Action," said Howell Nkosi, director of Urban Action in Dallas. "Seeing the impact of single-parent households, I know that socially conscious efforts that recognize fathers, like Kindredgear, can shift public perception, encouraging young men to take more responsibility."

Deal said his experiences as a dad prompted him to create the Family Dude. While he came from the all-American family with two parents who are still married, he said his own experience was different. For one thing, he didn't get married. For another, he said, he didn't ask the questions one should ask a woman about raising a child before having one.

"My own foray into fatherhood failed miserably," he said. "The reasons are many and haunt me every day."

The result is a broken relationship with his college-age daughter. He said creating the T-shirt line was cathartic.

Contact Summerlin and Summerlin South View reporter Jan Hogan at jhogan@viewnews.com or 387-2949.