Our Story

 

Race Gear Merch was developed by James McCarthy and is now run by Straight Stitch LLC, in Norwood MA. All work is done in house.

How it all started...

James saw a picture on Facebook of a New England racing legend’s car, George Summers' famous #21, that he successfully piloted to many feature wins. Throughout his career, George had over 100 feature wins, with most at Seekonk Speedway. After seeing the picture, James created a design of George Summers' car and posted it on Facebook. Immediately, he got a response from George's son, Ricky, who asked permission to use my design to have t-shirts made up with the design on them. 

After giving a resounding yes to use the design, the ole lightbulb over the head went on. Maybe designing and selling racing t-shirts could be a small business. . . . So after getting good responses to subsequent designs, we decided to go all in and start Race Gear Merch. All of the t-shirt printing is done in-house. And when we say in-house, we literally mean, in our house. We purchased a state-of-the-art direct-to-garment printer and accessories and converted an extra room into our office and printing facility. 

We wish this story had a happy ending to it, unfortunately it does not. After James posted the original design, he immediately became good friends with Ricky Summers, the person who is ultimately responsible for Race Gear Merch due to him asking permission to use the original design. Sadly, after knowing Ricky for just a couple of months, he was hospitalized with Covid-19 and other underlying health issues and passed away on February 4, 2021. 

Thank you, Ricky! Rest In Peace. 1962–2021