Normal Human tees off in Westport
Last fall, after the Royals’ narrow World Series defeat at the hands of the Pitcher Who Shall Not Be Named, I was hanging my head and dragging my feet around town when I spotted someone wearing a clever shirt that lifted my spirits.
The baby-blue tee showed, in blue letters above a golden crown: “2014 second-place world champs. Still pretty good.”
Yes, I thought, that about sums it up.
Right then, I knew that, if I was ever going to be a functioning baseball fan again, I needed this shirt. My search for healing led me to Normal Human (827 Westport Road). Last July, the retail operation moved from Mission to the space last occupied by lamented midtown mainstay Spivey’s Old Maps, Fine Art, Prints and Rare Books. It’s a much more visible location for a shop that bills itself as the metro’s where for “wears & wares from Kansas City.” But what exactly are those other W’s?
The short answer: T-shirts, mostly. The business’s young owners, Pat Egger and Dan Mahaney, have known each other since high school, and they’ve worked together since 2012. The melding of their screen-printing and sign-making skills has led to some eye-catching designs, and they’re gaining in popularity. You’ve probably seen someone wearing something from Normal Human.
On a recent visit to the sunny, welcoming store, I found Mahaney and Egger eager to show me around. The space was small, but there was a lot to see. A Vintage Edison light fixture, made of thick glass bottles, hung in the center of the room. Display shelves, made of reclaimed lumber, held rows of shirts for sale. And, behind the register, their carousel press stood ready and waiting for further production. Egger and Mahaney print approximately 500 of their custom-designed shirts each week, working in full view of whoever happens to be browsing inside.
“We want people to see it happening,” Egger told me.
In preparation for St. Patrick’s Day, they had just finished several stacks of bright-green shirts with bold, white shamrocks in the center. Another shirt, called “Cat Dad Drinking Feline Fancy Beer,” featured a sketch of a wide-eyed kitty sipping a cold one. Egger is, he said, “a cat guy.”
The other muse here, of course, is Kansas City. Normal Human shows plenty of love for the Chiefs and the Royals and, reluctantly, the ever-teasing local weather. One dark-blue shirt shows a tornado, the sun, a snowflake, and a storm cloud on the front. On the day I visited, the motif seemed especially appropriate: It was 60 degrees and sunny but had sleeted the previous evening.
“It’s called ‘24 Hours in Kansas City,’” Egger said of that particular garment as I admired it. “It’s been really popular.”
The shop itself has also been a hit, according to Egger and Mahaney. The simple, white letters on the brick storefront regularly attract the attention of weekend brunchers from Bluestem or Westport day drinkers who remember to swing back by on their way out of the neighborhood.
I asked how they arrived at the nondescript brand name.
Mahaney said it originated in a conversation with a friend who, he explained, was “kind of a weird guy.”
Weird how?
“Instead of saying he wanted a drink, he’d say something like, ‘My human is thirsty.’ One night, we were going to get some dinner, and he said he needed to get his human normal. So we just flipped it.”
The clothes are the main attraction, but Normal Human also sells other goods, including candles by Browning Co. that smell delightfully campfirelike and bottle openers by 928 Woodworks that have been fashioned out of used pallets from Boulevard Brewing Co. All of the products are locally made.
“There are enough people doing awesome stuff here,” Egger said. “We don’t need to outsource.”
Come spring, the Royals, I hope, will be on that list of people doing awesome stuff — awesome or second-place champs or last-place whatever — though Egger told me that I could expect to see plenty of Normal Human gear inspired by the boys in blue before opening day, perhaps even a pennant or two. For the defending American League champions, the more pennants the better. As for me, I’m just trying to get my human normal before the first pitch.
