Gaylord Salters’ new New Haven-made T‑shirt comes in a “bric” box. It features a man with a teen pointing a gun with the intent to murder.
All in the interest of promoting positivity on city streets.
He can explain.
Salters, who was released from prison following revelations of state misconduct and has since dedicated his life to addressing the harm of the drug war, started a company with his son to design and sell apparel seeking to “change the narrative.”
For the “murder” T‑shirt, he dropped the “k” in “bric.” He add “fa” to the beginning of the word. So instead of kilo “bricks” of cocaine, he’s hustling legal “fabric” apparel. The shirt’s slogan is “Fabric over fish scale,” the latter a nickname for cocaine’s appearance in its rawest form.
Why the image of teaching a young man to shoot? With a call to “murder”?
It’s a play on the stereotype of young Black men shooting people on the street. In this case, Salters, with his T‑shirt, is calling on people to “murder the myths and become great.”
Salters displayed the shirt and discussed his new Double G‑I apparel company during an appearance Tuesday on WNHH FM’s “Dateline New Haven.”
“This isn’t just clothing. It’s culture, healing, and revolution stitched into every thread,” said Salters.
Like a lot of kids growing up in the old Quinnipiac Terrace public-housing complex, Salters was lured into the drug trade in his youth — then found himself sent to prison based on compromised evidence. He spent 20 years behind bars for a shooting he said he never committed until revelations of state misconduct led to his release in 2022.
He hasn’t wasted time making a difference since his release. He has organized community events examining the results of drug-war mass incarceration. (Read more about that in this “New Havener Of The Year” article.) He started a publishing company with his daughter. (Click here to learn more about a “community curriculum” he’s promoting for “youths ages 14 to 24 about the detriments of street life and the long-last effects,” based on the stories in a book he wrote based on his experiences.)
And in late May he formally launched Double G.I. (for “Go Get It”) apparel with his son Gaylord Jr. (aka Junthatsit).
Salters used savings from a Fed Ex job to start making the shirts and windbreakers and sweatsuits. He and his son find designers on the web along with manufacturers in China, Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan.
They sell the items online as well as at two local shops, New Haven Apparel at 799 Dixwell Ave. and DA’ W.O.R.L.D. at 59 Whalley.
The “Fabric over fish scales” shirt sells for $75.
It aims to change the world. Or at least life in New Haven.
The “murder” metaphor is part of supporting “anything that’s positive over the negative way of getting” by or negative stereotypes of “superpredators,” Salters said.
It “shoots down the idea of what they say about you, because it is a lie. It is a lie that has carried on for decades. It is a lie that continues to cost us life, liberty and a whole lot more. So if we can get the young guys to murder the myth and understand how great you are, how good your hustle is, and get you a product that is worth selling, we’re going to be in the right.”
Click on the video below to watch the full discussion with Gaylord Salters on WNHH FM’s “Dateline New Haven.” Click here to subscribe or here to listen to other episodes of “Dateline New Haven.”
