Below is an excerpt written by Joe Koech, friend of the blog, recent grad, and DC entrepreneur.  You can check out his hand painted shirts online at localhigh.com or find him around town.  

You’ve just arrived home after being away for a long time. You get off the plane or start driving through your hometown and you begin to recognize the things around you.

The weather, the buildings, the people — they are all familiar in some way. You get excited about whom you are going to see and what you are going to do; you become nostalgic thinking about the memories you’ve already made in that place, and feel not just a geographical connection, but a visceral and emotional one as well.

That feeling is precious to me. It’s the reason why I decided to start a company dedicated to capturing that feeling, something I call a Local High.

Local High is the umbrella for what will be countless clothing lines specific to each city. We’re starting in Washington D.C. That’s where DChillin’ comes in. It is a simple combination of two things our company strongly believes in: D.C. and chillin’. We wanted to create a design that is clever, incorporates a local saying, forces people to look twice and most importantly allows wearers to make a statement about the city we live in.

In many ways the design is meant to be a unifying brand for D.C.

Walk a few blocks anywhere in the District and you’ll find countless stores and vendors that sell tacky souvenir clothing. It’s not cool; It’s not stylish. It’s sad that I have never been tempted to buy any type of Washington-specific clothing. We want to create clothing that marries the style of modern street fashion, with the local appeal that’s become so popular today. We want to create clothes that people who live or were born in the city would want to wear.

Interested?  Submit a custom order online.

Joe Koech is the founder and CEO of Local High.  See the original article here.