Brothers show their pride in MPLS

There I was at Dunn Brothers, minding my own business when my barista asked me, “What’s mipples?” I stood there flabbergasted for a few seconds before I realized I had my hot new “I heart MPLS” t-shirt on, courtesy of the Lipkin boys, the Midas-touch entrepreneurs at Adentheos. Joe Barista just laughed at my confusion and then went on to say, “Love that shirt – I’ve got it in white.” It seems to be a growing trend, not only people loving MPLS, but the catchy ways to express love for the city they call home.

The Lipkin brothers, Aron and Daniel, are like Tasmanian devils of activity. Originally from the Linden Hills area, the ECCO residents have their fingers in everything including coaching athletes, founding and supporting a host of non-profits, hammering out the kinks for a bike taxi business and keeping friends, family and strangers in star-worthy clothes. For starters, Adentheos is the latest brainchild of the Lipkins. According to Aron, the name comes from “The first initial of our names paired with “en theos,” which translates to “the god within” and comes from the Greek word for enthusiasm.” That’s some pretty uplifting stuff from two dudes who make t-shirts, right? The thing of it is these two 23 year olds have a lot more on their plate than helping people express their love for Minneapolis.

In addition to designing clothing, the Lipkin boys focused their passion for lacrosse and founded Homegrown Lacrosse, a non-profit organization whose mission is “to encourage positive change in lacrosse players’ and supporters’ lives by developing community-based programs which allow opportunities for all involved to understand and implement the values of teamwork, commitment, determination, self-respect, responsibility, selflessness and humility.” The organization offers affordable camps to both young children and high school age boys and girls. New this year to Homegrown is a high school leadership development program, a service that offers 20 high school juniors and seniors the opportunity to develop their leadership and coaching skills by working with the Homegrown staff at the youth camp in July, something Aron is very excited about. Camps run through the summer, giving the guys very little breathing room considering they are also the head coaches of the Minneapolis High School Co-op Lacrosse team.

Adentheos was founded in November of 2006, but the Minneapolis t-shirts have been selling since 2004. Well, selling to friends, family and on random street corners that is. Now, they are not only available online, but at Lava Lounge, 5th Element and Cal Surf in Uptown and numerous places in the Dinkytown area as well including Urban Envy and Mind State.

In addition to the Minneapolis shirts, the duo, along with the help of designer Noah Hall, also sell “sixonetwo” t-shirts, sweatshirts and stickers and a variety of designs available to lacrosse champs in training. Although the idea for “rep 612” didn’t come from that notoriously annoying Ludacris song, it did come from some West Coast pride; showing love for your area code is nothing new to Californians. Aron and David take it one creative step further, offering the designs in English, Spanish, Norwegian and Swedish. Imagine the looks you’ll get wearing your “Sex En Tva” shirt during dinner at Grandma’s.

Proceeds from the stickers benefit Africa Jam, a youth outreach organization located in Cape Town, South Africa. “I learned of Africa Jam during my semester at sea, and wanted to help,” Aron said. Relying on the recommendation of a former pastor, Aron found lodging while in Cape Town at the home of a former Edina resident, Ellen Ruiters. Ruiters founded Africa Jam, an organization of local students and young people who have experienced poverty and want to do something about it through summer camps, school presentations and music outreach programs. Even a half a world away, the mission of Africa Jam matches closely to the brothers’ interests.

Think you’ve seen sixonetwo clothing or a copycat lurking around the area? That’s what happens in a world where geographical locations can’t be copyrighted or trademarked in any form, but if you are confused, just visit www.rep612.com for the authentic apparel and show your Uptown and Mipples/Mpls/Minneapolis pride.

Jacqueline Varriano is an ECCO resident hoping one of you nice readers will send her a sixonetwo t-shirt. Preferably green.