Oregon State University freshman Teddy Badege wanted to combine two of his passions and create something for people like him, who support both the OSU Beavers and Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama.
So the 19-year-old printed up 300 T-shirts, which look nearly identical to official OSU merchandise. Only instead of O-State in orange lettering, the name O-bama stands out against the black background.
Badege starting selling shirts for $15 each about two weeks ago. He’s nearly out of them. He sold nearly 40 on election day Tuesday. But he’s more thrilled with Obama’s win in the Oregon primary election.
“I think he’s the right candidate (who) will lead this nation in a new path. And I really think the nation needs his guidance to come out of a lot of the recessions, for lack of a better term,” said the Corvallis High School graduate.
“He definitely does represent the young generation, specifically college students and all walks of life.”
The Illinois senator also is a great inspiration, who exemplifies what a black man can accomplish, said Badege. He was born in Ethiopia, but has lived in Corvallis for 16 years. He attended Obama campaign events in Albany and in Portland on May 18, when an estimated 75,000 people showed up at Waterfront Park.
Badege, who interns for the Obama campaign, also is the equipment manager for the OSU football team.
The latter job helped him get in touch with the company that does OSU’s official gear.
He’ll have to do a new printing of 100 black shirts, and is considering adding white and orange T-shirts.
Badege figures that sales will step up as fall approaches, since he’s confident that Obama will be the Democratic nominee by then. And then, there’s the OSU football season as well.
Although he is making some money from the shirts, Badege is donating some of that money to Obama’s campaign. He also gave a few shirts to Obama’s brother-in-law, new OSU basketball coach Craig Robinson, in the hope those might be passed on — and maybe a certain Democratic candidate might end up wearing one.
Badege also hopes to head to the Democratic National Convention in August as an Oregon delegate.
By KYLE ODEGARD, Gazette-Times reporter
Kyle Odegard covers Oregon State University. He can be contacted at [email protected] or 758-9523.
To order T-shirts, contact Badege at 760-3790 or [email protected].