If you walk down Delaware Avenue in Albany, it's hard to miss the store with the neon shirts. Each item in the windows of imprintUNIVERSE says the same thing: Black Lives Matter.

Owner Musa Zwana was raised by educators and went to Syracuse University for computer design. He began selling the Black Lives Matter shirts after the death of Trayvon Martin.


What You Need To Know


  • imprintUNIVERSE sells everything from shirts to masks printed with Black Lives Matter

  • They've been selling BLM merchandise for years, but the owner says people are more receptive now

  • $5 of each t-shirt sale goes to local organizations

"First off, I'm black. So black lives have always mattered to me," said Zwana.

He remembers a time when the shirt was especially divisive.

"When you wore this shirt, some people thought it was an attack on them,” Zwana said. “I could walk into a store, and you could feel the ice cold."

He says that's changed in recent weeks. Now, people stop to look inside the store's windows and compliment his shirt.

"With that increased awareness, with that increased support, it's giving us the ability to donate money to other people," said Zwana.

Five dollars of each t-shirt sale goes to local groups such as Out Art Class, which teaches culture and connects families to art.

"No matter what, there are always people on the ground doing the work that needs to be done," said Zwana, "and in my line of business, I get to see them all the time."

He says as a minority business owner, many of these organizations have supported him in the past by coming to him to print shirts or pamphlets, and this is his way of giving back to them.

Above all, he hopes people will take the time to think about the meaning behind Black Lives Matter.

"It was a perfect storm that kind of created this whole thing but hopefully as a county, as people, we come out on the other side better,” Zwana said. “I really hope we come out on the other side better."

You can order a t-shirt by visiting blackstarline.net.