Uncle Reefa, Underground no more.
In the mid-1960’s during the onset of the T-Shirt Revolution in America, Fred Fillah began his t-shirt endeavors in the dining room of his apartment. First making shirts for friends, it was not long before he was designing, producing, and selling the shirts. He named his company, Corporation Tea shirt, a phrase Fred picked up from the ‘I am the Walrus’ song by the Beatles.
By the late 60’s most of Fred imagined how cool it would be to develop a line of t-shirts that he and his friends would enjoy, the designs would be a fun, and eclectic series that would reflect the lifestyle of the marijuana culture. He would begin marketing those shirts under the business moniker, Uncle Reefa’s local Produce. His crop would consist of a colorful array of t-shirts brilliantly emblazoned with Marijuana artwork that reflected his lifestyle. Since Fred’s illustrations skill were limited, he set his sights on hiring some of the ‘highest’ freelance art talent he could find. The result was a series of weed shirt graphics that he could be proud of. In doing so, Uncle Reefa was being elevated to the forefront among early originators of Marijuana shirts designs.
Fillah grew his endeavor in his basement. During the day he took orders for his newly minted Uncle Reefa shirts and made personal deliveries in his VW bus to boutiques and head shops in the Washington D.C. metro area; at night he produced more to replenish the retailers shrinking stock. Uncle Reefa designs were in high demand. Nevertheless, Reefa's T-shirt graphic images were taboo in schools and in other places where polite society gathered. It was an era when rock stars were denied visas into the U.S. for conviction of possession.
Legalized or not still the herb shirts sold like hotcakes," he remembers. “At first I was afraid that kids wouldn’t buy them because they didn’t want to advertise their use of an illegal substance” said Fillah, but everyone loved them.
Expanding out, Uncle Reefa with a growing crew of talented employees attended boutique tradeshows around the country and sold to stores around the world. Uncle Reefa was a hit everywhere! They were one of the originators of the marijuana t-shirt and their work was so appreciated the marijuana generation consumed it like secondhand smoke.
In some areas Uncle Reefa T’s became a cult classic, recently a vintage Uncle Reefa shirt from the early 70’s was listed online for more than two ounces of mighty fine weed.
In the ensuing years, Fred drifted away from his Uncle Reefa roots and entered the world of Rock and Roll tour t-shirts.
A choir of voices were telling Fred that he needed to make those Uncle Reefa tees that he had created decades before. Most recently, Fred’s encouragement came from friends and family, his daughter Carol finally told him, “Dad all of my friends want you to start making the Uncle Reefa t- shirts." Apparently, her friends were seeing vintage shirts on the internet, and everyone wanted one. The Reefer days were still alive and doing very well! The only thing that was missing was a reboot on Uncle Reefa t-shirts. While enduring covid Fred reached out and assembled a diverse group of the industries' top names in graphic design; through their talent and mind-blowing creativity together they created what Fred likes to call 'Uncle Reefa 2.0.'
With both humility and appreciation Fred Introduces his latest series of Uncle Reefa T-shirts, available to retailers at wholesale pricing and to individuals online; www.UncleReefa.com
