West Virginia native masters the art of Mountaineer Pride

Travis and his wife, Michele

When it comes to unique and clever Mountaineer t-shirts, Travis Witt has you covered.

The West Virginia native started putting his creative designs on t-shirts last May after receiving encouragement from family and friends.

After ordering a heat press, high-end printer and vinyl cutter – and watching hours of DIY YouTube videos – Travis was in business.

He got into creating Mountaineer artwork after a knee injury forced him into early retirement from ironwork.

While recovering from an ACL surgery, he started playing around with Photoshop. He made different pictures for WVU and posted them in Facebook pages dedicated to Mountaineer sports.

“It started out as just simple pictures but quickly grew to making football schedule posters and WVU-themed cover photos that people started sharing and using as their own cover photos,” Travis said. “The more pictures I made, the better they got and people started suggesting that I needed to start designing and making t-shirts.”

All in the family

Travis inherited his artistic talents from his mother, who always painted larger-than-life Mountaineer and Dallas Cowboy football players on his wall when he was growing up.

“Every year she would paint over my wall and add my favorite player for that year,” said Travis, who grew up in Putnam County. “My favorite one and the one I remember the most was Major Harris.”

Travis’ mother also inspired him to draw and paint on his own. Not surprisingly, he loved to draw the flying WV and race cars.

“It’s hard to explain where I get my inspiration for my shirts and pictures. I’m not really sure if it’s a talent or just a knack, but I see pictures differently than most people,” Travis said. “I can look at a picture from a football game and I can visually see the things I want to add to the picture to make it really pop or stand out. I have a really good imagination when it comes to shirts or pictures and I love to bring those to life for other people to enjoy.”

His favorite t-shirt designs are the Mountaineer Head and WV native.

The Mountaineer Head started it all. After posting it on Facebook, people began prompting him to put it on a shirt. It’s also the design that made it on TV.

“I thought it would be really cool to see someone at a game on TV wearing my shirt but never thought it would happen,” Travis said. “Not only did it happen, but it happened the very first game when the camera panned over the crowd and my buddy Nick Bratcher was wearing one of my navy Mountaineer Head shirts.”

My personal favorite is “Sons of Holgorsen.” As an avid fan of Sons of Anarchy, I had to have one of these shirts when I saw it. The creativity of this design is top drawer.

Travis set up a W1tt Apparel Facebook page and sells his shirts for $20, plus $3 for shipping if you don’t live near Charleston. To order one, contact him on Facebook or at t.wittt2@gmail.com.