Creativity suits her to a T

CEO Jana Eggers frequently wears the merchandise available online at Spreadshirt. (Essdras m suarez/globe staff)

Jana Eggers is, quite literally, a walking billboard. The CEO of Spreadshirt, an online T-shirt design company with offices near South Station, not only practices, but wears, what she preaches everyday.

"I've found wearing my company's creative T-shirts is a great way to get the word out about us," said Eggers, 39, of Londonderry, N.H. "People come up and ask questions about them all the time."

Some of her favorite T-shirts bear curiosity-inspiring slogans like "See what's become of me," a line from Paul Simon's song "Hazy Shade of Winter." Another shirt reads "I know something you don't know."

When Eggers recently competed in an Iron Man triathlon, she wore a T-shirt that said "The shortest distance between two points is not a triathlon."

"I got a lot of comments on that one," she said. The shirt not only brought humor into a high-stress situation, but it was a business generator as well. She could tell others where they could create and even sell their own designs.

Eggers's company, Spreadshirt, is more than just T-shirts, however. It's an online marketplace where people can buy and create all kinds of custom apparel - hoodies, sweatshirts, hats, messenger bags, and yes, tees. On those items, visitors can unveil, say, their yen for doughnuts or their existential malaise or their favorite pirate joke. They can also choose from a library of images - the possibilities are endless.

Those with an entrepreneurial spirit can design and sell custom merchandise through their own Spreadshirt online shop, for free.

"All you have to do is bring your designs and creativity," Eggers said.

Eggers, who began her career as a computational chemistry specialist at Los Alamos laboratories, is an unlikely T-shirt evangelist. Right before she took the helm of Spreadshirt in 2006, she said she had an experience that helped her understand the modern spirit of the T-shirt and how her company captured it.

"I was flipping through one of the company's catalogues when a slogan caught my eye," she said. "It read 'All wisdom comes from T-shirts.' I thought it was such a fun sentiment and a true one. Everyone has a story about a favorite T-shirt they remember."

Of course, Eggers thought the slogan would look great on a T-shirt, so she went online and created one.

"It's a form of personal branding. You're showing the world who you are," she said.

KATE M. JACKSON