✦ Our Story ✦

Made by humans.
Powered by heart.
Built in Chicago. 🤖💜

We're a tiny shop with a big, beating, slightly-glitchy cyborg heart — printing shirts and stickers for the proud, the anxious, the nerdy, and the gloriously human.

🌆 Where it all started

Chicago Cyborg Merch Shop was born in the Windy City — somewhere between a deep-dish craving and a 2 a.m. idea that wouldn't let go. We grew up here: the lake-effect winters, the brave little neighborhoods, the way this city looks you dead in the eye and says "you belong." We wanted to bottle that feeling, slap it on a premium tee, and send it out into the world.

So that's what we do. Every design starts as a doodle, a joke, a feeling we couldn't shake — usually something equal parts funny and tender. Then we obsess over it until it's something you'd actually be proud to wear out the door.

🚀 Our mission

We believe clothing can do more than cover you up — it can say the thing you've been too shy to say out loud. "I'm proud." "I'm struggling, and I'm still here." "I'm a giant nerd and I'm thriving." Our whole reason for existing is to turn those quiet truths into something you can wear like armor — soft, comfy, ridiculously good-looking armor.

🧠 Mental health is the whole point

Let's be real: being a person is hard. Anxiety is a lying hoe. Your brain tells you stories that aren't true. We know, because we've been there — and a lot of our designs come straight out of those 3 a.m. feelings. We make the jokes because laughing about it is sometimes the first step to surviving it.

When you wear something from us that says "don't believe everything you think," you're carrying a tiny reminder on your chest — and so is the stranger across the coffee shop wearing the same one. That's a little invisible support group walking around the planet. We're really proud of that. If today is heavy: you matter, you're not behind, and you're allowed to take up space. 💜

🌈 Everyone's welcome under this sky

Gay, straight, trans, bi, ace, questioning, somewhere-in-between, still-figuring-it-out — you are welcome here, exactly as you are. We're loud and proud about the LGBTQ+ community because love is not a trend to us, it's the entire vibe. But it doesn't stop there. Whoever you are, whoever you love, whatever your brain is up to today — there is a place for you in this little corner of the universe.

No fine print on that. No exceptions. Acceptance isn't a marketing angle for us; it's the floor we built the whole house on.

📦 Rooted in Chicago. Reaching the whole world.

We're proudly Chicago to the core, and we proudly ship coast to coast across the United States — from the Loop to L.A., from Miami to Seattle. But the internet is a beautiful thing, and good people live everywhere. So if you're reading this from London, Lagos, Manila, or a tiny town nobody's heard of: yes, we'd love to send you something too. 🌍

Same care, same quality, same heart — whether you're three blocks away or halfway around the planet. Distance doesn't change the mission. Humanity doesn't have a zip code.

Our little promises to you 🤝