How It All Began

Marc Carey lives on a farm with his wife of 37 years. For over 30 years his passion as a lawyer has been helping people.

During this past Thanksgiving travel season he read dozens of reports of passengers complaining about the way they were being treated at TSA checkpoints. From children screaming when a stranger was touching them in a way their parents had always warned against, to women concerned that digital nude images of them or their daughters could end up on the Internet, and men uncomfortable with the humiliation of an “enhanced pat-down” his fellow countrymen were not happy travelers.

Some passengers had resorted to stripping down to their underwear in the airport in protest. Some had worn clothing emblazoned with protest slogans. Others were making such a disturbance that they were held in custody and missed their flights or worse, arrested.

He thought that there must be a better way to address the competing interests of insuring safe air travel with the interests of the traveling public to protect their rights, their privacy and their dignity.

His idea: Why not create discreet clothing intended to be worn as undergarments using a process which would create a “blurred” view of the passenger’s most private parts (the parts TSA says it doesn’t search anyway) as a reasonable compromise between the job being done by the TSA and the concerns of the traveling public?

Intended to be worn discreetly as undergarments he thought that his idea might help avoid the kind of disruption caused by the “strippers” and “protesters”, yet allow passengers to feel more comfortable using the “body scanners” and thereby as an additional benefit, avoid security check point delays for everyone by reducing the number of people “opting out” of the scanner in favor of the “enhanced pat down”.

But, he said, if he was going to put these garments on the market, he wanted to help create jobs, and help the American economy, so each item would have to be 100% American made.

Through his company The Conceived In Liberty Project, LLC, Marc then began his search. First he experimented with a variety of inks. After testing these inks on a Rapiscan machine his company was able to achieve the kind of “blur” he was looking for by using a special ink, applied using a company secret process.

But the really hard part was finding 100%, vertically integrated American Made garments of the high quality demanded by Marc and his company. So few manufacturers were left in the United States that plans to begin marketing before Christmas 2010 had to be delayed.

Just to test the public reaction to this novel approach to airline travelers concerns the company sent out a quiet little press release to some of the local media in the Northern Kentucky area the third week of December.

Only one story broke before Christmas, but surprisingly the orders started pouring in. And then, right after the New Year, it seemed the whole world took notice, and the public fell in love with Scannershirts.

At this writing it has only been four days since the media started paying attention. In the first 48 hours there were hundreds of news articles, dozens of radio and television interviews, Scannershirs became the topic of the day on talk radio programs and the company was featured in USA today, AOL travel news and featured in business journals everywhere. On the third day the website servers shut down due to the heavy load, but were back up and running in less than 30 minutes, testament to the popularity of the concept, and the dedication of Scannershirts to customer satisfaction.

News of the company’s dedication to using 100% American Made goods has attracted others who want to be a part of this project, from cotton mills hoping to increase business, increase jobs and boost the American economy, to catalog companies and retailers who want this product in their stores and on their shelves.

Customer comments have created a new search for an expanded product line and the future for many once again looks brighter.

On the fourth day with business booming, Marc announced that this being the 10th anniversary of the 9-11 attacks, with renewed hope, vigor and re-dedication to helping build the American economy, one individual idea at a time, that Scannershirts.com had contacted Tuesday’s Children, the non-profit organization dedicated to providing support for the children of 9/11 and others impacted by global terrorism and pledged 20% of the net profit from the sales on Scannershirts.com to their efforts.

It all began as just an idea, and now it is becoming a hopeful reality.

“I can’t thank all of you enough for you support, your kindness and your business” Marc has told so many people.

And as one observer said of Scannershirts.com things like this happen, only in America!

To contact Marc directly: marc@scannershirts.com.
The Conceived In Liberty Project, LLC is a Kentucky limited liability company and also the publisher of BluegrassBulletin.com