When junior Connor Devine began selling T-shirts with the slogan “It’s Fine, I’m Fine” in the wake of the Irish’s disappointing loss to Michigan State, he said he expected his “really good friends and maybe some other people that [he] hung out with occasionally” to buy them. He said he was expecting to sell “maybe 40 shirts,” but has since received 326 orders for his design.
Devine said the inspiration for the shirt came when he and some friends were walking back from their dorm photo the day after the Michigan State game.
“I would say [it’s fine, I’m fine] all the time with my friends and it became a thing with my really close friends,” he said. “We were taking our dorm picture outside of Bond Hall and were walking back, and one of us was like ‘Oh, we should get this on shirts.’”
According to Devine, his only form of advertising was a Facebook event, which he created after deciding to open up shirt sales to the general public.
“There was a huge surge in general after making the Facebook event,” Devine said. “I think the first day after posting it, we were up to 120 shirts, which was three to four times what we had estimated. Then, it continued to trickle in, and we were closing it on Friday. By the time Friday rolled around, we had broken 200, and we were freaking out. And then, after this most recent game against Duke, someone posted on the Facebook event asking if we could open the order again, so I was like ‘Okay, sure. Why not?’
“We reopened the order and we’ve gotten an additional almost 100 orders at this point.”
Devine said he is excited and overwhelmed by the unexpected demand for his shirt design.
“It’s really exciting, but at the same time, I don’t know how I’m going to deal with 326 T-shirts,” he said. “I don’t know what I’m going to do about people who don’t show up to [pick up the] order. That’s really stressful, because I’m sure some people will not pick up and not pay.”
He said he hopes people show up to the Stanford game wearing his design. He and his his friends have thrown around the idea of getting the slogan trademarked, though he said that’s been “mainly joking at this point.”
Despite the slogan on the shirts, Devine said he believes Notre Dame football fans should not hide their emotions in light of the team’s 1-3 record this season.“We should definitely be honest with ourselves that the football team needs to improve,” he said. “In general, I think hiding one’s emotions isn’t a good strategy in life. We’ve talked about how, if this becomes a big thing, we probably intend on donating a certain amount of our profits to depression or counseling centers. Because while ‘It’s Fine, I’m Fine’ is funny in context, the idea that people should hide their emotions is obviously not a good long-term policy. It’s supposed to be more of a joke.”
