Found only in Detroit, Le Marche du Nain Rouge is one of our favorite annual traditions. To celebrate this fun local event, every year we partner with a Detroit or Michigan-based artist to design a new Nain Rouge t-shirt for us to wear to the festivities as we banish the Nain from Detroit for another year.
2024 marks the 15th anniversary of both City Bird and the Marche du Nain Rouge, and to celebrate, we've rounded up our t-shirt designs over these past 15 years. Though "Covid NAIN-teen" disrupted the annual parade in 2020 and 2021, we are thrilled to be back to our tradition of ridding the Nain in style with another great t-shirt design from local artist Sammy Pfaff.
We hope to see you at the festivities this year - we're sponsoring the event, and we'll have a booth selling t-shirts, as well as free beads with every purchase at our storefront! If you can't join the celebration in person, some older designs in addition to our newest can still be found online - click the links to shop!
We hope to see you there!
2012 & 2013 - Mike Burdick
Our first-ever Nain Rouge shirt was designed by Mike Burdick, and in 2013 we re-issued the shirt in a black and bright red colorway.
2014 - Matt Dye
One of our most popular Nain Rouge designs throughout the years, this shirt by Matt Dye has become a City Bird favorite and can be purchased online here.
2015 - Kelly Golden
Detroit sign painter Kelly Golden designed our shirt for the 2015 Marche du Nain Rouge, featuring her signature bold lettering.
2016 - Don Kilpatrick
Our 2016 design by Don Kilpatrick embodied a classic French look, a nod to the Nain's origins.
2017 - Courtney Jentzen
Courtney Jentzen of Swiss Cottage Designs designed our shirt in 2017, perfectly capturing the Nain's signature mischievous grin.
2018 & 2019 - Lucy Cahill
Lucy Cahill designed two Nain shirts for us, first in 2018 and again in 2019. Her signature bold colorways and detailed illustrations gave us two very distinct and playful interpretations of the Nain, and the 2018 (full face) version can be found online here.
2020 (parade cancelled), 2021 (no parade), & 2022 - Gabby Buckay
Le Marche du Nain Rouge was unfortunately cancelled in 2020 due to Covid-19 and called off in 2021, but local artist Gabby Buckay delivered a shirt that was equal parts spooky and silly, just like the Nain himself, nonetheless. We reissued the shirt in black for the return of the Marche in 2022, and that version can be found online here.
2023 - Pat Tausney
Local artist Pat Tausney memorialized Detroit's ultimate bad boy, the Nain, in his 2023 design by paying homage to the all-star Detroit Pistons of the late 1980s and early 1990s. This design can be found online here.
2024 - Sammy Pfaff
Finally, our 2024 design created by artist Sammy Pfaff is a modernist, abstract approach to Detroit's favorite demon, and is one of our favorites yet. Find it online here!