Life is good (the t-shirt)

WHEN the temperature here broke into the 90s at lunchtime on Saturday, it was too hot to smile.

Standing in the green grass of Boston Common, well out of reach of the shade of bordering elms, Travis Piotrowski, the director of information technology for Northwestern Mutual in Milwaukee, nevertheless wore a big grin, literally painted across his face.

It was not his own smile, mind you, but that of a cartoon stick figure named Jake, the mascot for the contagiously popular line of T-shirts with the motto — somewhat out of step with the times — “Life is good.”

“I think the happiest people alive are the ones who are happy with the simple things,” said Mr. Piotrowski, who, with his wife and their two daughters, were among the thousands in the park for a Life is good festival, one of about 17 such events around the country this summer for the growing legion of Jake fans.

The Piotrowskis discovered the brand while camping in Wisconsin several years ago and have since acquired at least 20 T-shirts, 4 coffee mugs, matching pajamas and a paddleball set that show Jake’s uncynical and ever-smiling face, which never seems to be discomforted by humidity, adversity or even that he looks more like a French mime — with his beret and white face — than a symbol of American optimism.

But Mr. Piotrowski and his family appreciate Jake’s perspective on life. “With this type of economy, people really need to take a step back and look at the big picture,” he said. “Be happy with an ice cream sundae or playing with your kids in the backyard.”

It is hard to say whether Jake is just a fad or, judging by the crowds here, a movement. As many as 30,000 people attended, according to Life is good Inc., which renders its brand name like a complete sentence.

Last year, the company sold 4.2 million of its $25 T-shirts and had sales of roughly $107 million, said Bert Jacobs, who along with his brother, John Jacobs, founded the business in Needham, Mass., in 1994 with only a handful of styles and a van.

They were trying to create “a symbol about what was right in the world,” he said; Jake would be a character “who was happy not because of anything he had or because he was materialistic.” Their most popular style has Jake and his pie-faced grin sitting in an Adirondack chair as if there was nothing more to life than kicking back.

“People relate to the concept because it’s simple,” Mr. Jacobs said, “and because too much of what is happening in the world is complex.”

Like the mass popularization of smiley face buttons in the early 1970s, which coincided with another oil and economic crisis, Life is good T-shirts have caught on among people who feel the products are spreading a positive message in a troubled world.