The women who make Backstory T-shirts don't exactly wear their hearts on their sleeves, but they have an unusual way of getting behind a cause -- by putting it behind them.

The four Morgantown friends screen-print and market T-shirts about people and things they believe in. An original design is on the front. The back story is printed on the back right shoulder blade.

Backstory is a start-up company and a design concept.

"I think the thing that really sets us apart from other T-shirt companies is that we do all the designing and printing ourselves," Erica Fitchett said. "Most of our shirts will be about people of our choosing, even though we do take commissioned jobs, too. We hope that our designs are interesting enough that, even if the subject is someone you've never heard of, you want the shirt and that, in turn, helps you learn about the subject."

The first shirt was made for local musician Sam Lamont, who was performing in a national blues competition in Memphis, Tenn. While the friends were there supporting Lamont and selling his shirts, they got the inspiration for their second set of shirts -- about teacher, journalist and civil rights activist Ida B. Wells.

A third series of shirts is about West Virginia. The shirts include the stories behind the state motto, Mother's Day and Bill Blizzard. The image on the front of the Montani Semper Liberi shirt is of Seneca Rocks. The shirt memorializing Mother's Day founder Anna Jarvis features a set of Russian nesting dolls. The front of Blizzard's shirt shows a map of the striking coal miners' march from Marmet to Blair Mountain where they exchanged gunfire with anti-union forces.

"Our company is based on the idea that we are all really impacted by the people in our lives and historical figures that have helped shape our world," Fitchett said. "Our plan is to tell these people's stories through our shirts, help raise awareness about issues we hold dear to our hearts and have fun making T-shirts. It's turned out to be quite a bit of work considering we all have other full-time jobs, but it has been really fun so far."

Fitchett has a degree from the West Virginia University School of Journalism graphic design program. She works as a graphic designer for a company in Westover. Bobbie Godbey is a WVU English and political science graduate who works for the university. Julie Johnson is a chemist at Mylan Pharmaceuticals. Meg Juckett is a WVU art education major who co-founded a private art school in Morgantown called Our Studio.

Godbey said she's the writer, Juckett and Fitchett are the artists and Johnson crunches the numbers. They all have a hand in printing the shirts.

"It started because we had friends who were having babies and we would make little Onesies," Fitchett said.

"We would iron on different random things personalized to the couple. We did the same things with T-shirts for other occasions. We sort of joked about how fun it would be to have our own T-shirt company. We started meeting regularly to talk about it and really became serious when Julie bought our first T-shirt press.

"A mission of ours is to try to educate people about things we feel are important," she said. Backstory is a "way to quietly stand on our soapbox and talk about the things that mean something to us. We wouldn't make a shirt about a person or idea we disagreed with. That said, we're all very open-minded about presenting all sides of the story. We haven't had anybody too controversial yet."

But they may soon make that leap.

They have been discussing a shirt that would be against mountaintop mining but they are moving cautiously because they understand the role coal mining plays in their state's economy and they want to respect their roots.

Someday they'd like to see sales of their T-shirts raise money for causes in addition to raising awareness.

"Awareness alone can help the cause," Fitchett said. "Not every shirt is going to be about a cause. Some people we do just because we like them."

The four are still researching their market and selling their shirts online at www.backstoryprints.com and at fairs and festivals.

Godbey said organizations and even bars are embracing the Backstory concept of telling people about the history of their event or establishment in a way more thorough than a typical T-shirt with a logo can.

Besides commission jobs for Dogfest, a memorial golf tournament and a comedian, the group may next launch a series about the supernatural.