FOOTSCRAY residents can now wear their hearts on their sleeves, with a business selling “I Love Footscray” T-shirts.

Dancing Dog Café manager Ben Coyle said he was inspired by the number of “I love…” T-shirts already on the market.

“Everything in business is about profit, but this is more of a good vibe thing.” He said.

“It’s part of what we do; we’re always promoting things in the area, and people have a lot of pride in where they live.”

Mr Coyle said the T-shirts had generated positive feedback, with only a few people laughing them off.

“I think some people will always feel that way about Footscray. It’s been hard-done-by by bad media, which isn’t always a good representation of what Footscray is about.

“We’ve got something like 86 different cultures here and so many artists, but the media seem to focus on things like drugs, which are a problem all over the world.”

The café has sold two batches of the T-shirts since they went on sale earlier this year.

“I’ve seen (Marybyrnong) Mayor Janet Rice wearing one and people have told me they’ve seen people in crowds on the television wearing them,” Mr Coyle said.