NYC Sanitation Department $48 selling anti-rat T-shirt

Behold the Big Apple’s pest new fashion statement!

The city’s Sanitation Department is selling an anti-rat T-shirt with a haute-style $48 price tag that’s sure to send average New Yorkers scurrying.

The 100% cotton top features a cartoonish image of a scared rodent with red prohibition symbol through it alongside the slogan, “The rats don’t run this city. We do.”

The tough-on-vermin phrase was made famous in an October speech by Sanitation Commissioner Jessica Tisch, who announced the city would leave trash bags on curbs for shorter amounts of time to give rodents less time to snack on them.

The pest-busting line went viral on TikTok and became a tongue-in-cheek mantra for no longer putting up with crap in life.

“The rats are absolutely going to hate this t-shirt, just as much as they hate the steps we’re taking to shut down their all-night, all-you-can-eat buffet,” Tisch said in a statement Wednesday.


Anti-rat T-shirt.
The city rolled out a new $48 anti-rat T-shirt.
Only NY x DSNY

Priced like its fresh off the runway, the simple white T-shirt was designed by Sebastian Mejias, a Sanitation Department worker who serves Brooklyn’s Community Board 5, including East New York.

The rat-centric retail was made in the Big Apple by the city’s official merchandise licensing vendor, NYC&Co, under a pre-existing contract, a sanitation spokesman said. Proceeds from the top go back to New York City.

The squeak-inducing price tag is in line with all other municipal-inspired Only NY shirts, the spokesman said.

The shirt can be purchased online at onlyny.com.