Who you are. How you feel. Express yourself in a Jih Tee.
That’s always been the idea. It just took a few chapters to get there.
It started with family
My father’s name is Jiausen Jih. He studied Mechanical Engineering at National Taiwan University, came to the United States, and earned his PhD in Engineering at George Washington University — while working full-time at Comsat and raising three daughters. He then worked for the Department of the Navy for years before retiring and doing what he had always wanted to do: write. He has authored several memoirs of his life. His first book, “An Ordinary Person’s Memoir,” made it onto the shelf of the Library of Congress. My mom, Pauline Jih, is a nurse turned real estate agent and actively worked until well into her 80s, while my dad wrote his books.
My father’s other hobby is Chinese calligraphy. I began asking him to write words for me in Chinese that I wanted on clothing. He would write, I would digitize it — which is an embroidery term for turning artwork into stitches — and then embroider it onto t-shirts and sweatshirts. The first characters were the ones that mattered most to me at the time: mom, dad, love, big sister, little sister, big brother, little brother. Simple. Universal. The kind of words you want close to your heart.
When I became a mom myself, the character “mom” stopped being just a product. It was personal. That’s when I knew this line was really about my life — and that it would keep growing as my life did.
Then came triathlon
In 2007, I fell in love with triathlon, specifically the ironman distance (1.2 mile swim, 112 mile bike, 26.2 mile run). I needed a shirt that said who I was and what I loved so much.
I asked my father to write “swim bike run” in Chinese calligraphy. He did. I put it on a shirt. And that was that. Three words that exist everywhere in triathlon culture, rendered in authentic Chinese brushwork by my father. It’s unique to Jih Tees. It always will be.
Swim and run followed. The athletic line grew the same way the family line did — organically, following my life as I lived it. Friends ask for hike, yoga, even swim bike run puke, which actually made it onto the racks of Sports Basement. LOL!
I have completed 16 Ironman triathlons, including the Ironman World Championships in Kona, Hawaii. I am a triathlon coach who has guided four athletes to Kona — one of them my own daughter. My clients are swimmers, triathletes, runners, and fitness lovers. They wear these shirts because they mean something. Because “swim bike run” in my father’s brushwork isn’t just a description of what you do. It’s a declaration of who you are.
My daughter, Ava, graduated from Stanford in 2023 with a degree in Electrical Engineering and in 2024, with a masters in Computer Science. Naturally, she followed me into triathlon, and at age 23 won her age group at Ironman California — earning her spot at the Kona World Championships, where she raced in 2025. Ava works as an engineer at Nvidia. My daughter, Ana, graduated from UCLA in 2025. She was a collegiate swimmer and we did our first 50K trail race together (not counting 2 x Burning Man 50K) in Marin in Feb. 2026. Ana will try a tri too, I am sure!
And then the family started talking
The story isn’t finished
If you have a character or a phrase that belongs in the Jih Tees line, tell me. This collection has always followed real life — mine, my family’s, and now yours.