New benefit T-shirt reminds us, via Springsteen quote, ‘Nobody wins unless everybody wins’

The Fulfill benefit T-shirt.

A new T-shirt being sold by Fulfill (formerly known as the FoodBank of Monmouth & Ocean Counties) uses a Springsteen quote, “Remember, in the end, nobody wins unless everybody wins.” Fulfill says that with each purchase, more than 50 meals will be made available to those in need.

The T-shirt, which comes in two styles (both featuring the phrase on the front and the Fulfill logo on the back) can be purchased at fulfillnj.org/springsteen-shirts.

A little history on the phrase: Springsteen said “Nobody wins unless everybody wins” and various variations on the phrase frequently on his 1984-85 Born in the USA Tour. He can be heard saying it at the beginning of his 1987 live video for the song “Born to Run” (watch below).

Introducing the Stephen Foster song “Hard Times” at an E Street Band show at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford on Sept. 30, 2009, Springsteen said that the idea of “nobody wins unless everybody wins” is “all we have.”

Here is all of what he said, according to the great BruceBase website:

“I used to do this thing back in the mid-‘80s … where before ‘Born to Run’ I would say that ‘Nobody wins ‘less everybody wins’ and, uh … for a long time I stopped saying that. I stopped saying it because … there was a point where I felt it was naïve and that’s not the way that the world goes around … but for the past 30 years, since the Reagan administration, the middle class, the working class people got so squeezed … that … really that idea is all we have, that we’re sitting on the precipice at this moment, we need affordable health care for each and every American … so nobody wins ‘less everybody wins.”

Here is the live “Born to Run” video: