CLINTON — For some, there was a sense of helplessness following the car crash that killed three young men on South Whidbey Nov. 12.

For their friend Zach Broyles, the reaction was almost immediate. He needed to do something in their honor.

His first creation was a collage with a photo of Robert Knight, Marcel “Mick” Poynter and Charles “Mack” Porter III. He used it as his profile picture on Facebook as a personal tribute to the well-known South Whidbey men, all of whom graduated from South Whidbey High School.

“Facebook was just exploding with what was going on there,” Broyles, 23, said.

That photo collage, which includes the words, “Much love!” spread on the online social networking site.

It quickly spread online and was the featured photo used at a candlelight vigil Nov. 12.

He also designed a T-shirt in their honor on the same day. On the front of the white crew T-shirt is Broyles’s clothing company logo — SYK, which stands for “Show Your Kolors” — with the “Y” altered from his standard logo. The fork of the letter includes the curved olive branch that Poynter used as his company’s emblem for Western Empire Clothing, and was based on a collaborative design Broyles and Poynter created in October.

“(Poynter) looked at it for two seconds and he knew,” Broyles said. “He said ‘That’s the one. That’s the one we need to do.’”

On the back of the shirt are memorials for each of the deceased. Near the neck, Porter’s last name runs across the shoulders. Knight’s high school football jersey number, 30, is in the middle, followed by each of their names near the bottom and the date of the crash, “11.11.2011.”

The final print on the back of the shirt is “RIDE RESPONSIBLY.” The phrase was based on the common saying to “drive responsibly.” Broyles said he wanted to draw attention to also riding home safely following the events that led to the deaths of his three friends.

“I think people are going to like it,” Broyles said.

When he first posted the image of the shirts to his company’s Facebook page, he quickly received 20 orders. A few hours later his order grew to 100. Broyles received so many messages from his email account that linked to his cell phone that the battery gave out.

“It’s become a bit overwhelming and a bit stressful, but very worth it, even to the point where it didn’t feel like enough,” Broyles said.

At $15 per shirt, money raised from the shirts will be divided three ways to the victims’ families.

“I just feel that these families are in grief and mourning, and finances should be the absolute last thing on their mind,” Broyles said.

This wasn’t the way Broyles envisioned his company getting its start.

“In the beginning, you dream of people knowing the name of SYK,” Broyles said. “This has put SYK on the map, unfortunately this is not the way that I wanted it to, or intended.”

Broyles, a 2007 graduate of Bayview School, founded the company in October. He has taken orders from Oregon, California, Nevada and across Washington, which he sees as an example of the reach and extent of the friendships that Knight, Porter and Poynter had.

“I only had like 80 fans on there (his company’s Facebook page),” Broyles continued, “so I figured maybe 20 to 25 people would have placed an order or wanted one. Now that it’s growing upwards of 100 shirts, it’s really a testament to social networking as a way to spread the word, and in this case show support.”

Generosity has abounded during this process. Broyles is able to donate the proceeds from selling the shirts because the screen printing company he uses, Sapphire Embroidery, is donating the shirts.

“They’ve been amazing,” Broyles said.

Sapphire is in the process of printing shirts for the Seattle Marathon and prioritized the tribute tees behind the marathon. As part of the process, however, the time frame to make the shirts is tight and Broyles has a pre-order deadline by Sunday, Nov. 27. He expects the shirts to be available by either Dec. 3 or Dec. 10; they can be ordered by emailing sykclothing@hotmail.com or visiting www.facebook.com/sykclothing.

In addition to the shirts, Sharon and Bruce Knight have experienced a swaddling of community support, with their every need taken care of, from lodging for family members who came to Whidbey Island for the memorial, to the flowers for their son’s funeral.

“This village is something else,” Bruce Knight said.