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Earlier this year, Marie Marden’s nephew was walking with friends in Granada Hills when gang members in a passing car threatened them. The teen-agers fled, and while they were hiding, they heard two gunshots. No one was hurt. Later, police warned him against wearing clothes with colors associated with gangs. The next week, Marden’s co-worker, Alfonso Arteaga, 19, was shot to death at a Culver City gas station. Police say that his Raiders jacket might have made him a target for a rival gang. Marden, 38, mother of three, was devastated that clothing could mark someone for death. “I had watched gang activity go on for years. It was time to do something,” she says.

So Marden, a sales manager at an L.A. machine parts company, and Nathan Hugg, a clothing manufacturer, formed a Sherman Oaks company called Peace In Time, which produces embroidered emblems that state: “I’m a Sports Fan. Gangs Aren’t My Game.” Marden has sold 1,855 of the iron-on patches, which retail for $3 and $5 and display baseball, basketball, football or hockey symbols in L.A. team colors. Marden and Hugg plan to donate 5% of the profits to youth programs.

“I wanted a disclaimer to protect innocent young people,” she says.