It seems impossible, but there are still a few people in Oakland who don’t own T-shirts depicting the Port of Oakland shipping cranes.

But maybe not for much longer.

“I ran the numbers. There’s 406,000 people in Oakland and I’ve only sold 5,000 crane T-shirts, so we’re good for a long time,” said Fernando “Rush” Santos, an artist who recently opened a shop in the Laurel District called Beast Oakland that sells crane T-shirts, crane postcards, crane purses and other items. “That’s the thing with Oaklanders. We have a lot of pride, and we want to represent. Everywhere we go.”

Santos is one of at least a dozen artists and designers who, in the past few years, have started hawking T-shirts and other items featuring the towering, iconic cranes used by the Port of Oakland to move containers on and off ships. For decades the cranes were just part of the industrial background of the waterfront; now they’re an artistic symbol of Oakland’s revival.

They’re on dish towels, coffee mugs, earrings, murals, garbage cans and oil paintings. Sometimes they’re silhouetted against a pink sunset. Other times they have teeth.

“Some cities have Space Needles, or Chrysler Buildings. We have cranes,” said Loretta Nguyen, owner of LuckyLo, a shop at Jack London Square that sells Oakland-themed items created by more than 100 local artists. “They’re urban, they’re gritty, they’re industrial. People just like them — they say something unique about Oakland.”

Giant inspiration

The 244-foot-tall cranes first arose on the East Bay shoreline in the 1960s as containers became the preferred way to ship goods around the world. Now 40 of the dinosaur-like behemoths adorn the waterfront, as much a part of the bay’s modern landscape as Treasure Island and the Golden Gate Bridge. Some say they were the inspiration for the giant AT-AT walkers in the “Star Wars” movies. Santos said they’re like giant monsters that welcome travelers from San Francisco, or guard Oakland from invaders.

Port of Oakland officials said they’re tickled, and a little surprised, by the cranes’ popularity.

“I think there’s a great sense of pride in Oakland,” said Port spokeswoman Marilyn Sandifur. “Oakland is an international gateway and the Port is an economic driver of the region. Maybe the cranes are a symbol of that? ... We’re glad people think they’re cool.”

Plenty to draw on

Oakland-themed T-shirts don’t stop at cranes. Wide, leafy oak trees, Fairyland keys, the old Bay Bridge, BART cars and Lake Merritt’s “necklace of lights” are among the other images popular on local apparel — all commonplace sights around the city, and not obvious tourist icons.

Much of the credit for the T-shirt craze goes to Oaklandish, an arts project started in 2006 to support the city’s growing cultural scene. Its T-shirts of an oak tree mirrored by an identical root system have been so popular they’ve spawned two Oaklandish retail stores, dozens of imitators and local-pride T-shirt lines for Detroit, Baltimore, Philadelphia, San Jose and other cities not generally on the tourist circuit.

Chinwe Okono, Oaklandish community liaison, said the group has sold “tens of thousands” of Oakland-themed ware, and the demand appears to be endless.

“One of our best-selling designs of all times is 'Oakland Bridge,’ which depicts the old eastern span of the Bay Bridge. Having this depiction on a shirt, especially once the old skeleton is completely dismantled, is something that’s truly invaluable,” she said. “It stirs feelings of nostalgia and home that are deeper than those sparked by the run-of-the-mill tee.”

Mayor-elect Libby Schaaf spent much of her campaign sporting oak-tree earrings made by Auntietam Designs, an Oakland art studio. The artist, Phil Yip, said he’s sold nearly 1,000 of them.

'So much more to the city’

“When I moved to Oakland seven years ago all I knew about it was crime,” he said. “But there’s so much more to the city that that. I’m proud to live in Oakland and I think other people feel the same way, and we want to express that.”

At LuckyLo last week, David Lee of Walnut Creek was shopping for a crane T-shirt.

“I like 'Star Wars.’ It’s kind of cool the cranes were an inspiration,” said Lee, who works at a scooter company and grew up in Antioch. “You’re not going to find T-shirts like this anywhere else. They’re just more creative. Different.”

Carolyn Jones is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: carolynjones@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @carolynajones