Webstore Launch

During the Summer of 2010 we set out to build our inventory in anticipation of our Webstore Launch. 

Downhill Mountain Bike Event - 2010

Stick It To 'Em hit the road in late May to set up a merchandise booth at the US Open of Downhill Mountain biking taking place in Vernon, NJ. It was a great event and had a blast selling our Mountain Biking Tees the the riders and fans.

Pre-Limited Edition Prints

Again, prior to moving forward with the Limited Edition line, I wanted to make sure I wasn't in over my head and would actually be able to produce 50 t-shirts with my homemade screen printing press. I had to move the press out of the walk-in closet and take over some other area in the house. I built a new work table and a rolling t-shirt cart with a screen storage/drying rack. Once my work station was set, I printed 50 "All-Star" Street Hockey tees for the upcoming tournament. The printing process went very well. However, I had not purchased a flash dryer to cure the ink on the shirts. I ended up using my clam shell heat press which actually did the trick. Luckily I was using water based ink. I don't think it would have worked on plastisol ink. A flash dryer purchase would definitely be a necessity in order to produce the Limited Edition line of tees.

First Print - "All-Star" Design

Fast forward through the process of turning a walk-in closet into a dark room, coating screens with emulsion, burning screens, washing out screens and presto a print ready screen. This first screen I made was for a street hockey tournament I was organizing and participating in. I figured it'd be best to test the design and quality of the print on my friends before moving forward with the real Limited Edition line. I was pleasantly surprised at how they came out. We called this the "All-Star" design. We're looking forward to doing full production runs of this design for all sports in the future.

 

Project - Limited Edition Tees

So I'm not the type of person that likes to wait around for say, a prototype t-shirt. I can create a photo realistic mock-up in photoshop but sometimes that's not good enough. Plus, I like to build things. After a night of research on homemade screen printing presses I was happy with the design I had sketched out. The next morning I hit Home Depot with my parts list in hand. This was my plan: Build a one color screen printing press so that I could experiment with new designs and create the Limited Edition line. The Limited Edition line of t-shirts would be non-production design with only 50 being printed by me personally. By the way, I had zero screen printing experience. At the end of the night, this is what I had built. A few days later my screens arrived and I put a coat of stain on the press. Ok, now I need to learn how to screen print.

Sticker Sighting

I took a trip to CA and was shocked at what I found at the Venice Beach Pier! Stick It To 'Em Stickers stuck on things! Oh yeah! West Coast! Ok, maybe I had a little something to do with it, unless it considered vandalism, then I have no idea how they got there.

Trade Show 2010

In April of 2010 Stick It To 'Em hit the road for it's first Trade Show. The 2010 Joint Meeting & Trade Show  was for all College and Prep School Store Personnel as well as companies that supply goods and services to campus bookstores. We were looking to duplicate our success at Bates College and get some solid feedback on our line.

Humble Beginnings

Stick It To 'Em Sports is a grass roots operation. After countless hours working on our logo and sport figure designs we needed to test the goods. Bates College in Maine was enthusiastic about our line and allowed us to set up a display in their bookstore. Students started buying our tees!