[MonsterFace]

Who helped you get motivated who made you think Wow I wanna be A t-shirt designer, producer, printer etc.

Mine Honestly Was johnny cupcakes...I think hes amazing...Ive actually had full blown conversations with him on myspace...hes a very down to earth guy and he helped me Realize thats what I want to do..also the fact That Ive held a crayon and paper since I was like 1 year old..My mom told me I started drawing stick figures when I was 3!
When you have done something you whole Life and you know your good at it it seems kinda obvious of what you wanna do right?
And Plus I would love seeing a random person wearing my shirt so i can walk up to them and ask them "What brand is that shirt"?

 

[COEDS]

I guess my parents were my motivation. My Dad and Mom ran a partime construction company and my Dad worked full time as a meat cutter. The place he worked closed and he had several job offers to go to other packing houses, but he declined them. I was only about 5 at the time and my Dad didn't drive. My mom drove the small truck and he hired temps to drive the larger one when need. We would get up early and go to the job site( I took toys to play with). My parents taught me hard work was needed to survive and family was most important. My parent's business grew and the manual labor for my Dad slowed. As my brother's got older they went to work in the business. My Dad retired and the company was old when I was around 12. My dad told me I was not doing this work and I was going to college. I went and then atarted my career as a Teacher and now work as a youth counselor, but this business always appealed to me. I got up ine day and said let's give it a go. Well 13 + yrs has passed and hard work is still the key to success. .... JB

 

[Rico Menor]

My family was my inspiration... I held onto the idea for two years before I set my mind on doing it. I was at my sisters house one night talking with her and she asked what ever came of my idea and I told her that I never did anyhting with it. We talked about some ideas and came up with some good ideas and talked to my mom and dad and they liked it as well, so it was then that I decided to run with it and see what happens. Since then I have been very happy that I went to my sisters house that night and got things going.

 

[treadhead]

I've always wanted to own my own business...for like the past 15 years!! LOL

My wife and I had another (totally unrelated) biz before this one. It was in the automotive quality control support field and things were getting a bit dicey a few years back with supplies going bankrupt so we decided to pull out and avoid the fallout (we were a very small player in the biz).

We were looking to do something else that also didn't require a bunch of travel. We we traveling 2.5 hours per day...every day to the plant locations and had to be onsite most of the time by 7 am.

So we got into something totally unrelated to anything we've ever done...LOL. Why make it easy..right?

Anyway, we started out becoming a Kerusso dealer in our local mall and just grew from there over the past couple years. We added additional lines of t-shirts and then started getting into custom designs after we found this forum. We still carry Kerusso and other brands of t-shirts in our store but also do screenprint, DTG, vinyl, heat transfers, and dye sublimation..etc...etc. We are now expaning into small signs / banners and doing customization using vinyl on tiles, water bottles, boards, glassware, etc.

 

[Gunslinger]

LOL, inspiration had nothing to do with our venture into this world. Fueled by anger and frustration, as we tried to buy a retiring screen print biz (of 17 years here ... the only gig in town) that thought the idea of printing Direct-to-Garment was absurd. We got our first order of 200 black tees for a local rock station, before our machine arrived!

 

[prometheus]

Going hungry is what inspires me.

 

[Girlzndollz]

Happiness of "the wearers" is what inspires me.

 

[Gunslinger]

Scratch that ... making sure Robert isn't hungry, and Kelly is happy wearing my prints ... that's my new inspiration!

 

[stix]

My inspiration came from those that doubted I couldnt do it.. That people wouldn't buy my shirts, support my ideas and agree with my methods. Also came from digging deep inside to see if I really had what it took to make my dreams a reality. To look at my son and daughter wanting them to have the fortitude to charge on..

 

[docile27]

Great question What inspired me to design t-shirts (I do virtual clothing design too) was the lack of "positive messages" in this industry.

Furthermore the death of my father when I was a pre-teen and life challenges I've faced as well as people around me.

What we are all worth is far beyond the surface or exterior as some may say. Inspiration comes everyday when you're a designer in any industry.

You also have to have the "passion" to succeed. Overtime money won't even matter once you see your "product" reaching millions of consumers.

 

[tdeals]

I was inspired after reading about the Threadless company in a 2006 issue of Entrepreneur Mag. I am also from Chicago and given that's where the headquarters are, I plan to make a visit on my next trip home.

Then, I learned about Life Is Good and Johnny Cupcakes after becoming a member of this forum and like you Monster, I love JC! I think he's quite a smart guy, along with the LIG brothers and Marc Ecko.

AB