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General => General Discussion and ??? => Topic started by: 3Deep on July 12, 2012, 11:10:33 AM
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Ok guys don,t read anything into this, but my wife and I were just wondering about black own screenprint shops, being that thre is only two with about 100 miles of us that we know us being one of them. Am I the only black owned or black printer on this forum?...reason for this question is we see the white owned etc shops working together on jobs art or whatever it takes to help a fellow printer. I know you guys have helped me out as I have tried to help you all if I could in anyway....we had a customer come in and was shooked to see that we did this kind of work (black) funny as hell and I said yes we do, well there next question was do we know of any other black print shops and I could only think of one more.
Darryl
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I don't know if there are many shops around here owned by blacks. It's also not something that I really notice or care about frankly. I may have met a few, but to me they are screen printers first and ethnicity ranks pretty far down the list.
Sonny would know the printers around here better than me.
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I have sold some wooden screens to a black printer here in Cleveland.
He had a shop but I forgot the name.
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Brad, its something I never really thought about as I just talk with Sam about it, until we had some customers come in and thought it was amazing that we owned and did all the work here...I could care less who print my shirts no more than I care who cooked my burger at MickeyDs', was just curious is all.
Darryl
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BTW, if you guys did not know, Rodney from T-Shirt board is black.
Can we count him as a printer too?
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There was one in our town but he recently closed unfortunately. I think this industry is predominantly Anglo in this country.
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There is a succesful shop in New Haven Black owned and all employees are minority or black. Real nice guy that knows his stuff through and through. Being a mostly minority city it makes sense he would be there and be succesful at that.
Like Brad tho i could care less what color you are. Hell I am %100 Sicilian maybe I have a little black in me ;D
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In my town, I'm the only white printer/owner. All the others are hispanic. But really, that's just the demographics of my area.
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I am black from the waist down...does that count?
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Being in South Florida I get lot's of work from the islands. Most of the people I deal with locally are black or spanish. I think that most of customers are brokers. I only know 4 that print themselves.
Matt
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Ok guys don,t read anything into this, but my wife and I were just wondering about black own screenprint shops, being that thre is only two with about 100 miles of us that we know us being one of them. Am I the only black owned or black printer on this forum?...reason for this question is we see the white owned etc shops working together on jobs art or whatever it takes to help a fellow printer. I know you guys have helped me out as I have tried to help you all if I could in anyway....we had a customer come in and was shooked to see that we did this kind of work (black) funny as hell and I said yes we do, well there next question was do we know of any other black print shops and I could only think of one more.
Darryl
You're BLACK? Oh, That's a whole different ball game now.
Kidding.
I have my designated "one black friend" as he likes to call himself. who I worked with at my last place and both of us were laid off together along with the other 18 artist. He started his apparel line about 1 year or so before getting laid off and I helped him along the way since he was basically a good artist with a good idea but knew very little about getting screen printing done and where to go. He wanted me to go into business with him on two of his business idea's and I didn't. I'm kind of a loner when it comes to business. So anyways, He's going VERY good now. He does big business on his own line and now also has about 5-7 major licenses on board. He deals with about 8-10 different printers all around the US that I hooked him up with. A few on this board are doing some work for him now. See, I spread it around a little. ;) But really, it's mostly about location and quality.
Back to your questions and how I started on my friends story. I turned my friend on to a good printer down in the next town. 1st and foremost, he started out as a good printer and local. Added to that, he was a black guy.
So, in my head I had this idea or belief that the black community likes to help anotha brotha out. I have had these types of conversations with my friend in the past. (Don't get me started on his views and jokes) LOL. He had mentioned to me before about having a desire to help the other black business people out and work with each other.
He also told me that it's harder to work with some other black people as they don't have the same camaraderie in an industry of helping other people out in the same boat like others do. (like we do here). He feels they tend to have the mind set of "fend for yourself" it's hard enough for me as it is so I don't help nobody else out' way of thinking.
So with knowing this a little myself already, I still introduced the two. He was a good printer. Not real great on the business end. He's closed down now but I hear he got started back up in another location a year or so later. All in all, this printer was giving him a discount from his retail pricing as he implied that they really didn't have an idea what the contract pricing was all about and that he'd just give him a % off his normal retail price. It was higher than the regular contract printing we are familiar with, but he used his services "just to do business with another black business man" trying to get ahead in this world.
Later, after about 6 months of working with each other, my friend gets ahold of this printers "contract sheet" that is apparently an older one that this guy has had and still uses with people. It's got ASI pricing on it that gives ASI members about 15% lower than what he's been getting. So, my friend asked him about it and he said he can't really do that kind of pricing for him but could give him a discount on screens from $25.00 to $15.00 HA! ok. So, long story short, my friend still did business with him (more so because he's loyal to his idea's of helping other black business people) and can still make money. In the end, this guy ended up having to close down for some reason.
We know of about 2 other black printers in my central Fl area (that I know of) and he tries to do business with them...but they do not seem to be able to do a "good business" with him. He ran into similar situations as the story described above with another guy in town. So, he only uses them now when he really has to like when other printers are backed up or something. I think he feels that they will give the white guy better customer service than he gets from black business people. It is a hard thing for a black guy to do well in business. As you can see, you can get poor service from both sides of the race factor when you're a black business man. That is, just from what I hear from other black business people. I think somewhere in their heads, black business people seem to have a feeling that (I'm on my own here, and it's tough enough so you're on your own too). That might be for many years to come yet.
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BTW, if you guys did not know, Rodney from T-Shirt board is black.
Can we count him as a printer too?
Unless he's evolved into owning his own print shop. The story I got (might have even come from him). Is sort of like, he is more of an internet business 1st and foremost. He needed some shirts for something he was doing and started poking around about it and apparently got to liking the idea of a forum as a business and selling tees. As far as I know, today, he's still an internet business that focus on other people starting up shops and learning how to be printers. Technically, he himself is not a printer nor an artist (as far as I have heard), but he is pretty creative.
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People think we are 100% Hispanic but I'm half Filipino half white and my wife is half Hispanic and half white. So I guess we are 50% minority owned.
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Dan, thanks you said everything I would have said and more, me and your friend feel the same way about our black race in business. I just really wanted to know if I was the only black printer on this broad just incase Obama loose LOL.
Darryl
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I don't want this to sound bad but you don't see many black owned businesses in any field. Not sure why that is.
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Gerry your to funny dude!!!!!!!!
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I don't want this to sound bad but you don't see many black owned businesses in any field. Not sure why that is.
Gear you must have not heard we got out the cotton field LOL
Darryl
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I don't want this to sound bad but you don't see many black owned businesses in any field. Not sure why that is.
Gear you must have not heard we got out the cotton field LOL
Darryl
The cotton field were way before my time. I didn't even know that was were black people came from. ;D
I just caught the "Field" part of what you said. Sorry I am a little slow today.
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Ok guys don,t read anything into this, but my wife and I were just wondering about black own screenprint shops, being that thre is only two with about 100 miles of us that we know us being one of them. Am I the only black owned or black printer on this forum?...reason for this question is we see the white owned etc shops working together on jobs art or whatever it takes to help a fellow printer. I know you guys have helped me out as I have tried to help you all if I could in anyway....we had a customer come in and was shooked to see that we did this kind of work (black) funny as hell and I said yes we do, well there next question was do we know of any other black print shops and I could only think of one more.
Darryl
I know of 2 black owned shops here and we have helped eachother out from time to time. I have heard stories from them about customers being shocked that they are black. One of them prints for mostly black musicans, clothing lines and churches,he swears that his black customers will pay more because they know less about the process.
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I don't want this to sound bad but you don't see many black owned businesses in any field. Not sure why that is.
Gear you must have not heard we got out the cotton field LOL
Darryl
Yep that damn Eli Whitney
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but to me they are screen printers first and ethnicity ranks pretty far down the list.
Awesome. Screen printers first, other peons need not apply.
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I don't want this to sound bad but you don't see many black owned businesses in any field. Not sure why that is.
This is true... I use to print for a black family owned pizza shop that closed 3 months after they opening and said its because most people want to see an Italian guy running the joint but I think that has do more with what they're serving. Being white I wouldnt want to buy my chinese food from an all white own chinease business , something stupid in my head tells me that the food will suck.
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I think most of the shops in this area are white or hispanic owned. I have had my head in the doors of probably 10-15 different shops here in my area and I don't think any were black owned. I'm pretty sure our shop is the only one in our region that there is only about 3 tattoos between the 5 of us that work in this building. The guys that stop by and ask if we're hiring all look the same, white and full of tats.
Along this subject, anyone remember Ridgely, aka outdabox? Last I saw he had his auto up for sale and was struggling. I thought he might have moved it to a new location on his or family's property to try and get through the hard times but I don't know for sure. He used to be a part of the forums but I haven't seen or heard anything from him in about a year.
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I wish there were more black owned and operated restaurants serving good southern soul food like you see on TV. What's that's woman's name with the restaurants in I think Missouri? Sweetie Pies that's it! That food looks delish!
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Another old buddy of ours was Tiggeron. He's a black dude (I think) and owns his own shop. I still talk to him now and then. He says he's really only got time to dedicate to one forum and he's been on T-Shirtfroums since the old TSPMB went down
Yea, haven't seen Outdabox anywhere. I do think he moved his shop to his parents property. Had an auto on a wooden floor. I thought it would rock at every rotation.
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Inkman I bet you half the high school kids coming out now wouldn't know who Eli Whitney was, not to mention he was black to.
D
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half the high school kids can't name the capitol of the US.
also, and this is something i have noticed after a friend pointed it out...black folks down here almost always pay cash...they are some of my favorite customers. Especially Kiwi, she keeps her cash in her bra..it's a hoot.
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Invented the cotton gin. I don't drink gin myself so I don't know if it's good or not.
Foghorn Leghorn (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTwnwbG9YLE#)
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Inkman I bet you half the high school kids coming out now wouldn't know who Eli Whitney was, not to mention he was black to.
D
You are incorrect sir, he was white, you may be thinking of George Washington Carver.
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Inkman I bet you half the high school kids coming out now wouldn't know who Eli Whitney was, not to mention he was black to.
D
Eli wasnt black... he was a northener who went to yale
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mY bad I,m trying take credit for everthing LOL well atleast Eli was looking out for poor black folks
D
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actually, if you read the wiki article, the cotton gin caused a boom in slavery because cotton became profitable to grow.
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I know quite a few black owned screen printing shops.... 10 off the top of my head, but I know there are many more. I have done service work for at least 6 or more of them. Many of them tend to be south of I20, but not just in the city... Quite a few are south of 285 in the styx...
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Daryll I think things are different in different areas of the country. Up here in CT people are not surprised or shocked or whatever about black or tan owned businesses. It's common to see it. We are probably a lot self segregated than areas in the south, I lived in a few other areas of this country and my part of the world seems to be more of a mixing pot than other areas.
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We are probably a lot self segregated than areas in the south
I would agree with that...
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Inkman I use to live in Mass so I know what you mean, my parents still live in Springfield Mass, I guess living in the deep south is a little different its cool though.
Darryl
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I just really wanted to know if I was the only black printer on this broad just incase Obama loose LOL.
Hey I resemble that question!
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There are a ton of Brazilian, Spanish and Black owned businesses here in Mass, though I don't know of one who owns a t-shirt shop. That doesn't mean they aren't there, I just haven't met any. We do a pretty good business with the Brazilian community here between churches and small business owners. I wouldn't say racism is dead around here, but it is quite a melting pot. For myself, I don't care what color a person is, as long as long as he/she isn't a jerk, or some more colorful word.
Steve
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Maybe they are all too smart to own a shirt place. ;)
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one of my favorites is I don't care what color you are as long as your money is green....
but Brad...I think you are right...maybe they are smarter by NOT starting a screenprinting business....ahahhahahaha
Sam
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Brad, its something I never really thought about as I just talk with Sam about it, until we had some customers come in and thought it was amazing that we owned and did all the work here...I could care less who print my shirts no more than I care who cooked my burger at MickeyDs', was just curious is all.
Darryl
I've got the same problem. They walk in can't believe that we own and operate our business.....and I am white. I guess maybe I should comb my hair and quit wearing my robe and fuzzy bunny slippers when I am working.
Seriously, I can't believe that in this day and time people are still surprised that black people can own and operate a business. People really need to get our more often and take the blinders off.
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In my area, you'd be hard pressed to find a black guy with a JOB let alone owning a business. . .welcome to Buffalo.
I don't care about color -one damn bit- I only care if you are smart enough to help yourself and make sh*t happen.
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Here's one of the dudes here in Rochester. He use to be a customer of mine. Not sure how he manages with that 4 foot dryer but he's doing it.
Jayarr Customs - 585 strong (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=srwtV5jad7Q#ws)
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I've seen one black-owned shop in Maine and some down South, but no too many in the Midwest or Northeast. Of course in my eyes, the only color I see is green ($$) Do they pay you. anything else doesn't matter.
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People think we are 100% Hispanic but I'm half Filipino half white and my wife is half Hispanic and half white. So I guess we are 50% minority owned.
If your wife owns the business then you guys are 100% minority owned (women are considered a minority as business owners... hence my recent shout box discussion).
But, back on topic. I bought my dryer from a black owned print business in New Orleans. He was getting out of the business to focus more on his air brushing... so he's still sort of in the biz.
I think there is one in town but I'm stereotyping based on their location and that some of the local "mens groups" in my neighborhood have all taken their business there. I'm not upset by this one bit as now I don't get that Thursday phone call "hey, you wanna print some shirts?" "Yeah, when do you need them by" "oh, at least by the weekend"... "uhh, no."
Just spoke to one of the (ex)members yesterday as I was coming out of a restaurant and he was telling me how he got out of the group because they were so unorganized and didn't feel like they were heading in the right direction. Then he said he was gonna send me some "more" business. I told him to make sure they don't do that last minute sh!t because I ain't doing that.
Speaking of that restaurant, another guy in town that does printing and mostly embroidery is from Honduras. Super awesome guy (he's the guy I repo'd that lease from), he owns several things, ice cream truck business, he had a restaurant but they got broken in to and wiped out so he shut it down. Anyway, that's a tight community there, I think he does the shirts for EVERY mexican restaurant in town. I'd never try to snipe his business anyway because of mutual respect but I doubt I could even if I tried.