New Oaxaca Tshirt

Here's the new Oaxaca Tshirt to go with my new Oaxaca comic book...
Available at this link.

Sort of a Dia De Muertos theme.

Spontaneous Entrepreneurship

Do you have what it takes to work for yourself? How do you start your own business? We all have to start somewhere. Here's how I started in the T-Shirt printing biz, some years ago. I can tell this story 'cause I believe the statute of limitations has expired!

Here I am, hawking T-Shirts in 1979.

I was fifteen minutes from reporting to my first day of work as a minimum wage dishwasher early one evening in June, 1979. It was my first summer living out of my mom and dad’s house. Things had started well enough—my intention was to sell wholesale T-Shirt printing services, pumping out the jobs myself on a freelance basis. The first week, I sold a gross of shirts to a local pub, making a gross of dollars. Considering that rent for my summer sublet was all of $60.00 per month, I felt flush! But I hit the wall after that. Despite hanging flyers all over Amherst and environs (including on the enormous University of Massachusetts campus), the fact was that my client base (dorms, student clubs and the like) had departed for the summer and no one was buying.

Having spent most of my last $20.00 on a book that caught my eye (I’d convinced myself that this was practical through some alchemical equation), I was ready to throw in the towel and signed on for a dishwasher job on campus. UMass hosted an odd assortment of conventions, seminars and crackpot camps in an attempt to pay the bills over the slow summer season. I was to be washing dishes in the campus dining commons for a group of several hundred Transcendental Meditation practitioners from the west coast who were convening a seminar on levitation. I did mention it was the Seventies, right? 

I was filled with despair at the bleak prospect of washing dishes. I’d done my time as a dishwasher at a fast food steak house in high school where I was required to wear a polyester cowboy outfit. I had no desire to return to the low rent glory of the dishwashing pit.
At fifteen minutes to the 7:00 pm diswashing shift, a bolt of lightning struck. Of an instant, a fully formed scam literally sprang out of absolutely nowhere and announced itself to me. The underlying message was clear: YOU ARE NOT TO REPORT TO THE DISHWASHING JOB! 

I’d recalled that an acquaintance, Sue, who worked in the campus center building, had mentioned to me that she had a list of groups who were holding events in the concourse of the campus center that summer. Sue had actually produced a list of the events for me. She assured me, if I was to set up and sell T-Shirts at these events, she would look the other way; not charge me for the space. It seemed risky and a bit scurrilous, and I’d forgotten about it until fourteen minutes to dishwashing. 

It was a Thursday evening, and that very weekend, the New England Camera Club was hosting their annual convention in the campus center. I determined that I would grace the show with their official (bootleg) t-shirt. The first problem to conquer was lack of capital. I knew where I could score some blank shirts for a dollar a pop, which I could print and mark up to the princely sum of four bucks, but since I was down to $3.00 on hand, it didn’t seem much of a plan. If I had a hundred bucks, I could buy a hundred shirts and turn it into four hundred over the course of the weekend, enough to finance a month of summer living! 

Did I mention it was the Seventies? Very fortunate, as it turns out you could hitchhike anywhere in New England back then within the course of a few hours, a day tops. I elected my mom as my financier and was on the road by five minutes to seven with my thumb up. As my folks lived about 70 miles away, I figured I’d get there just before the summer night settled in. I got a ride out of Amherst towards the western burbs of Boston just about the time my shift supervisor probably started wondering where the hell I was. 

Okay, so mom definitely raised an eyebrow at the plan, but recognized my desperation and fronted the bucks. By early Friday afternoon, I was back in Amherst at my drawing board putting together a cute little cartoon logo featuring a guy who had a camera for a head. Somehow I managed to rustle up the blank shirts and get them all printed by eleven that evening. 

The next day, I set up bright and early on the campus concourse with a table that Sue scrounged up for me (she was slightly horrified that I’d actually taken her up on her offer!). By noon I’d made Mom’s stake back, and was up to $250.00 by the end of the first day.
By just past noon on Sunday, I hit about $430.00 (having managed to get the shirts for .89, I had a few over 100 pieces). At that point, an obnoxious fifteen year old (who had been flirting with me earlier) returned. With an attitude of scorn and derision, she asked if these were the official New England Camera Club T-Shirts? I said that indeed they were! 

A pale and disheveled fifty year old sad sack with caved in shoulders stepped forward and introduced himself as the president of said club. I handed him the four remaining shirts, and barked “Here’s your cut!”. I was breaking down the table over his protests and briskly walking it back to the storage bay that Sue had plucked it from the day before. Table tucked away, I smiled at the Pres. and thanked him profusely. Then I turned on my heel and ran close to four minute mile pace back to my flat, a remorseless 22 year old flush with success!
 

Now I admit that I’d pulled a fast one on that guy, but I am hardly the only college kid to ever make a quick bundle of cash bootlegging a few T’s. The moral of the story, such as it is, goes like this: If you’ve got the BoHo self employment stuff, you know it, because you have an anecdote or two a lot like this. Normal, sensible, thoughtful people do not take risks like this, they do not engage in such brazen behavior. They want “security”! You and me, we’ll take the risk any day… for those who prefer the living death of the secure government job and pension, they can have it!

Custom Printed T Shirts - Today's Sale Items

Bella + Canvas Triblend T Shirt sale. Call or email for pricing on these stylish, soft Ts.

Steve Lafler 503-213-3671

• 3.4 oz., 50% polyester, 25% combed and ringspun cotton, 25% rayon
• 40 singles

Custom T-Shirt Printing Price List Spring 2014

Here is the Manx Media wholesale custom screen printing price list for Spring 2014.

Please call or email with any questions. Prices are based on a minimum order of 50 shirt, they are unit prices including a one color print.

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Minimum 50 shirts.		Includes 1/c print, add .40 2/C, .65 3/C, .90 4/C, 1.10 5/C,	2/C .40	3/C .65	4/C .90	5/C 1.10	6/C 1.35
PRICES INCLUDE PRINTING in one color ink.				Add amount indicated above for multi-color printing.
Gildan 5000		$4.95
cotton T				Quantity Discounts:
Gildan 2000		$5.50		100 shirts, less .35 per shirt. 200 shirts, less.55 per shirt. 300 shirts, less .65
Hwt cotton T				2X, 3X, 4X shirts slightly more expensive.
Gildan 5000B		$4.75
child cotton T
Gildan 2000B		$5.20		WHITE TSHIRT slightly less – prices indicated are for color shirts.
Child T Hwt
Gildan 2400		$8.75
LongsleeveT				SALE ITEMS: When our supplier offers us special pricing, we pass it on to you.
Gildan 5400		$7.75		Check at time of quote for special offers.
LonsleeMdWt
Gildan Hoodie		$17.95		Prices based on print-ready jpeg, Photoshop or Illustrator files.
Adult 185
Gildan Hoodie		$16.95		Art & design services available
Child 185B
Am Ap 2001		$6.90
cotton T
AmAp BB301		$7.30
50/50women
AmApBB401		$7.50
50/50 Men
Am Ap 4400		$8.20
cotton rib T
AmAm 4305		$6.75
ScoopNeckT
AmAp 4321		$6.75
CapSleeveT
AmAp 4311		$6.50
Spagetti T

These are just a few of the items we offer. Let me know if you want a quote on a shirt that you don't see here and I'll find it for you.

Prices are based on a minimum order of 50 shirts and include a one color print. There is a one time set up fee of $40.00 (film and screen) for each ink color in your design. 

Printing in lovely St. Johns, Portland OR. Prices FOB Portland OR, UPS extra.

Steve Lafler, Manx Media
503-213-3671

Email Steve for a Quote

Your Portland Oregon T-Shirt Printers

Manx Media is a Custom T-Shirt company with production in Portland, Oregon. Essentially it's a two man operation. David Perkin operates the press, burns screens and maintains the shop in the St. Johns neighborhood of North Portland, while I handle sales, business, art and graphics from my laptop in Oaxaca, Mexico.

We have been printing shirt jobs together in Portland since 2005, but both of us have been in the business for a long time. I set up my first T-Shirt shop in Eugene in 1981, before running a shop for many years in Oakland, CA. David, a Portland native, has worked in several shops over the years, including my shop in Oakland..

We came together in the wholesale custom screen printing business with a commitment to quality and service. We print with a Workhorse six color, six station manual press, with spot curing capability allowing us to produce multicolor prints on dark shirts. We are T-Shirt geeks, willing to go the extra mile to get it just right.

Current clients include Cosmic Monkey Comics in Portland, Haight Ashbury T-Shirts in San Francisco, and Sarah's Science in Castro Valley California. In the past we have printed for dozens of mom and pop operations, as well as entertainers like comedian Margaret Cho and cult band The Residents.

Manx Media also works with some great ink slingers in the San Francisco Bay Area, with Mats Stromberg and Mike Perkin (David's brother) handling overflow production.

Manx would like to be your custom T-Shirt printer. We're ready to set you up with exactly what you need, and guarantee the highest quality work. Show us your graphic and tell us what type of shirt you'd like to print on, and we'll come up with a price for your T-Shirt project.

Thanks for considering Manx!

Steve Lafler
Call for a quote 503-213-3671 or email Steve

Manx Media Custom Screen Printing

Longsleeve T-Shirt Time

Yeah it's cold. Time to order some Longsleeve TShirts! Here's the top contenders, great offerings from Anvil, Hanes and Gildan. Zip me an email or call 503-213-3671 for a quote to print your design on any of these styles. Each shirt comes in a wide range of colors.
Steve Lafler
503-213-3671

Monster T-Shirts for Halloween

Just in time for Halloween, I've put up some Monster T-Shirts at my web store. Check here for details.

Steve Lafler
Manx Media Custom Screen Printing