How did you get your start in the industry?
We all ask each other this question — at industry trade shows, open houses, education events. And even though the avenue is always unique (“I was in a punk rock band,” “my son’s soccer team needed shirts,” “I was a college athlete”), there’s one similar thread that runs through nearly every answer:
I stumbled into it by accident.
In the case of Ryan Rogers, it was the pocket T that brought him to the industry. Years ago when Ryan was pursuing his degree in theoretical chemistry (he does, in fact, have a Ph.D.), he noticed something while walking the University of Arkansas campus. It seemed that every fraternity and sorority member, regardless of the chapter, was wearing a pocket T. “I’m seeing all these students, and it’s almost like the Greeks have a uniform,” he says. “They have an unofficial uniform of what they call the letter T-shirts, which is typically some combination of appliqué and embroidery. Come to find out, it’s the Comfort Colors pocket T.”
And it got Ryan thinking: Why couldn’t the pocket be in the shape of Arkansas?
From that curiosity came Well Stated Clothing and an adventure into apparel that encompasses custom manufacturing in the truest sense of the phrase.
The State That Started It All
Ryan didn’t start out pursuing every single state shape. Rather, his focus remained on one that holds a special place in his heart — Arkansas. Like most people, Ryan and his fellow Arkansans take great pride in where they live. “I [thought], we’re here in Arkansas, and especially in Northwest Arkansas, and everybody loves to brag about Arkansas,” he explains. “The shape of Arkansas is everywhere: It’s in company logos. It’s in merch. I’ve seen a plushy toy that’s just the shape of Arkansas with legs and little arms on it. So I [thought], why is Arkansas not a pocket?”
Luckily for him, the state is relatively boxy, so its natural fit isn’t too difficult to pull off as a pocket while still maintaining the subtle features that make it recognizable.
At the same time he was noodling on the idea, he was still pursuing his chemistry degree, and that was a tough thing to just set aside on a hunch that fraternities and sororities might want a shirt with an Arkansas-shaped pocket.
Still, he couldn’t shake it, and after graduation and a brief break, Ryan decided it was worth putting chemistry aside for a bit. That’s when the custom pocket R&D hit heavy and fast.
“I start Googling ‘custom apparel near me,’ and if you Google that, you will get 100 hits of custom apparel near you. But [I realized] it’s not custom apparel; it’s custom branded apparel,” he explains. The more he researched, he discovered there wasn’t anything similar to what he had in mind. So Ryan decided it was time to move to the next phase: prototypes.
Read the rest of this article on Apparelist, a publication of PRINTING United Alliance, ASI’s strategic partner.
