HomeNEWSIt's T-Shirt Time! Local Student Entrepreneurs Start Business

It’s T-Shirt Time! Local Student Entrepreneurs Start Business

Published September 7, 2011

By KAYLA MATTEO
Contributing Writer

There is good news for those hoping to start off this school year looking fresh. Two local businesses, Lo Key T Company and Made in Truth Clothing are here to help. Both formed last fall, Lo Key T Company and Made in Truth Clothing feature original art and some real

Sketch
Lo Key T Sketch /Kayla Matteo

business initiative by area students.

TJ Kennedy, 20, a student at State University at Albany and a resident of Pine Hills, has exciting plans in store for Lo Key T Company. The company, started in fall of 2010, is ready to release three original shirts this Friday, after much planning and promoting.

Lo Key started out as an almost unrealistic idea, but with the help of graphic designer Brian France, web designer Will Winkler, and designated head of finances Deven Gould, it has grown into a locally established brand name.

Starting out with notebooks full of sketches done by Kennedy himself, the four first meet to discuss which ones they want to use. The images then go to France, who turns the sketches into graphic designs. After that, the images are sent out to a local screen printing company, where they are re-sized, and then printed in bulk on T-shirts and tank tops. The shirts are then sold on their website.

At their weekly meetings, they also discuss promotional ideas and marketing strategies, along with planning events and trying to figure out how to best bring together a community of people with similar interests, like music.

Lo Key T Company plans to release two related designs weekly after starting things off this week with three designs to give everyone a sense of what they are about. They are also starting a promotion where customers will receive a pair of Lo Key sunglasses with every order. You can find them on Facebook, Twitter, and at their website, lokeyt.co.

Also out there in the local T-shirt design scene are the guys behind Made In Truth Clothing. Eugene O’Neill, 21, an art major at The College of Saint Rose, and Will Rowe, 23, a student at Bryant and Stratton College, started Made In Truth and its sister company Truth T’s and Apparel, in October 2010.

O’Neill, who makes music under the moniker “Subliminal Truth,” met Rowe through music friends and told him about an idea he had had to start a shirt company based around the idea of truth. Rowe was instantly intrigued, and together they began brainstorming ideas for what would eventually become Made in Truth.

In order to supplement cash flow for their own artistic business venture, they started Truth T’s and Apparel. Truth T’s prints shirts for local businesses and groups, such as student clubs and Greek life. With the revenues made from printing for Truth T’s, they then used

Lo Key T final product /Kayla Matteo

Made in Truth to really express themselves with less of a financial risk.

 

“We’re trying to represent how we feel and think about everything that’s going on around us,” said Rowe of the designs, which often include their logo, a barcode. “We know a lot of people and we know what they like and dislike. We know what’s hot,” said O’Neill.

The designs, which generally start out as graphics, are then made into screens and printed onto shirts by O’Neill and Rowe themselves in a studio in O’Neill’s home. The time consuming process of screen printing their own work is well worth it to them.

They are currently accepting orders through Facebook and e-mail. They hope to have their online store up and running this month and are always open to suggestions from the public.

“We’re trying to incorporate everyone’s lifestyle into the way they express themselves,” said Rowe.

Lo Key and Made in Truth both have similar goals and aspirations to bring the community closer through art and music, and they are not alone. Other companies have started recently and locally, including thINK Apparel and U IS Nation Clothing.

“I see more and more students coming in with little tee-shirt lines,” said Jim Holodek, of ALLU Inc., a screen printing and embroidery company located by the University of Albany. “It’s definitely a trend.”

Made In Truth t-shirt making /Kayla Matteo
Made In Truth Tees /Kayla Matteo

 

 

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