Greater>Than Clothing

Hey everyone. It feels like it has been a while since we checked in so I thought I’d give a small update.

These last couple weeks have been pretty busy for me at my “real” job so not too much progress has been made since our last meeting. However, Joey and I have a scheduled get together for Tuesday night. This is not an “official” Greater>Than get together but, the discussion will most likely gravitate towards our business.

I spent last week in training down in San Bruno, CA which is just south of San Francisco (by the airport). In this training I realized how patient a person I can be when it comes to learning something new. I feel like I thrive in these types of environments. I love being able to listen, see, then repeat new-found knowledge. I also realized that many people learn in very different ways. For instance, some are less willing to learn something new than they are to make sure others are aware that they already know alot. There was this person in the training who was constantly trying to “work ahead” and take their own path in the instruction. It ended causing more problems than were necessary and I was getting pretty frustrated. Then I began to realize that this was probably the way this guy learned. It wasn’t the best for group settings, but maybe he was getting something out of it. I also realized how process oriented I am.

I saw the steps that were laid out for me in the training and I followed all assignments as they were designed. Success! Nice story Ryan…but what does that have to do with printing shirts?

Dwight likes the facts.

FACT: Neither Joey nor I have ever printed a shirt.

FACT: There are thousands of people who have printed shirts successfully who have documented these processes on the internet. 

FACT: I intend to use my methodical learning process to take the steps necessary to learn to print the sweetest shirts around.

So in short, this week of training that I went through has shown me how patient I can be in learning new things and I fully intend to apply that to Greater>Than.

Thanks for reading/listening!

On Tuesday, Joey and I had a ‘planned’ meeting. I say planned because many times if Joey and I are hanging out, the conversation can just turn towards G>T. However, this time it was on our calendars…and that meant I would be taking notes…which means it’s business time.

We decided to meet in Ballard at the Old Town Ale House. We found a parking spot just down the street from our meeting destination and noticed a sandwich board on the sidewalk for Raw Threads. We decided to check it out and I’m glad we did. It’s a small boutique filled with unique and (for the most part) locally designed clothing. It was good to see a newer shop like that in Ballard. I’m sure there are many more like it that would be a good fit for Greater>Than apparel. To me, the visit to Raw set the stage nicely for us to proceed with our meeting.

Old Town Ale House is a clean, older place with good drafts, plenty of open tables, pretty good food and it’s apparently awesome for Greater>Than meetings. I started to jump right in and express my need for an online idea sharing space and it hit me. I had been eager to pay homage to the great (and fictional) Murray Hewitt, band manager for Flight of the Conchords and a Deputy Cultural Attaché at the New Zealand Consulate. If you have not seen Flight of the Conchords on HBO, please do so. See, Murray does not believe that ANY meeting can officially begin until role is taken. So we stopped everything and took role. Joey…present. Ryan…present.

Murray takes taking role very seriously. 

Now we can get down to business. The goals (for me) going into the meeting were simply to find out where we were financially and set some timeframes for completing certain critical tasks. From this, Joey had a great idea of creating a list of steps to complete in order to go from where we are ‘today’ to actually printing our first shirt. Ideally, we will create a list of tasks with important details about each task such as time dependancy, resources needed and essentially who will own it.

The hope is that we will be able to target and schedule larger more difficult objectives while identifying the smaller items that we can complete at anytime. The list will let us know exactly what we can do to move the project forward at any given moment.

It’s business time. 

Work on this infamous list will start immediately and we hope to share some of the tasks with you as well as the progress we make as we tackle them. We’re making progress and having this meeting was a big part of keeping the momentum going. Look for future posts with more details of the list and the actions we are taking to make the list a bit shorter.
Thanks for checking in!

So I have been getting back into the forums over at T-Shirt Forums and I keep hearing these screen printers talk about this one book as the ‘must-have’ for any screen printer.

So I started to search for the book and it has proved to be quite elusive. The book in question is called How to Print T-Shirts for Fun and Profit by Scott and Pat Fresener. Admittedly I was turned off by the name. To me it sounded a little cheesy. However, these guys (and gals) on the forums swear by it’s extremely technical and user-friendly information. All sounds good, until you try to purchase it. I can’t find this thing anywhere. The closest I have come to finding it was on Amazon.com and the list price is $39.95, yet someone is selling it used for $135.00…all for a outdated edition. No thanks.

I think the trouble is going to be getting the latest edition of the book (there are 12 editions with the latest in 2005). So if any of you have favorite book stores that you frequent, please keep your eyes open for us!

Hey everyone! Seems like it has been ages since I tickled the keyboard to bring you any operational nuggets of Greater>Than. Honestly, I’m a little red-faced when I look back that my last blog post was in the summer. However, Greater>Than is picking up some serious momentum…believe it! So look for shorter yet more frequent updates from us.

First a quick career update…for about a year, Joey and I had worked together at a large Northwest-based software company. Then Joey had decided to make a career change (the right move by the way) and he now works for a large Northwest-based mobile-phone company. This meant we no longer worked together (booo!). Not long after Joey’s move, I was looking to solidify a bit of my future and the powers that be brought Joey and I back together in December. I tend to believe that good things happen to good people and ‘things’ just tend to happen for a reason. While we work hard at our day jobs, I am excited that Greater>Than has picked up some steam due to our daily proximity. It’s just easier to get together for lunch and discuss things. In fact, we have a meeting on the calendar for next week. We’ll post some details of that meeting for sure.

Hope everyone had a safe and happy New Years. You’ll be hearing from us a bit more often .

When I first became obsessed with the idea of Greater>Than screen-printing its own shirts, I knew that there was some significant equipment involved. I had an idea of what was needed but perhaps not the specifics of each piece of equipment.

Research was required…off to the Internet! I first came across some start-up packages of screen-printing equipment and I was getting pretty excited about some of the prices. It looked like there were some pretty good deals out there. I thought for sure we would find a great package solution.
 
Then I seemed to hit a wall. My searches started to yield the same results and I felt like I wasn’t getting what I needed (I think screen printing equipment manufacturers need a lesson in SEO ). I knew there was so much more out there that I hadn’t tapped into yet.

I had been sharing bits and pieces of info as I gathered them with Joey and he mentioned a great online forum I should check out called T-Shirt Forums (how obvious ). Upon checking out the site, I quickly searched the “Screen Printing” section to see if others had opinions on printing equipment. Sure enough, there was a plethora of great insight on multiple aspects of many types of printing equipment.

Most of the questions I had (and many that I didn’t) were already discussed and I eagerly read post after post absorbing all kinds of nuggets. Perhaps the best bit of info was some reviews of the exact equipment from the previously mentioned online start-up packages. Low and behold the deals were too good to be true.
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Hey Greater>Than enthusiasts, I’m Ryan. I first heard of Joey’s plans for Greater>Than in early 2007 and loved the ideas and the enthusiasm that were presented. Since then I have not been able to stop thinking about it. After hearing what Joey had to say, I instantly knew that I could be a good resource for him.

I had spent the first five years of my professional career in manufacturing, specifically as a manager of a design team focused on creating designs for athletic balls. In that position I learned a ton about manufacturing and in particular the processes of transforming digital images into something tangible (a ball). In the ball business most of the graphics are, in essence, screen-printed. I traveled to China to witness this process first hand and I was shocked at how much of the screen-printing is done by hand…it was very impressive. That experience gave me a new appreciation for the work that went into our products.

Fast forward…When I came to understand that Greater>Than would be outsourcing the printing of its shirts, I saw this as an opportunity lost. I did a brief bit of research and encouraged Joey to consider controlling the means of production. (Disclaimer: I am a very hands-on do-it-yourselfer and there are not many projects out there that scare me) When you control production, you are able to ensure that the highest quality is achieved and that the best materials and processes are used.

With increased control, I believe Greater>Than will be able to set itself apart from being just another t-shirt vendor into something Greater>Than. Besides, it’ll just be completely awesome to hand-print a t-shirt . So I have agreed to join Greater>Than and bring my expertise to the production & operations side of things. I will put forth my best efforts to ensure that Greater>Than delivers only the best products possible.