It started when I came home one day and my brother said, "you ready!?" Okay, I'll play along. I was digging his enthusiasm. A big heavy box in the middle of the garage. We start opening it and there it is, our first screen printing press. We set that machine up so fast we had a couple nuts and bolts laying around afterward.
And this would have been where the story kicked off but...The press sat in the garage, collecting dust, for the next whole year.
SAY YES, THEN FIGURE IT OUT
The year flew by, as it always does, and we continued at our daily jobs. The press now had a blanket over it to help prevent too much dust from sticking to it, and the good times were rolling. Then out of the blue, I had told a co-worker that my brother and I printed t-shirts (lie, we just had a print machine) and one thing led to another. Before we new it, we had a 60 shirt print order.
Now, what I left out about the press earlier was that it was cheap, and we would quickly learn how cheap it was. Every seasoned screen printer will have something to say about this.
TRIAL BY FIRE, BABY
A lot could be said here, and I could go into a lot of detail but maybe I’ll save that for a blog post…(screen printers anonymous).
I’ll start by saying this, nothing went right. From how long it took to print 60 one-color shirts to how difficult it was to work with the press to the curing of half the shirts. It was a nightmare.
We didn’t have the right equipment, and at the very least, all the equipment we did need. And even though we questioned if it was all worth it, nothing stopped us from pulling an all night-er up until the delivery of those shirts.
HEART AND HUSTLE
"Whatever you do [whatever your task may be],
work from the soul [that is, put in your very best effort]…
Colossians 3:23 (AMP)
It wasn't always like this, but when you find something you love doing, you do it. Because everything in life that matters requires risk.
As I look back and think about that day, we didn't even sleep or nap until that night. But it was from that moment, that our love for screen printing kicked off. I can't remember everything that we went through, at the beginning, but I do remember when we decided together to do this thing. We would go through about three names, over the span of half a year, before one of us said, "bruh". As we were sitting around talking and being dumb, "bruh" shaped into Brudders and we quickly fell in love with that name. I remember sitting at my computer and working on a logo that very instant.
I came up with this...
This led to this...
And finally we had our name and logo...
IT'S ALL A BLUR
From that moment, the ball would start rolling. As scary and unknowledgeable we were about starting a business, we kept convincing ourselves that we just needed to do it. "Because everything in life that matters requires risk." I still remember the excitement between the both of us, that day, when we first said to each other, "hi, I'm a business owner."
That day, the ink started pumping through our veins.