- I think my biggest fear about doing this
is that I can't afford it.
(curious electronic music)
(bristles rustling)
(curious electronic music)
I'm Cole Lundstrom and I'm the owner
and founder of Shirt Agency.
Shirt Agency started in 2012
when I was laid off from my job.
I basically just freaked out that night
and at about midnight,
bought a domain and decided I was gonna make my own money.
About one week later,
that website got me a lead for a $4,000 order.
And I was like, "Oh, okay, this is actually happening."
(upbeat electronic music)
I first was introduced to screen printing
in an ROP class in high school.
I was doing the graphics class
which was basically just screen printing.
I ended up landing my mom's elementary school
and clearing 600 bucks.
And it was like, "Oh my God,
you can make so much more money if you're not on the clock.
But instead, you just go and find a deal."
And now I carried that into college and then ultimately,
I carried it into starting my own shop
after floating around at some shops when I was young.
(upbeat electronic music)
The first year was just outta my apartment,
in the second year, we were in 1,000 square feet
and we got our old building in 2014.
And now we've got to a point where this 8,400
square feet is the size we actually need.
(upbeat electronic music)
I've been wanting to do this move
for at least the last 18 months.
(upbeat electronic music)
We had such a weird kinda punky space
that was put together in bits and bobs before.
It actually used to be a little swap meet,
so there was a whole bunch of tiny, little
cubicle type of places,
and we had to knock down a million of those walls
to even get this place working.
So here's our current dark room
and it's kind of awful.
In this tiny, little space, every single piece of art
is currently being done.
And this is something I'm excited about in the new space
'cause we're gonna set up our dark room
in a 23 foot by 23 foot space.
So this nightmare land that we've created
will be completely gone.
And this is one of the big things I wanna do
on our move is have a wall of Pantone-matched colors
that are in their proper place and organized rainbow style.
There is zero organization here.
(relaxing atmospheric music)
I think it's pretty obvious
why I preferred moving to Huntington Beach over LA.
Having the ocean air
on your lunch break is gonna be a huge game changer
for all the employees.
We're excited to get out of some of that city grime.
The big thing I'm excited about here
is not only do we have a ton more floor space,
but we also have the ability to get racking and forklifts,
so then we can start doing pallets that go up the wall.
(upbeat electronic music)
Our customers will now be able to have a proper showroom
and they can have a private meeting
and they can see things and touch things
in our front room without having to deal
with issues with parking like we did at our old location.
I want it to be a better customer experience.
When I have a partner like BELLA+CANVAS
who has such an amazingly large line
and the quality's there,
that's amazing because I don't even have to show my customer
a multitude of styles.
I can just say, "Hey, this is basically
what you're already asking for."
And they can just agree that they love the product.
(upbeat electronic music)
My next steps for this building are many.
Carpeting guys come, then the concrete guys come.
My electrician needs to have me rent him a scissor lift.
We're going to start moving the actual machines.
We're flying technicians out.
We'll have commercial movers.
I'll probably have to rent three, four trucks.
And theoretically, I need to be back open
the following Monday so that I don't just lose a fortune
by having to turn down jobs.
(upbeat electronic music)