why do we make t-shirts well if you think about who's buying that t-shirt
maybe you're at your favorite concert when you go to the merch counter and you
have this amazing night at this amazing experience you buy a t-shirt doesn't
feel good does it fit well you're never gonna wear it again so let's let's
create a t-shirt that people actually want to wear because it's a feeling it's
something tangible it's more than just a t-shirt
we became friends really early on I was 13 he was 14 a little bit older three
months later we started our first business which was the mistletoe
business we both shared the same entrepreneurial spirit we learned this
really quick we loved the t-shirt business so we
started off really as screen printers the quality product that we needed was
not available in the marketplace so what we did was we started making become the
ring-spun product that really allows reprinting to happen because the surface
is so smooth at that time we were doing private label manufacturing for
customers like Banana Republic or Levi's or people like that so what we started
to do was making off-the-shelf blank called BELLA and it was really
addressing the women's fashion and women's needs of that time and still
today three or four years later we started a men's line which was the
comparable of just a higher quality better fitting garment for men and then
they got married and it became BELLA+CANVAS we did it completely different
than all of the other wholesale brands that were available at that time and we
still do it different today I started DELUXE
out of my garage the way I met Chris was there a mutual friend now we're not only
best friends but we make for a great team what's really satisfying to me is
when I see when we print they're blanks and they actually come and pick up their
order and pull it out of that box and see they're shirt it's kind of emotional
because you see their dream we're bringing it to life and we're helping
them bring it to life BELLA CANVAS has really helped business because they're
always coming up with that variety and so our customers appreciate that and
they want that
APLIIQ is a basically a platform for people to come and design
their own clothing line we specialize in manufacturing apparel
and helping people create professionally branded products we saw this opportunity
to unify technology and design using a website we offer things like working
labels and hood linings and different fabric embellishments that can
accentuate a product you can go just about anywhere and get like a cheap
printed t-shirt these days and the sun is kind of setting on those types of
products people are looking for super high quality things stuff that can be
made or manufactured in the USA and BELL CANVAS definitely fits the bill
there what makes Bella canvas production the best in the world by far is our
quality standards they're the highest of any blank garment manufacturer in
world everything from like thread count to the weight especially the shrinkage
to the hand feel there's anything that isn't within our tolerance we're gonna
put a hold on it and make sure that we can do everything within our power to
make sure that it hits every requirement so that we can comfortably put our name
on it for the customer that means they're gonna get the same product every
time you're gonna have a product that is gonna always be supersoft always gonna
be form-fitting you're never gonna have something that is you know tubular that
might weak after a wash you're gonna have a shirt that you can rely on day in
and day out so instead of pushing away and going the easy route which might
have been just buy everything overseas we actually went the other way and we
embraced this USA manufacturing model we're dying it here we're cutting it
here we're finishing it here warehousing it here and putting thousands of
Americans to work wrap is a worldwide certification company they go into
facilities they make sure that things are safe paying their employees properly
and most companies don't do this but we'll put quality control people into a
factory which then with rap plus daily monitoring you have a really safe
environment that is great for the employees and that is why we have the
Platinum standard for rap certification
you know the message they put on on print on the on on their shirts is just
as important as what the fabric is actually made out of from labor to how
you know that shirt is environmentally impacted we have made the decision
together that we are going to be an eco-friendly brand of all the places in
the world where you could manufacture fabrics California would be the absolute
most stringent place so our dyeing is absolutely the top most
efficient or world and also the least polluted in the world
any means possible within our supply chain to in fact save and help the
environment is always the choice that we're gonna go with and if it means that
the company does that make as much money or save it if it means that we use solar
and solar is more expensive than it would be just use regular electricity
from the grid so be it what's different about BELLA+CANVAS is
they have their collections that come out like they're fast fashion we do
domestic production as well as overseas production and with fast fashion we've
been able to tap into our unique supply chain and respond to trends quickly so
maybe see something at retail and we want to test the market we work with
our research and development teams to see colors that are trending silhouettes
at festivals you know what is on trend right now what's current what do we see
years ahead it takes the on trend products and
allows customers to get those on-trend designs and styles into their clothing
lines without having a do full cut n' sew construction
I started off as a designer and I heard about YouTube so I decided to upload my
first tutorial on YouTube the video got over 500 thousand views and I decided to
kind of take a serious so I continued making videos Bella cam has introduced
me into a new way of thinking about the garment and how it's actually made
because in order to build a brand that actually is successful you need to know
how things are done the thing with Bella canvas has allowed me to give my
audience more than I could have without BELLA CANVAS they know so much like I
always say they have a goldmine of information for me they put one new
video out every week as an educational resource and tool for our customers so
whether it is screen printing tips or fabric comparison it's the difference
between Heather CVC and tri-blend things like that
we've become a hub and a destination for our customers
we've set this culture to always think different do things differently and part
of the surprise is you don't even know what kind of great idea you're gonna
have a year from now and so as long as we are constantly thinking about these
excellent ideas we're gonna come up with ideas that's sitting here right now we
haven't even thought of they want us to think unconventionally challenge the
status quo find creative solutions that make sense for BELLA+CANVAS that are
gonna push our brand forward push the industry forward
I love being surrounded with the culture where we're invited to be innovative
where we're invited to be free thinkers where no idea is too crazy or too
far-fetched that's something that is I find just very refreshing be different
is just a natural extension of what we believe which is to create differently
and really provide that infrastructure for people to quickly spin up and be
successful with their own apparel line and the BELLA+CANVAS promise is a key
part of that and it's kind of motivated me to be different on YouTube that's
kind of my goal now is how can I be different from every other channel when
Marco and I started doing this this was a very small business and what we
started it out of a garage but by being true to each other to our products to
our vision has allowed us to have sustainable success and sustainable
growth and it's been really a great thing to be a part of and to be inspired
by everybody we work with and to even be inspired by our customers and continue
to offer them a better product to see what they can go out there and do with
BE DIFFERENT