Race Question

[3Deep]

Ok guys don,t read anything into this, but my wife and I were just wondering about black own screenprint shops, being that thre is only two with about 100 miles of us that we know us being one of them.  Am I the only black owned or black printer on this forum?...reason for this question is we see the white owned etc shops working together on jobs art or whatever it takes to help a fellow printer.  I know you guys have helped me out as I have tried to help you all if I could in anyway....we had a customer come in and was shooked to see that we did this kind of work (black) funny as hell and I said yes we do, well there next question was do we know of any other black print shops and I could only think of one more.

Darryl

[mk162]

I don't know if there are many shops around here owned by blacks.  It's also not something that I really notice or care about frankly.  I may have met a few, but to me they are screen printers first and ethnicity ranks pretty far down the list.

Sonny would know the printers around here better than me.

[Denis Kolar]

I have sold some wooden screens to a black printer here in Cleveland.
He had a shop but I forgot the name.

[3Deep]

Brad,  its something I never really thought about as I just talk with Sam about it, until we had some customers come in and thought it was amazing that we owned and did all the work here...I could care less who print my shirts no more than I care who cooked my burger at MickeyDs', was just curious is all.

Darryl

[Denis Kolar]

BTW, if you guys did not know, Rodney from T-Shirt board is black.
Can we count him as a printer too?

[Prosperi-Tees]

There was one in our town but he recently closed unfortunately. I think this industry is predominantly Anglo in this country.

[inkman996]

There is a succesful shop in New Haven Black owned and all employees are minority or black. Real nice guy that knows his stuff through and through. Being a mostly minority city it makes sense he would be there and be succesful at that.

Like Brad tho i could care less what color you are. Hell I am %100 Sicilian maybe I have a little black in me

[prozyan]

In my town, I'm the only white printer/owner.  All the others are hispanic.  But really, that's just the demographics of my area.

[Socalfmf]

I am black from the waist down...does that count?

[balloonguy]

Being in South Florida I get lot's of work from the islands. Most of the people I deal with locally are black or spanish. I think that most of customers are brokers. I only know 4 that print themselves.
Matt

[Dottonedan]

Ok guys don,t read anything into this, but my wife and I were just wondering about black own screenprint shops, being that thre is only two with about 100 miles of us that we know us being one of them.  Am I the only black owned or black printer on this forum?...reason for this question is we see the white owned etc shops working together on jobs art or whatever it takes to help a fellow printer.  I know you guys have helped me out as I have tried to help you all if I could in anyway....we had a customer come in and was shooked to see that we did this kind of work (black) funny as hell and I said yes we do, well there next question was do we know of any other black print shops and I could only think of one more.

Darryl

You're BLACK?  Oh,  That's a whole different ball game now.
Kidding.

I have my designated "one black friend" as he likes to call himself. who I worked with at my last place and both of us were laid off together along with the other 18 artist. He started his apparel line about 1 year or so before getting laid off and I helped him along the way since he was basically a good artist with a good idea but knew very little about getting screen printing done and where to go. He wanted me to go into business with him on two of his business idea's and I didn't. I'm kind of a loner when it comes to business. So anyways,  He's going VERY good now. He does big business on his own line and now also has about 5-7 major licenses on board. He deals with about 8-10 different printers all around the US that I hooked him up with. A few on this board are doing some work for him now.  See,  I spread it around a  little.   But really, it's mostly about location and quality.

Back to your questions and how I started on my friends story.  I turned my friend on to a good printer down in the next town. 1st and foremost, he started out as a good printer and local. Added to that, he was a black guy.

So, in my head I had this idea or belief that the black community likes to help anotha brotha out. I have had these types of conversations with my friend in the past. (Don't get me started on his views and jokes) LOL.  He had mentioned to me before about having a desire to help the other black business people out and work with each other.

He also told me that it's harder to work with some other black people as they don't have the same camaraderie in an industry of helping other people out in the same boat like others do. (like we do here). He feels they tend to have the mind set of "fend for yourself" it's hard enough for me as it is so I don't help nobody else out' way of thinking.

So with knowing this a little myself already, I still introduced the two. He was a good printer. Not real great on the business end. He's closed down now but I hear he got started back up in another location a year or so later. All in all, this printer was giving him a discount from his retail pricing as he implied that they really didn't have an idea what the contract pricing was all about and that he'd just give him a % off his normal retail price.  It was higher than the regular contract printing we are familiar with, but he used his services "just to do business with another black business man" trying to get ahead in this world.

Later, after about 6 months of working with each other, my friend gets ahold of this printers "contract sheet" that is apparently an older one that this guy has had and still uses with people. It's got ASI pricing on it that gives ASI members about 15% lower than what he's been getting.  So, my friend asked him about it and he said he can't really do that kind of pricing for him but could give him a discount on screens from $25.00 to $15.00   HA!  ok.  So,  long story short, my friend still did business with him (more so because he's loyal to his idea's of helping other black business people) and can still make money.  In the end, this guy ended up having to close down for some reason.


We know of about 2 other black printers in my central Fl area (that I know of) and he tries to do business with them...but they do not seem to be able to do a "good business" with him. He ran into similar situations as the story described above with another guy in town. So, he only uses them now when he really has to like when other printers are backed up or something. I think he feels that they will give the white guy better customer service than he gets from black business people. It is a hard thing for a black guy to do well in business. As you can see, you can get poor service from both sides of the race factor when you're a black business man. That is, just from what I hear from other black business people.  I think somewhere in their heads, black business people seem to have a feeling that  (I'm on my own here, and it's tough enough so you're on your own too).  That might be for many years to come yet.

[Dottonedan]

BTW, if you guys did not know, Rodney from T-Shirt board is black.
Can we count him as a printer too?

Unless he's evolved into owning his own print shop. The story I got (might have even come from him). Is sort of like,  he is more of an internet business 1st and foremost. He needed some shirts for something he was doing and started poking around about it and apparently got to liking the idea of a forum as a business and selling tees.  As far as I know, today, he's still an internet business that focus on other people starting up shops and learning how to be printers. Technically, he himself is not a printer nor an artist (as far as I  have heard), but he is pretty creative.

[Prosperi-Tees]

People think we are 100% Hispanic but I'm half Filipino half white and my wife is half Hispanic and half white. So I guess we are 50% minority owned.

[3Deep]

Dan, thanks you said everything I would have said and more, me and your friend feel the same way about our black race in business.  I just really wanted to know if I was the only black printer on this broad just incase Obama loose LOL.

Darryl

[Screened Gear]

I don't want this to sound bad but you don't see many black owned businesses in any field. Not sure why that is.