Signal Mountain resident and Quick Tees owner Rusty Russell displays a shirt depicting Coolidge Park from his new ‘NoogaTees line soon to hit local stores. He is also launching a new website enabling customers to create their own designs and order just one shirt.
Photo by Emily CrismanOver the years since Signal Mountain resident Rusty Russell started Quick Tees in 1982, the business of making T-shirts has undergone drastic changes due to technological advancements. With foresight and perseverance, Russel has molded his business to meet the needs of changing times to become the oldest operating local company.
For the first 27 of Quick Tees’ 31 years in existence, screen-printing was Russell’s sole option for putting designs onto shirts. Requiring hours of labor before printing even begins, the method was less than economical for customers desiring fewer than 50 shirts.
The advent of computers changed the game completely, followed by digital printing machines several years ago, which also lead to a complete overhaul of the previous methods used.
Russell’s newest development is a website where his clients can go to create their own T-shirt designs, and his digital printing machines can start the printing process with the push of a button.
“The website enables you to go into the design studio, upload a photograph and order one T-shirt with up to 60 million colors on that one shirt,” said Russell.