We never say no.
Yeah, the more you gain a client, you start to lose them.
Right.
“And if these are to keep your customers and get new ones.”
Yeah, yeah, for sure, for sure. We've always done that. Not to think of our other companies that are just like us in the same city as competition. But they're friends. Yeah.
And then once you get to be friends with them, if they have some piece of equipment that you don't have, then you can help each other. Christy Hoffman is a resilient, innovative, and faith-driven entrepreneur. And the owner of T-shirts plus in Conroe, Texas. Known for transforming a struggling T-shirt franchise into a thriving customer-parallel business.
She has built her success through perseverance and creativity. We're now currently partners with Houston Rockets. We print all their shirts. Amazing. And when they win, and they go to play Austin, we do 19,000 shirts.
You see that on TV, we don't have all those shirts on every single seat. Oh, yeah. It's hard to do. Behind the scenes, you would really not imagine how hard that is. But we have.
It spans the globe.
Like a super high school, Internet Elvis.
Today, Apple is going to reinvent the fall. It's not over. I'm telling how weird. The living your legacy podcast for those who live to leave a legacy. It's extremely impossible.
Welcome back to another episode of the Living Your Legacy podcast for Insight Success. I am Regretiers.
“Joining me today in a cross knocking out that door, I'm just teasing.”
Joining me today is Christy Hoffman, founder, owner, co-founder of T-shirts plus. T-shirts plus. And it used to be a franchise. So originally, 32 years ago, when they bought into it, it was a franchise. And I actually think there are still some franchises across the United States.
OK. I'm 10. When that happened. Exactly. Right on ages, and you're right off the bat.
No worries. It's fine. You're among your people here. Welcome to the show. We're about to film your episode for Women in Power.
Very excited about that.
What are we going to learn about you?
I'm just our journey. I mean, it's been a, you know, the highs and lows like any other entrepreneur. You have some great things that happen and some really difficult things that happen. Oh, yeah. It makes some great decisions.
And then some not so great decisions. Absolutely. But for the most part, we've really, we've really made some good decisions. And got us to this point, which is really fun. We're now currently partners with Houston rockets.
We print all their shirts. Amazing. Women, they win. And they go to play off. Then we do 19,000 shirts.
You see that on TV, we have all those shirts on every single seat. Oh, yeah. So we do. Businesses. And it's hard to do.
Behind the scenes, you would really not imagine how hard that is. But we have, we have fine tuned it. Yeah. Yeah. Jeff has had a lot of, a lot of say in some of that stuff.
I'm sure. I'm sure. I'm sure. You're talking to an Uber nerd that loves to watch the YouTube channels of how things are made.
Oh, that's fine. Yeah. Yeah. I don't want to say that. I just want to say, I don't want to say that.
I just want to say, how did you make it, kind of, about the experience, swag is super important. I mean, like, everyone needs it. That's like, for an over. That's the great thing.
It never goes away. It's funny because I've been, I sort of met a festival to you because of like, I need some of that to the shirts. We've got some of that is the answer. Fantastic.
That's what our branding. And that's Rudy's people. You don't even mind. But you need your people. Yeah.
You need your own people. That's the thing. The cool thing about our industry. It never goes away. Yeah.
Everybody needs it. One time. They need it multiple times. For sure. Which makes us, you know, very consistently busy.
Well, let's talk about the materials you use and folks at understand good versus bad and bad versus quality. Like, it all matters. It doesn't matter. So everybody's had a t-shirt that either cracked and peeled or it, like, on it on this
color shirt. It was pink, you know. Or give your man boobs. And you're just like, great. Yeah.
They put it in the wrong spot. Yeah. That's a really good. No. That matters.
And the details, it's in the screen printing for the kind of ink you use if you have a base or not, like on this color shirt, you would put a base to make sure the white is white. And then the cracking and peeling, if you have a really good dryer, we have a big ask.
Can I say that? Big ask dryer. Big ask dryer. Big ask dryer. Big ask dryer.
When it comes out, when you pull, here's the touch, anybody can do this. Hold your shirt if you're trying to buy one, pull the ink and if it starts cracking, then you know in the wash, it's going to fall off. I love it. So don't buy it.
Those are the quick tips that I love. Yeah. Yeah. That came out wrong. But that's okay.
Talking about the colors, it's very difficult to find the right color.
“Are you using some sort of budu color, like, what is your principles of good color?”
He's talking about coloring for the ink or coloring of the shirt are both.
Everything, all of the above.
Like, to get that right color that right pen tone or the difference between the RGBs
that seem like K's. Like, what is your philosophy? Because anyone these days is, I'm going to do a start-up, I'm going to jump right now. No, you're not. You just love employed.
Like, I just got a little thing with a shirt, like, look at me going. Everybody thinks they're a t-shirt design. Yeah. I mean, seriously. Walk in.
And they're like, no, they don't want to use our experience. They want this. It's natural designs in real estate. Yeah, it feels in back into what works, what doesn't work in our industry. So we really do have to do that.
But we also have, you know, it's an art. You know, in our employees, I've got employed have had for 22 years. I mean, I've got her at 17. I still have her. Nice.
That's been there for less. I know. They're awesome. It's just very talented.
And you have to have some talent.
Yeah. And know what, for your customer, what their needs are, what they would like. Yeah. And for us now at this point, this far end, we have Blue Bells one of our big customers too.
We've had them for 19 years. And we kind of know what they like, what sells for them. Yeah. It's easy for us to figure it out. It's, it's so important.
“That's one of the relationships that is very important, very eager to continue this conversation”
offline because it's important because as a creator, as someone that is understands brands, you want that brand to be on everyone because that person is supporting you. Now that person is an extension of your brand. They're just amplifying your voice. Yeah.
Talk about some of the clients or some folks that you've amplified through your work. Well, this is one of the, you just, give me that perfectly. Thank you. This is the podcast. You did it, you know, with Blue Bell and others, rockets, other and others, and, you know,
you've been, everybody has bought a shirt that has the screen printed inside the label
where it's custom label and I always thought that was cool.
We go, we travel a lot and then, of course, everywhere we go, take pictures of designs. Oh, let's do that one. Let's do that. You know, it just changed everything. It's so easy.
Yeah. But when you see a shirt that has their branding on the inside of stuff, and it took me a while a few years, that is, a few years ago, that I did the research. It's interesting. All the shirts that we buy wholesale, they always have a shirt that is a tear-away label.
So you can tear that away, and then you screen print the, you know, the size label and you'll know, go, whatever it is. And so we got into that. And now some of our customers are loving that. Yes.
And it's not easy to replicate like, um, other T-shirts companies can do it, but it takes a while to figure it out. Like, it's not easy. It's not easy. It's not easy.
I'm sorry to drop. I was going to say a lot of folks kind of hire you for that because it's a, you're
“30 something years of experience, you said, I'm like, that's what the values are.”
Because that's why I was trying to, my point out, everyone can make T-shirts. I know. It's really a trade secret. Here's how you mix your real reds with this, and that, that's the stuff that. And Tom Colors, you were asking about that.
We can mix, and it's to be a specific pantone. And there's so many go. No. And sometimes they want a specific cool pastelly something. And then, so we just get that, make, make big bugs, you know, fan it out.
Which color do you want? Sure. Yeah. Create that pantone color. Right on.
Beyond shirts and hats, what other swags, what other fascinating things do you create for clients? Cool stuff. And well, I mean, promotional items at cups, mugs, mouse pads, let chapstick, backpacks, I know jackets, everything. Anything that you see on TV or you see at a shop we can do.
By any chance, you make giant scissors for cutting. Because I actually, I interviewed the founder of that company. And it was Kimberly something, but she is a founder of the giant scissors. And she still got that company. So I'm kind of curious, you've all worked together, or rubbed elbows, because you're all in the same ballpark.
Yeah. Yes. No, I mean, it's a main, it's cool in our industry. We also really are networked and know each other, you know. And it turns it.
It's been a fun 32 years in business, because we go to shows. And we know a lot of people that sell to us. And then a lot of people that have shops just like us. Yeah. And Jeff, also talk me in the industry, not to think of our other companies that are just like us in the same city as competition.
Sure. But they're friends. Yeah. And then once you get to be friends with them, if they have some some piece of equipment that you don't have, you can. The friendly, lively begins.
No, then then you can help each other. Absolutely. The friendly, lively. I know what you mean, I mean, what, what, what do you do work with a lot of, let's say YouTube creators. I see some of their side hustles.
There's their Patreon page selling Polaroids. A lot of folks are into shirts.
“Do you find a lot of customers that kind of send you over a design?”
Oh, yeah. What's your process? Like, what's an onboarding typical onboarding for a customer? Well, it depends on the customer. There's a lot of customers that have their own logo that they've created.
And they want to use that. And we take it. And sometimes they'll give it to us like all in the image. And the image is not very clear. So we have to, you know, put it into vector form and do all that stuff.
Good for that one. Look at you go. I remember we're back in the good old days. They would just be kicked back. No, the bleeding.
You can't do that. Then a lot of people do. Yeah. That's where the expertise comes in. Because they don't do that.
Because companies like us say, no, we can't do that.
But we never say no.
Like, you can't say no in business.
You've got to figure it out. Yeah, I mean, you gain a client. You start to lose them. Right. You start to keep your customers and get new ones.
Yeah, yeah, for sure, for sure. We've always done that. Um, yeah.
“What is the best way folks can follow you and look, look you up?”
Um, well, our website. And I said, I don't know if I said it. Yeah. No, you're actually.
T-shirts plus con row t-x.
Oh, come on. Or email me, Chris, yeah. T-shirts dot plus. Right. Yeah, that's a dot plus.
Not in that or a column. It's a dot, I know. No, I love it. I said, made that. No, no, no, no, no.
In the computer science.
“I was just going to say, I glad you brought them up.”
So, so casually and actually, you bit of the business for so long.
Uh, a trade secrets. How are you handling this down to a legacy? To a legacy. Well, I thought, like, one of my kids would want to. And they didn't because it was a lot hard work.
They saw hard. It was, we had to work all these years. Sure. So, um, we actually at our age now are going to sell the business. Wow.
And, but the cool thing is we'll stay on as um, you know, to help make sure it continues on and gets bigger and better. And handed off to the younger generation, the girl that I told you earlier a manager Carla of 22 years. She's only 40.
So, she's gone long way to go. Yeah. They will make it bigger and better. And we will watch it. It'll be fun.
Um, but that's our next next chapter. Right on. Uh, anything you want to say for folks that are watching, listening and closing comments? Oh, well, if you need swag, you know, we're to call.
T-shirts, fuss and contrast. Right on, Christy. Well, Christy, so what, uh, thank you so much for your time and energy. I'm, uh, eager to learn more about you after your interview. You're in for a treat.
I believe you're filming with Lauren. Lauren is my apprentice. She's awesome. Uh, or they're awesome. Uh, yeah.
So, Christy Hoffman, uh, look them up. Father, journey.
“I will definitely grab your business card because boy, do I need shirts for my brand?”
And so much more. And with that, this is Christy Hoffman. I am Rigotieras. And we are inside success. [ Music ]
