After a year of pouring all of his energy and soul into
the shop, Smith was able to repay his friend and quickly
grow the business into a success.
While the local schools and sports teams may make
up 80% of Smith’s business, his work has also reached
soldiers in Afghanistan and Japan, and has notably
been featured by the United States Olympic gymnastics
team in the 2016 Rio de Janeiro games.
“That was probably the highlight of our career so
far, and I hope that gets overshadowed by something
else,” Smith said.
Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the shop was able to
stay open as Smith and his wife Telisha took to making
face masks. Smith also found quick success selling ‘I’m
an essential worker’ t-shirts that took off across the
nation.
“Being an entrepreneur, you have to be able to
pivot, or to switch lanes in order to stay open,” Smith
said. “We could have gone and just sat at home and
quarantined, but we probably wouldn’t be here today if
that’s what we did. I wasn’t going to sink just sitting at
home, I was going to sink trying to make it.”
As schools and sports begin plans to resume in
the fall semester, Smith notes that orders are already
trickling in again.
“I think we’ve made it through the roughest part,
and we’re going to be fine. Once schools open back up,
we’ll be fine,” Smith said.
14 | HUNTSVILLE LIVING | FALL 2020