I sat strapped to a captain’s chair in a repurposed delivery truck bought off Craigslist last year in Mishawaka, IN. The driver, John Amato, honked and waved to pedestrians as he drove through suburban streets not designed for giant novelty vehicles. People looked up at the truck’s fresh vinyl wrap of candy-colored diagonals. They cocked their heads, and wondered if they should know this grinning man waving at them from a brightly painted truck. And they should know him. He’s the owner of one of Toledo’s sparkling, young businesses: Jupmode.
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Looks Like Fun
Jupmode makes T-shirts. Lots of T-shirts. All kinds of T-shirts, for softball teams, alumni associations, high schools, middle schools, churches and bar crawls. They call it a craft screen printing company, making quality shirts for quality people. “It’s something really easy and personal,” said Amato, explaining why people like having T-shirts for every occasion. “T-shirts are timeless.”
Jupmode is pocketed inside an arcade hallway in a long strip mall on South Boundary Street in Perrysburg. Stacks of different colored T-shirts cover the shop, one large room that used to be a dry-cleaner. In the center of the room, two screen presses, like sideways carousels at an amusement park, push ink through mesh screens onto blank shirts. A long, metal dryer constantly spits out hot T-shirts from a conveyor belt, like Domino’s pizzas.
“It doesn’t seem like a work environment for me,” said Brian Huhn, one of Jupmode’s screen printers. Vintage records often play on a turntable while Amato’s Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, Trooper, hops around the shop during late nights of printing. Murals cover two walls, and a third wall displays the company motto in colored string: “If it looks like fun, then it probably is.”
Around the world and back
Jupmode began like an episode of Carmen Sandiego. Amato, a Perrysburg native, graduated from Notre Dame and spent nine months abroad in Paris. He returned home with an idea: a T-shirt that looked like the signature red sweater vest of then-Ohio State football coach Jim Tressel. He sent his design to a company in China, and a prototype came back. Requests from friends sent more orders to China. Then, an official sanction from Ohio State gave Amato free rein to make as many shirts as demanded—which was a lot. He made a deal with a Mexican company to make more shirts, then found another company in India to make them before deciding to make the shirts himself in Toledo. “I didn’t know the first thing about screen printing,” said Amato. But he taught himself, and began creating shirts with licenses from Bowling Green State University and the University of Toledo.
Jim Tressel resigned from his coaching position in 2011, and the Tressel sweater demand subsided. “It’s been a real struggle,” said Amato. Jupmode’s bank accounts dwindled to less than $100, but they pushed forward. “I was determined to make something out of this.” They sold their other collegiate shirts while developing nostalgic Toledo designs like the rediscovered “You Will Do Better In Toledo,” and expanded into a jack-of-all-styles, custom screen printing company. They hustled for new clients, and landed accounts that had never taken a chance on an independent printer. “Nothing feels like a risk anymore,” says Amato.
Jupmode just upgraded to an automated printer, allowing them to make upwards of 500 shirts per hour. Their first full-time employee, Shannon Mossing, has a bachelor’s degree in fine arts specializing in printmaking and will help manage operations. Their new truck will deliver large orders in full Technicolor. They also plan to sell shirts directly from the truck, like sartorial summer treats.
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After printing one night until 8:30pm, Amato sat down with Brian Huhn over a bucket of Budweisers. The iced bottles cooled their sore, paint-covered hands. Jupmode went from a single T-shirt to thousands, from nearly broke to expansion, from one idea to a full business. Amato wondered then if he was living the American Dream. He’s still waiting for someone to tell him he isn’t.
Dorian Slaybod is 28, a local attorney and happily living in Toledo.
