Today we’d like to introduce you to Rod Thomas.
Rod, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
As a young boy from the eastside of San Antonio, I grew up in the 80s and 90s era when gang banging was at its peak. Just three streets over from the street I lived on was a highly gang and drug-infested part of my neighborhood, an area which witnessed shootings and deaths on a regular basis, if not nightly. Thankfully I lived in a two-parent household with a mother who was very deep into Christianity and spirituality, so my parents, even in the midst of all that was going on around me, kept me focused and on the right path. As a child, I had a thing for Lego and drawing. My 5th grade year of elementary, I was blessed to be in the right place at the right time as David Robinson (retired San Antonio Spur), adopted my entire 5th grade class and vowed that if we graduated high school, he would pay for our first year of college. As it turns out with the unfortunate number of students who didn’t graduate for various reasons or who graduated but decided college wasn’t for them, that allowed those of us who did continue on to college to receive their funds and actually have our first two years of college completely paid for. It wasn’t until high school in about 10th grade when my guidance counselor suggested that I take a drafting class that it all really came “together” for me. After taking that class and working with AutoCAD I found something I really enjoyed doing. That same guidance counselor, as we were preparing for Senior year and trying to decide our next move after graduation, recommended I look at Prairie View A&M University for college, as they had a great engineering program. On top of that it was an HBCU. After a campus visit, I sent off an application to PVU and about four other schools. Being that I was #5 in my senior class, I was automatically accepted to all five but PVU was my choice.
When I enrolled at PVU, I chose Architecture instead of Engineering and loved every bit of architecture school, even though there were many late nights and sleepless nights completing projects. As a part of project presentations, I began to experiment with Photoshop and took a liking to it. During that time of college, I would always come up with these little sayings for myself and thought it would be cool to have them on a shirt. I went to the local Walmart and bought some cheap t-shirt transfers and made a couple of iron on t-shirts. Being that they were iron on they didn’t survive but maybe one wash so that was a bit discouraging. I figured, “I can’t sell people shirts that they can only wear once.” I did a tiny bit of research into t-shirt making only to find out that screen printing required huge equipment, that I couldn’t fit into my campus apartment, and cost more money than I had at that time so my dream of t-shirt printing came to a screeching halt.
I continued my focus on architecture which was a 5-year Bachelor of Architecture degree. Again, being in the right place at the right time; in my fourth year the school introduced a Master of Architecture degree which gave us the option to graduate with a 4-year Bachelor of Science in Architecture and then complete 36 hrs of grad school to obtain our Master’s Degree. There was one catch; if the program did not receive accreditation then the Masters would hold no weight and only be a piece of paper. It would all depend on us and the amount of effort we put into the work we were going to produce. Because of this several classmates decided they didn’t want to take that gamble so they stuck with the 5-year BA. The few of us that took the Masters route busted our behinds and produced a level of work that allowed us to receive our accreditation. I went on to graduate from PVU in 2003 with my Master’s Degree in Architecture and got my first job in my field with an Architecture firm in San Antonio in 2004. In 2006, I became deathly ill with a case of spinal meningitis. Through lots of prayers, support from family and friends, and by the grace of God I overcame death. That was one of the most trying times in my life, being 26 years old and having to learn how to walk and do things for myself again. The mental battle of it all was probably the worst part for me. After returning back to work, I remained at the Architecture firm until 2007 when I left to take a position with the City of San Antonio. I stayed with the City for about a year and half and then received an internship opportunity with the Federal Government that relocated me to Florida. After the two-year program, I was transferred back to Texas where I would work on an Air Force base in the small town of Del Rio for the next three years. After applying for several positions to get me back home to San Antonio where my kids were, I finally got that call in July of 2013. After returning home and getting settled in I did the regular 40 hours a week thing but was thinking that there has to be something else that I can do that I thoroughly enjoy.
In 2015, I learned of print on demand and I put together a few designs and ran a few campaigns. In June of 2016, I did a design and order for my cousin. When she paid for the order it came out to be $126 and of that I received $26. At that point, I thought there has to be a better way for me to do this and receive more of the profit for myself. I began to research and found out about Heat Transfer Vinyl. After diving a little deeper, I decided to pull the trigger in July of 2016 and purchased a vinyl cutter, heat press and some material, made a couple of shirts for family and friends and the rest is history. After seeing the return on my investment, I decided to make it official and registered my business in October of 2016. Since then, I have made a few thousand shirts over several hundred orders and have expanded my services to decals, shoe customization, sublimation and contract screen printing, so we are pretty much a full-service print business now. Another reason for starting iD Tees n More other than wanting to have something to call my own, being a husband and father of three (2-19 years old daughters, one who is a sophomore in college, one who is working full-time and a son who is a high school sophomore basketball player) was to have something that my children could one day take over and take to the next level. Although they haven’t fully jumped on board I will continue building and praying that sooner than later they will join me in a more active role than the small one they play now in helping me, as they are all into fashion with their own sense of style.
A lot of my life, many would probably say I was lucky to be in the right places at the right time, but being a strong believer in Christ I know that none of it was by chance and was all a part of God’s Plan for my life. Keep an eye on ID Tees n More as we continue to grow. iD Tees n More itself is a custom made to order print and apparel brand with a few signature pieces/designs. We also have an actual clothing line which is Colosso314 based upon the Bible verse Colossians 3:14 which says “…above all clothe yourself with love which binds us all together in perfect peace.” Each iD Tees n More piece/design is imprinted with my thumbprint on it as well as yours, hence our logo and each Colosso314 piece has a little touch of love from us here at iD Tees n More.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
From a business standpoint, for the most part, the road has been smooth. A few of the challenges I have faced have been sticking to my business practices and not giving way to some customers as well as managing my time between working a full-time career, family time, serving in my church and running my own business. That load makes for many late nights and early mornings.
Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about iD Tees n More – what should we know?
We are full-service print and custom apparel brand. We specialize in custom apparel, from t-shirts to hoodies, tanks, shoes as well as hard print goods and digital designs. The thing I’m most proud of is how we have grown in the last three years mainly through word of mouth and very little paid advertisement thanks to God’s continued blessings… What sets us apart from others is our commitment to customer service and making sure that we do all we can to ensure each customer is more than satisfied with their iD Tees n More experience.
Is there a characteristic or quality that you feel is essential to success?
Customer service is the most important characteristic to our success because regardless of how good our product may be the thing that will stick out most in our customer’s mind was how we made them feel and how their overall experience with iD Tees n More was.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.colosso314.com
- Email: rod@idteesnmore.com
- Instagram: @idteesnmore, @colosso314
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/idteesnmore
- Other: iD Tees n More
Image Credit:
@metabadass
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