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3/13/2014
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MARCH 17 - 23, 2014
CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS
WWW.CRAINSCLEVELAND.COM
REBECCA R. MARKOVITZ PHOTOS
Clockwise from top left: An employee supervises as an embroidery machine completes a logo on a hat; sewing machine operator Phan Hoang sews taping into baseball hats; the brim is attached to a hat; a variety of “Made in the USA� tags that can be added to orders; embroidery thread at the factory; supervisor Etelka Kiss cuts out hat panels for assembly.
Graffiti: Looking to grow continued from PAGE 4
It moved from Terminal Tower in the heart of downtown to 3111 Carnegie Ave. in 1987 and slowly expanded into three buildings with manufacturing and storage capabilities, as well as a small showroom. The company has around 65 employees, about half of whom live within 10 minutes of the plant, Mr. Miller said. The hats Graffiti makes still require plenty of hands-on work in a business that increasingly relies on automated manufacturing. Producing its caps from start to finish not only gives Graffiti control over their quality, but also over the design process. Instead of buying an already assembled cap and bending it to fit into a sewing machine, as operations manager Robert Hatfield said many of its competitors do, Graffiti embroiders and dyes each of its cap parts flat. The company uses a process called dye sublimation that allows it to print a color-fast design onto paper and press it into the fabric. Graffiti also has its own in-house art department that can work with companies to design and adapt logos to be embroidered onto to their hats or other products. The company does a lot of custom work for organizations that include labor unions, the military and the U.S. Postal Service, as well as private label work. The company’s product offerings have expanded over time, and it still offers other customizable items, such as shirts, that it buys from outside vendors. But caps make up about 60% of Graffiti’s business, Mr. Miller said. Annual sales at Graffiti are about $5 million, he said, and its goal is to reach $6 million in sales by 2015. In 2009, Graffiti started producing its own knit hats, a business that Hatfield said has been growing 25% to 30% a year. Mr. Miller said the key to such expansion is to stick with
what’s familiar; the commercial knitted products could be made by the same employees and sold to the same distributors. Now, the company is focusing on increasing its visibility. Graffiti updated its website in March, graffiticaps.com, to include the pricing structure for the caps, which was missing on the site. The website also features an online showroom to highlight new and existing products, Hatfield said. In addition, Graffiti recently launched a wholesale website, at an address it wasn’t willing to disclose, that will let other vendors sell domestic baseball caps, Hatfield said. It won’t be Graffiti-branded, but it will sell Graffiti products.
All-American appeal Steve Carr, owner of Carr Textile Corp. in Fenton, Miss., and a supplier to Graffiti, said Graffiti has “survived and thrived� in a tough industry that has been changed in recent years by imports. Carr estimated there were 120 headwear manufacturers in the United States about 10 years ago. Today, he thinks that number is closer to 20. He said Graffiti has made it because the owners are highly involved, and the company always is looking to change with the times. Mr. Miller said the recession was tough for Graffiti, but he noticed that once it was over, people started buying more domestically made products. He thinks there is a patriotic component to it, though the increased cost of shipping imports has played a big role, too. Mr. Miller said his company has survived in part because of the nature of baseball caps, which boast an all-American image. They’re a good value, they come in a variety of styles and one can never have too many, he said. “For the money, it’s a wonderful value to help represent people’s companies� with Graffiti’s hats, Mr. Miller said. „
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