We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Ben Snedecor. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Ben below.
Ben, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?
My name’s Ben, and I’ve been making t-shirts since 2018. To me, the coelacanth fish represents me progressing into the next stage of my life, part of which is running an online business from anywhere in the world.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
Hitch hikers, board breakers, petty criminals, action hero wannabes.
Back in 2018, my buddies and I found ourselves working low-level enlisted jobs in the US Navy. This mostly involved busting rust, tugging lines, and chipping paint in the San Diego shipyards and out at sea.
Work was work, and adventure was pretty much mandatory; for kicks and for sanity. We’d get off base whenever we could to explore all the mountains, surf breaks, bouldering spots, and cheap burrito joints in the area.
Whatever time we had off the ship was lots of fun, but it was also more than that. The crew became aficionados of weekend warrior road trips, fireside beers, jerry-rigged roof racks, and discount tire repair.
Misadventures ensued. None of us had a whole lot of money, or really knew what the hell we were doing, but we somehow made it work and lived to talk about it. Our trips were blatantly disorganized, mostly unsafe, and amateur at best.
Gear became a big thing for me. I wanted equipment that I could trust on the road AND score some style points. But most of the time, the stuff I really wanted was either too expensive at the local REI or straight-up didn’t exist.
The spark to really start making t-shirts happened on the way to a rainy surf sesh at Tourmaline Beach, when I struck up a conversation with my buddy Wyatt about some dope t-shirt designs we both had in mind. And just like that, the journey that became Coelacanth Apparel kicked off.
And it snowballed from there. Whether I was working on the ship, catching waves in IB, climbing at Mission Gorge, or figuring out the barbell at the base gym, “the t-shirt thing” was always in the background, never really making any money but constantly improving.
So at the end of the day, what even IS Coelacanth? Up-front, of course it’s the “BETTER graphic t-shirt”. No one can hold a candle to tees that are only made in America, spun from soft and durable fabric, and shipped right to your door with sick but subtle designs.
But what is this actually about? Is it an invention? A brand? Outdoor gear? Street wear? An attempted solution to an explosive post-military existential crisis?
Well sure, I guess it could be all of those things. But to me, Coelacanth Apparel is really just about having dumb adventures with my friends and figuring it out along the way. It’s about hopping in a Jeep on Friday and breaking out of the Google-mapped, orange caution taped micro-world of your 9-to-5, and getting away to someplace where YOU write the story.
So check ‘em out! You’re bound to find something you like.
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
The whole progression of my little t-shirt empires has involved resilience so far. Safe to say, it’s an oversaturated market and not the most original invention. There’s plenty of folks out there who make t-shirts and large competitors who are well-entrenched in the market. On the flip side, t-shirts are an evergreen product, meaning they’ll never go out of relevancy. No matter what happens with AI, or the aliens, or Blink-182, people will always be buying t-shirts.
And if I’m being totally honest. So far, I haven’t been able to make my tshirt hustle a full or supplementary source of income but for some reason I don’t feel like stopping. I really feel like I’m constantly getting better and I’m bound to get SOMEWHERE as long as I don’t stop making these things better.
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
Not even just several, MANY. Let me try and recount the amount of times I’ve changed up the brand. My first little t-shirt empire was called Savage Shirts. Then it was Ike’s Raiment, then it was Enkidu Supply named after the character from the Epic of Gilgamesh, And with that brand, I started selling the “premium” product called the Anywhere Shirt and subsequently decided I should base the whole operation around it, being the “BETTER graphic t-shirt”. I’ve since paused Anywhere Shirts because the next production method will involve some more up-front costs as far as equipment and marketing.
My spinoff Etsy stores have also been fun projects, with Coelacanth Apparel being my main focus at the moment. I’ve had the most success on Etsy so far because I can just rely on keyword searches and providing products that customers are ALREADY looking for in the first place. Coelacanth Apparel, is geared towards both men and women; featuring unisex t-shirts, coffee mugs, and womens’ tank tops. My other Etsy store, Madlands Trading Co. is mostly geared towards men; offering t-shirts, gym tanks, and coffee mugs with oldschool badasses like Teddy Roosevelt and John L. Sullivan.
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