We were lucky to catch up with John Vanatta recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi John, thanks for joining us today. The first dollar you earn in a new endeavor is always special. We’d love to hear about how you got your first client that wasn’t a friend or family.

I started a business with my friend Ronnie Azoff who had been working for the merchandise company Giant Merchandising doing tour merchandise for bands. I came from the retail action sports industry as the general manager of Val Surf and brought in that category.

We started a merchandise business developing and producing merchandise for skate companies, clothing companies, action sports companies, and bands focusing mainly on t-shirts and accessories.

As the business grew we started developing and producing custom merchandise for companies. That’s when it got very complicated but also exciting as I needed to learn development, clothing design, and production for custom apparel.
Sourcing was an issue because at that time in the late 80’s there was no internet. Business to business yellow pages was helpful, but I am very resourceful, know how to build things and developed relationships with people who could help me do what I needed to do.

John, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

Interestingly the first things I built myself were off-road race cars.

Off-roading was just a hobby at the start, then I got involved in the off-road team “Checkers” which set up pits in the desert for refuling, repairs, and changing tires. I started helping friends to build their own racecars until I built my own.

I started with a pre-run car built by someone else that kept breaking. I tore it apart, built it better, and kept building it better.
I drive fast, so the car had to be strong enough to handle the speed and terrain. I raced locally in California but also did pre- run for the Baja races. It was a thrill.

This is where I learned hands-on engineering, problem solving, attention to detail, design, sourcing, welding, and more. Seguing this skillset into clothing design and manufacturing made sense to me. I felt if I could build one thing, I could build other things. Apparel was also less complex. Timing of work required is an issue of course but the resourcefulness and skills I built in the racecar experience have been instrumental throughout my life and became a midset.

Have you ever had to pivot?

My pivot began when I discontinued my business with Ronnie. I continued with garment manufacturing on my own and started my business APE which stands for Apparel Product Engineering.

I was doing custom action sports merchandise based on knits. We sourced patternmakers, developed and knitted our own custom fabric, handled design, fabric dying, finishing, special treatments, screenprinting, and everything included in the developement and production of lines. I became very skilled in helping people make their vision a reality.

Then I was approached by a UK based music merchandise company Bravado International Group (BIG) who had a group of girls called the “Spice Girls”. They developed the line in Europe but in order to make it in the US I had to develop specific fabrics that weren’t available in the US. We set up the whole USA production supply chain. It was difficult to keep up with production as the custom shirt I created was the number 1 seller. We were selling approx 600 a night. We screenprinted cut pieces, gave them to contractors all over Los Angeles to sew, collected whatever they had done and shipped them off to the next tour location. It was a huge tour, Spice Girls were a hit, and it was crazy.

I started as an outside contractor with BIG until I was hired as the director of product development, working directly with the artists which included Sex Pistols, White Snake, Christina Aguilera, Motorhead, Nora Jones, Guns & Roses, Bon Jovi, Slayer, Destiny’s Child, Beyonce. The list goes on…

It was my job to make the artist’s vision a reality.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

Because of my unique skillsets and background, I know how to make basically anything anyone wanted.

I’m skilled in making the artist’s vision a reality, and because of that when I took meetings with them I could figure out what they wanted, direct them, and come up with unique designs.

However. The artists often wanted what they wanted but as a merchandiser its important to keep the creativity of the design but make it production friendly and profitable as a business.

Jed Weitzman, who worked with Jane’s Addiction and Morrissey put it this way:
John made the sometimes difficult task of seeing an Artists vision make it to the merchandise table an absolute pleasure. He has the unique skill of being able to articulate the artists vision as well as manage the important business side of things – which is no small task. He’s one of the best out there and I welcome the opportunity to work with him again sooner rather than later.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://roguemerchandising.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/john.vanatta.50/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/john.vanatta.50
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-vanatta-0872a04a

Image Credits
Josh Madsen, Jenn Spain