We recently connected with Mikel Galati and have shared our conversation below.

Mikel , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Risk taking is something we’re really interested in and we’d love to hear the story of a risk you’ve taken.

The biggest risk i did was taking a dive into this business full time.

I taught myself screen printing, through YouTube videos & trial and error. It was more of and my main focus was to print for my own band at the time. I was maybe barely 21 years old. I was working dog walking gigs, super part time and just trying to make things work. A few months later, i landed a job in the print shop at a local record label. I jumped on it, but was too afraid to take the “screen printer” position. So i settled for shop hand/floater. Basically i did everything, besides print. A few short days into the job and i realized i would have been comfortable in the position, but it had been filled. So i was stuck as the shop grunt!

I stayed at this label just under 6 months till i couldn’t take it anymore. I bailed early summer, around my birthday. Planned to get another part time job and focus on home printing. (Which I’d do on the side, after hours). And when i quit, i just never got a part time gig.

I wasn’t busy, i wasn’t ready to spread my wings and fly. Wasn’t ready to be full time doing it. Definitely wasn’t planning on starting a business. Just Couldn’t take working for someone, and quit.

Just kept at it, and 12? Ish years later, we’re still here, doing the thing!

Mikel , before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I own/operate a screen print shop here in Chicago. It’s one of the oldest methods of decorating garments/apparel & more. The easiest way of explaining it, is “i print t shirts”.

I got into this, kind of on accident. I wanted to print for my band. So i taught myself and gave it a shot. It caught on, and i was able to do it for more people. And just kept rolling with it.

I offer custom prints t shirts & apparel. I can print on just about any brand/style of apparel on the market. And my focus has always been apparel. Although, i can offer some odds and ends here and there.

I think one thing that sets me apart is my clientele. My main focus has always been local bands and musicians. While I’m stoked to work with anyone and everyone. My heart has always been with any sort of music scene. Because that’s why i started this shop. I always like to say, I’m just a band dude printing band merch. Even if I’m not currently in a band. It’s what got me started.

I’m really proud of my clients. Honestly. Seeing all the bands i print for hit the road and grind really hard. It gets me stoked. I’m always super hyped to see my prints at shows and it really makes me feel loved and supported.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

This one’s an easy one! If you know me, you might be familiar!

I have ridden old vintage 2 stroke mopeds for the last 12 or so years. About as long as I’ve been printing. Basically think a bicycle with a lawn mower engine, from the 70’s!

April 12th, 2022 i got plastered by a car turning left while going through a green. I was unconscious for 8 hours, and almost died (wear your helmet kids!) Ended up with a dislocated shoulder with 2 tears in it, a broken wrist, and a broken tibia and fibula. Which results in a metal rod and 4 screws through my whole shinbone.

I took just shy of 3 months off of work. Closed the shop to heal up. As i didn’t really have a choice. And I’ve been back at it since last summer.

I totally went into the shop about a week after the accident. Heavily medicated and printed about 15 shirts to finish an order. No idea how, because i was basically immobile for a few months besides that. But made it happen for that one client.

Shoulder still gives me issues on some orders. But i power through it and make i happen!

Stoked to be doing my job again and tons of things i love. Sometimes sh*t happens, and we just gotta keep going.

Have you ever had to pivot?

Like many, many small businesses, i was impacted heavily by the pandemic a few years back. This forced me to pivot quite a bit.

While i never had to close. As I’m a small, hidden warehouse and i work solo. I didn’t care and was going to work no matter what.

But my clients orders and business ceased to exist. Even though i was open and operating. Just didn’t have any orders to keep the press spinning. Bands weren’t playing shows because shows didn’t exist for a bit. So bands didn’t need merch, and that always been my main focus.

So i shifted to a “fundraiser model” to help local businesses. Ones that were shut down completely, by law or whatever. So this adjusted the way i operated quite a bit.

Normally, you place an order and pay half up front and half on pick up. Or pay in full up front to confirm the order. And when competed, you grab your order and distribute it as you wish.

The fundraiser model i went with allowed me to help other small businesses, without them having to pay a dime up front. It also gave me a bit of extra work to do, outside of my normal duty of just printing.

I’d toss their shirt/item on my webstore for 2 weeks. Both of us would promote. We’d sell as many as we could for the time frame. Then we’d pull it down and I’d print, pack and ship each individual order. I had an old friend help me run these fundraisers too. It was a lot of tedious work, and I’m made for printing.

The business wouldn’t lift a finger and they’d get 50% of the sale, shirt cost & material came out of my 50%. I was able to cut a check for over $10k to a single business. Which was nice, As should be was I able to help a few closed businesses. But it also kept my press spinning, and allowed me to operate a bit, when I was very slow.    

Contact Info:

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