We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Sara Wilson a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Sara , thanks for joining us today. So let’s jump to your mission – what’s the backstory behind how you developed the mission that drives your brand?

Our mission at Sick Stix is to provide apparel and decals that will hold up to any task. We saw a hole in the market. While there are many apparel and decal companies on the market, not many make products that can withstand the job of a blue collar worker that is affordable.

My husband is a welder and has been doing this profession for over 10 years. We were constantly having to purchase shirts and hoodies due to the burn out rate of what we purchased. This led me to do my own research to see where we could fill this void because we weren’t the only ones having this problem. After 6 months of testing materials, we found it! The perfect system that worked for us and could withstand the work that these men and women do.

Now this was the same for the decals, they had to be fade resistant, water resistant and able to withstand a lot of heat. After a few months of testing we found the best combo.

My husband and I are both United States Navy veterans and value a good product that can hold up to the elements of our profession. We are so happy that we have been able to help our customers make apparel and decals they can be proud of and know that it is going to last at a reasonable price.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Hi, my name is Sara Wilson and I am the founder and owner of Sick Stix. We are a veteran owned and operated small business located out of Rhode Island. The start of Sick Stix was based on a need, my husband is a welder and we were running through apparel. The stuff he was wearing could not withstand the heat or vigor of his job. This was a problem for a lot of our friends in the industry as well. This made me do my research on a way to make apparel and decals that could withstand a blue collar workers job while also being affordable.

There are many companies on the market that make apparel and decals. But we have real world testing, we took months to perfect our process and to ensure premium quality every time while making it affordable for everyone. Our apparel is soft, comfy. and can withstand quite a bit of tough love.

We are so proud to be able to provide these products to our customers and provide the option to have everything fully customizable. We also do fully custom shirts and decals for our customers. Our goal is to ensure that every customer has a great customer service experience with us, they feel taken care of and valued, and receive a product they can be proud of.

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

On this journey, the very beginning was all about resilience. We were new to the game of making apparel and decals and finding the right materials was very tricky. We went through so many different brands and blends of shirts to see what was the best on the market. My husband would wear the test shirts to work to see how they would hold up. This took months of researching and testing to find the right shirt that pressed well, looked good, offered a wide variety of sizing, everything. This was the same process for our decals.

We really had to show resilience and not get down when a material didn’t work (because it happened a lot) until we found the right one.

Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?

The most effective strategy for growing my clientele has been word of mouth. When we provide a great customer service experience along with products, word gets out. Always go above and beyond for your clientele. Whether that is your packaging, giving some freebies, offering discounts, it all stands out! You want to ensure every customer is beyond satisfied, they will tell a friend who will tell a friend. Word of mouth is POWERFUL!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.sickstixco.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sickstixco/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sickstixco