Printing passion results in Overland Park screen printing business

When you first walk into Adams Screen Printing & Embroidery in Overland Park, it looks like a small office. But open the door to the shop in the back and a screen-printing machine with 12 long tentacle arms able to use 10 colors greets you. This monster of a printer helps owner Darryl Adams and his three employees produce as many as 600 shirts in an hour and up to 1,000 a day.

“Three-quarters of our work is contract printing,” said Adams, who owns the business with his wife, Shahla. “People supply us with the shirts, artwork and everything.”

Adams started his business back in 1990 after earning a degree in printing technology from Pittsburg State University. While still in college, Adams was bitten by the entrepreneurial bug.

“One of my electives was a screen printing class,” Adams said. “My buddies and I had a softball team, and so I always did the shirts for that. My last year at school I did a T-shirt design called ‘Pitt Rock Café’ and I had the bookstore sell them and all over campus. … I sold for $15 and they cost me $2, so I made some money. And that convinced me to go into this business.”

Before setting out on his own, Adams went to work for Mast Advertising and Publishing, running its darkroom operations.

Q: How did you start your own business?

With a loan from their father, Adams and his brother bought equipment.

“We bought a six-color, three station manual press. I think we probably spent $1,500 and the dryer was about $2,000,” he said. “We set up business in my brother Derek’s basement.”

Darryl Adams kept working at Mast and in his spare time teamed up with his brother to print shirts. When Mast closed, Adams decided to go full speed ahead with Adams Screen Printing.

After three years, Adams needed more space and moved out of the basement operation and into a commercial space at West 106^th Street and Pflumm Road. He had about 2,000 square feet of space and a six-color press. In the beginning, running his own business proved challenging for Adams.

“I self-taught myself everything,” Adams said. “We couldn’t keep up that first year. I had no experience in production, and I was overwhelmed for work … you just figure it out.”

Q: How do you promote your business?

“I started advertising in the screen printing section in the phone book and being Adams Screen Printing, I was at the top of the book,” Adams said. “There were only about seven in the book at the time so I got a lot of calls.”

Today, Adams relies primarily on word of mouth and repeat business.

“A lot of them have found me,” he said. “I don’t do a lot of selling. We’re based off of repeat business. Certain events come up and we do shirts for them whether they’re schools, colleges, business or restaurants.”

Adams Screen Printing offers embroidery services that he subcontracts out.

Q: What’s your inventory situation?

Adams tends to order product as needed.

“I don’t keep anything in inventory,” Adams said. “If I had to keep all this inventory, it would cost millions of dollars. It’s easier to purchase what I need 10 minutes away. … If I order something over $150 I get free shipping, so I tend to order as needed.”

Q: What’s the marketplace like in your industry?

“It’s very competitive,” Adams said. There are two other screen-printing businesses within three blocks of his shop.

“A lot of people try to get into it and they offer shirts so low that they find later they can’t do it. I can make more because I can get more shirts out in an hour.”

Adams said screen printers sometimes find themselves doing work for the same companies.

“I print for other screen printers, too, when they get a job that they need a 10-color press or have a deadline,” he said.

Despite the challenges, Adams likes the business.

“It’s just fun,’ he said. “It’s a lot of work, but the reward of seeing things go out the door at the end of the day is great.”

This story was originally published April 21, 2015 at 2:44 PM with the headline "Printing passion results in Overland Park screen printing business."