Andrew Evitts owns and operates Mighty Tees Screen Printing and Design located in Paducah, KY.

Established in a small non-insulated garage in 2009, the business has expanded multiple times to reach the space now that is almost 5 times the original size.

Several years into Evitts’ career as a college professor, he realized he wasn’t doing what he wanted to do. Evitts went to school for graphic design, did a lot of side work for photo editing and graphic design, and began working at another screen printer’s shop as a summer job. “I started doing it on the side at first, but when it took off, I was making more than I was as a teacher–and I was having more fun doing it!”

Evitts says his dream of establishing this business started in high school art class. “Mr.Goodwin was my art teacher when I was a senior at GCHS, there was a lesson where we created a design, transferred it to the screen, and made our own screen printed t-shirt.”

Evitts, after looking around for a bit,  realized he still has that shirt today.

He claims the most satisfying part of his job is creating a design that somebody loves and turning it into a physical product that he can hand to them. “It’s something about the magic of an idea being put into work that satisfies me most, its different than just a digital copy because you’ll always have something to hold onto and wear.”

The most challenging part for Evitts is communicating with customers. “We try our hardest to keep everyone satisfied, but not everyone knows the amount of work that goes into making a shirt. There are so many people that call wanting a full color design on one shirt, and that’s not how it works.”

Typically, Mighty Tees produces bulk orders for local businesses and corporations. “Sometimes there are people who come to me with an order of over 100 shirts, but they want them in two days. Though I would love to be able to get them done that fast, it’s not possible.”

He continues, “we have to order the blank shirts, make the digital file, burn the image into screens, and set it up all while trying to complete the other 15 orders that were placed by other customers in a timely manner.” He says it’s hard to turn someone away, but now that the business is so much bigger, small orders aren’t made unless they surpass the minimum of 15 shirts.

Evitts believes in five years, Mighty Tees will be bigger and better:“the possibilities are endless, even when you think you’re at the top there’s always something new to learn that will put you more ahead than you were before.”