News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
Benders Ink is determined to do its part to clothe the planet with their colorful, wacky, and sometimes politically incorrect T-shirts printed right here in Sisters.
Owners - and brothers - Jeff and Patrick Johnson hail from the Leyland Peninsula in Michigan, where many of their original designs came from. They started their T-shirt venture back in 2005, when the construction industry slowed and they were looking for a side gig to make ends meet and it slowly evolved from there.
"The T-shirt is such a timeless open canvas," said Patrick. "Everybody loves them. It moves and flows with popular culture around the world. We get ideas from all over the place and try to tap into the demographics. We're constantly commenting on and evaluating current events and trends. It's taking something mundane or commonplace and putting a funny spin on it.
"We have a great group of friends that all have the same weird sense of humor. We like to make people think a little bit."
From pistol-packin' pandas, the space-age design of an '80s mini-van, Polkamania proclamations, beer worship and jabs at slacker ski-town leisure lifestyles, nothing escapes the barbed wit of the Johnson Brothers line.
The shirts feature good old American sarcasm and humor as it relates to popular culture, politics, and spins on hallowed corporate slogans.
The designs are original and fresh, with a sly wink to their maker's esoteric sense of style.
"Our mission is to strike up conversation, share laughter, and spread love through the marriage of cloth and ink," said Patrick. "Our designs are printed on only the finest, American-made, sweatshop-free goods. The shirts are high quality and manufactured in California. We care about the longevity of our products and for every life involved in helping us create them. Our line caters to a wide variety of people, and we try to have a lot of different cuts and colors in stock."
Last year Benders Ink started a line of organics called The Green Line. All the designs are printed on 100-percent organic cotton, with sustainability as the main focus from start to finish. Jeff and Patrick are excited about the future of sustainable practice and happy to be ambassadors of a movement that's growing larger everyday.
Jeff Johnson, a graduate of CU in Boulder, Colorado, with a degree in architecture, explained the difficulty of being a start-up in the vast ocean of T-shirt marketing.
"We're competing with companies that have a huge built-in customer base and volume. We've got the creativity part, now we're looking to expand and boost our volume," he said.
"I'm the creative/humor guy and Jeff is the nuts-and-bolts/logistics guy," said Patrick, helping his mom, Kathi, find a fresh stack of shirts at the Sisters Stampede event. Benders Ink did all the logo and souvenir wear for the Memorial Day Weekend mountain bike race.
"The name of the company came from our group of friends in Bend who provide many of the funny sayings and slogans found on our T-shirts," said Jeff. "This thing started at the kitchen table and it's grown from there. We were just two guys that knew nothing about Web sites or e-commerce or T-shirt printing."
Their self-designed Web site is a crazy creative forum and think tank where visitors can browse through the latest inventory and chuckle along with friends, share fan photos or leave comments and feedback for new shirt designs to earn Benders Bucks.
"We want to start doing some new designs that connect with the Central Oregon area. Something that represents regional culture and history," said Patrick. "We take ideas from anybody. You can get them from your friends, family, yourself and through collaborations. I tend to turn everything into a joke. It's just my way of viewing the world."
For more information, visit http://www.bendersink.com for their complete line of original T-shirts, or call 541-771-4041.
Reader Comments(0)