Bottom Line Up Front: Industry veterans Andy Rudman (Shirt Kong) and Dylan Gilligan (Upstate Merch) are here to bring you a whole lot of insight, expertise, and candid discussions about what’s going on in decorated apparel today. From new trends to best tech choices, they break down all of it — so get listening now.
Shirt Show is the latest podcast to enter the decorated apparel stage, and it’s showing up with a whole lot of gusto. Hosted by two industry veterans who are known for their creativity, drive, and printing expertise, it was guaranteed to make a splash when it first hit the podcast airwaves back in June — and we’ll be the first to tell you, it hasn’t disappointed yet.
Andy Rudman and Dylan Gilligan, of Shirt Kong and Upstate Merch respectively, come with a wealth of reputable insight, experience, and new ways of thinking — and the good news is, they’re not shy about sharing it.
Each episode, they bring a different decorated apparel expert onto the show and get them talking. We learn about how some of your favorite industry players first got their start, how they developed their businesses into what they are today, and how they’ve been coping — and innovating — with the changes of COVID.
No topics are off-limits. No conversations are too frank. These hosts give you the raw truth, the unfiltered insight, and the tips and tricks you need to be positioning your business optimally in these strange times.
Get ready to learn, get ready to laugh, and get ready to find your newest favorite podcast — ladies and gentlemen, this is Shirt Show. And InkSoft couldn’t be prouder to be one of its sponsors.
Let’s Meet the Hosts
First up is Andy Rudman, the owner of screen printer and embroidery shop Shirt Kong — and someone you might’ve seen around the InkSoft blog before. In fact, you might’ve seen him on a number of occasions.
Because, while the Shirt Kong team has always been well-known in the decorated apparel community as a hard-working, high-value print shop, they were among the first to truly position themselves as an innovator during the onset of the pandemic. They took risks, adapted their capabilities, and left a major impact on their community — both local and national.
You can find the full rundowns of their initiatives — and the impact they left — here and here. We spotlighted their creative, determined action so that other businesses could take notes and get inspired to act themselves and to say that Shirt Kong helped to kick off an avalanche of community-mindedness in the decorated apparel industry would be a fair statement.
So anytime Andy, Shirt Kong’s leader, has something to share with our industry? You better believe we want to hear it.
That takes us to Dylan Gilligan. Owner of upstate New York’s apparel decorating and merchandising company Upstate Merch, Dylan’s also a recognizable face in the industry.
From his team’s consistently impressive work to their knock-out digital presence — including all 24.5k of their Instagram followers — Upstate Merch has been pushing boundaries and relying on innovative techniques since the beginning.
And that’s largely due to Dylan’s commitment to being bold. Throughout his career, he’s never hesitated to voice his passion for printing — whether to customers, staff, or the “competition.” But, instead of viewing competing print shops as the enemy, he’s always held the viewpoint that helping others improve was the key to the whole industry improving — and that meant his team would improve, too.
So he was known for spending time coaching, teaching, and learning from his peers. He was known for starting conversations, asking how teams near and far were doing, and connecting — not just for the sake of appearances, but for the sake of real, long-term connection.
He wanted to know what his peers thought. He wanted to teach, and learn, and discuss — and it was that authenticity that drove him to social media, where he was able to reach out and connect with the click of a button.
So, as you might guess, Dylan joins Andy’s ranks here — in that, whenever he has something to say, we’re absolutely ready to listen.
The duo combines expertise with authenticity, down-to-earth anecdotes with honest recommendations — and we’re here for it all. But we’re not just here today to introduce you to the general podcast and its hosts. We’re here to introduce you to a very special episode. An episode that features somebody we’re pretty certain you’ll want to hear from.
Shirt Show Episode 9: Ft. InkSoft Co-Founder, JP Hunt
While many of you are familiar with InkSoft, we’re not sure if all of you have had the pleasure of being introduced to its founder, JP Hunt. Which is why we’re so excited to be telling you about this podcast episode, where we get to hear from him — up close and personal.
You may have heard from JP on the InkSoft podcast Sell More Merch, which he hosts, but let us tell you: this podcast episode brings a whole lot more (in terms of personal anecdotes, unique opinions, and untold stories) to the mix.
So you’ll definitely want to hear it.
Not only do Dylan and Andy dive into JP’s past and how he got his start in the world of decorated apparel, but they also get into where we’re at now. In the present. In the Wild West of 2020.
They talk all things pandemic: what happened when it first hit, where their apprehensions were regarding new capabilities, and how technology became their safety net. We get into the bad, the worse, and the ugly — but we also get into the innovations, solutions, and community-mindedness that came as a result.
And we’ll note here that InkSoft comes up more than a few times — not just as it relates to JP’s career, but how it’s actually managed to help both Andy and Dylan’s operations, in various ways, throughout this year. Both hosts were fortunate to have adopted InkSoft technology into their businesses before COVID hit, and that fortuitous planning made it easier for them to pivot in the new world.
You’ll hear them rave about how easy the e-commerce technology is to set up for customers, how much their customers love the customization potential, and how it streamlines just about every backend process. You’ll hear about Online Stores, about Online Fundraisers, and about shareability — and you’ll also hear some tidbits of advice for implementation.
Overall, you’ll relate, you’ll learn, and you’ll leave feeling inspired. And you might even leave with a new definition for the word “luck.”
So be sure to check out Shirt Show Episode 9 — and be sure to listen to the previous eight, while you’re at it. Each one brings something new to the table, and each one will leave you feeling connected to our community at large. And in strange times like these, that’s always a good thing.
Subscribe to the Shirt Show podcast on Apple or Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. (Trust us, you won’t regret it.)
