T-shirt entrepreneurs launch business from Web site

A University student capitalizes on the growing trend of Internet Sales

By Victor Runyan
Oregon Daily Emerald

May 20th, 1999

Imagine a T-shirt that expresses exactly what the wearer wants to say.

ArtApart.com is an example of a growing trend among entrepreneurial University students who start businesses on the Internet.

ArtApart.com is the Web site of Aajost Technologies, co-owned by Aaron Ickes, a student working toward his master’s degree in business administration. It offers customers the chance to design T-shirts and other merchandise on the Web site and have it shipped to them. The Web site and its custom-designed software took half a year to develop.

"We did a lot of footwork," said Joel Rowles, Ickes’ partner.

He said they avoided one of the risks of starting a business on the Internet – opening too early. The are avoiding another risk by having a business plan.

One of the powers of the Internet is it frees business owners from the need to maintain a clean workplace for customers to visit, said Phil Busse, assistant director of the Charles H. Lundquist Center for Entrepreneurship.

"It’s Oz, except no one gets to look behind the curtain," Busse said.

But this lack of in-person customer contact creates a temptation to start a business before it is ready. The absence of inventory on the shelves is easier to hide with Internet-based business.

The Internet made it easier for Ickes and Rowles to create the business by reducing their start-up costs from more than $100,000, what he estimates it would cost to start a similar storefront run business, to the few thousand dollars. He said the business draws about three or four customers per day, more than they predicted.

The software for the site required $70,000 to $80,000 worth of engineering by Rowles and their former partner, who the pair is buying out, Rowles said. He said the trio was able to create and offer the software he feels makes them more competitive with other businesses offering custom T-shirts because they had the technical skills required to do the work themselves.

The software permits customers to put text and pictures of their choice on the product. They can upload a picture or choose pictures from the company’s files. Rowles said only one other company offers a similar level of customization to the average consumer.

"It’s one thing to make a Web page, it’s another thing to make it dynamic," Ickes said.

The company grew out of the its creator’s interest in art. They wanted to allow people to express their own artistic impulses and decided the best way to do that was to allow customers to design T-shirt art, he said.

Rowles and Ickes are planning to expand into other custom-printing areas, such as business cards. They deliver their products with the help of a print shop, getting the T-shirt to the customer within a few days.

This year the business college expects to graduate about 90 MBA students. Of these, about 10 percent plan to start their own business and another 20 percent plan to start their own business within a few years. Most of the remaining students go to work for existing businesses, said Dan Poston, director of master’s programs for the business college.

Poston said the Internet is a vital area for any student to understand.

"It’s going to impact all different industries," he said.