It is colorful or subtle. Oversized or flatteringly fitted. It boasts your favorite sports team or makes a statement about your personality. Maybe it’s brand new, or maybe you’ve had the ratty thing since attending that pre-Hagar Van Halen concert — it’s your favorite T-shirt, and you cherish it. Our cultural fondness for comfy cotton Ts is the foundation upon which SMU grads Jeff Henderson and Adam Walterscheid have built their booming biz, Pony Xpress Printing.
Walterscheid was a starting kicker for the SMU football team when he made his inaugural T-shirt design deals with campus sororities and fraternities. He bought a press and continued to explore the business, brought former dorm mate Henderson on board, and over the next few years, learned more about screen-printing technology than most of his competitors.
“We’ve developed different types of ink … brought in a chemist/consultant to determine the best type of ink to use on the fabrics, and we bought a press with capabilities unmatched by any other type in the world,” says Henderson, a neighborhood resident.
Thanks to Walterscheid’s acquired knowledge and Henderson’s marketing smarts, the business that started in a dorm room has expanded into a massive warehouse located in the middle of a mostly industrial area of Northeast Dallas. Henderson and Walterscheid, both still under 30 years old, employ 47 people. They claim Harley Davidson, Kobe Bryant and Sesame Street as clients. And their designs are on the racks at Urban Outfitters, Kohl’s and Walmart to name a few.
Despite big accounts, “each project is unique,” Walterscheid says.
The company projects $3 million in revenue this year, and, while the money is great, it’s also nice to see neighbors sporting Pony Xpress designs.
“I remember being at NorthPark seeing someone wearing one of our shirts,” Henderson says.
The young entrepreneurs call that a “yay” moment. These days it just happens much more often.
