Dallas Mom's Shirt Search Led To Her Own Business
DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) - Amy Hall could never find cool, hip clothes for her oldest son. When she got tired of searching for durable and fun outfits, she decided to make exactly what she could not find in stores. "He wanted a shirt with a T-Rex head on it," Hall recalled. "I come from an art background and I just decided to make him one. And that's how the whole thing started."
Soon, other moms would stop her and ask about the clothes that her son was wearing. Hall's experiment became a full-time business, which she ran out of her Dallas home.
In a year and a half, Hall went from making about a dozen shirts each month to 3,000 shirts each month, and moved the operation to a printing press. The business is called Grubbie Style, and it allows parents and kids to design their own T-shirts. They pick the shirt, design and color. "You can go online and literally, in three steps with your child, create a T-shirt just the way that you want," Hall said.
The Grubbie Style website is now receiving orders from all around the world, and has even attracted interest from some Hollywood celebrities. "Liev Schreiber and Naomi Watts' son, Sasha, was photographed hailing a cab in New York wearing one of my robot tees," said Hall.
The Dallas shirt-maker reached celebrity A-listers through a company that puts together gift bags. They asked to add her clothes to a back-to-school promotional gift. "We really sat down and chose things for the interest of the children," said Hall, who decided upon a boombox design for Jennifer Lopez and Mark Anthony's son, Max. Gwyneth Paltrow's son received a shirt with an amp on it.
Hall tries to make every detail of her clothes appealing to young boys. She even puts the label on the bottom of the shirt instead of the back, where it could scratch the neck. Hall's greatest sense of accomplishment comes when she hears from parents who appreciate the comfort, durability and unique chance to design the clothes that they want.
