Meet Josh, the designer behind clothing line Jaytees Apparel. His comfortable,
eye catching, and conversation sparking t-shirts can be found in the shop. Read
on to find out more about his favorite trends, personal style, and what he has next
for Jaytees Apparel!
Introduce yourself
My name is Joshua Ansah, but I also go by Jay O. It’s a
nickname my friend gave me a few years ago and it just stuck.
How did you get
started?
Jaytees Apparel started off with me making some shirts for an
Ansah classic basketball game I put together. The shirts turned out really cool
and became popular. I decided that we could sell these, and it helped me come
up with other ideas. I made those shirts and then I made a few other shirts
that were kids’ shirts, Sneak’R Prince and Princess. (I love sneakers. I
collect them, probably since 7th grade. I love wearing collectable
sneakers and vintage Jordans). Those shirts sold really well, and I wanted to
see what it would really take to make it into a business. I spoke with a few
colleagues in the business world to find out what it took to legally start a
business and have a legitimate business with the state, retail, and sales tax.
I had the opportunity to speak with Mike Draper of Raygun and found out his
story and got advice on what to use and what to avoid and how to help my
business prosper. I had never run my own business before, I didn’t have a lot
of money before, but I decided that if I was going to do it, I wanted to do it
right. There are so many creative avenues to explore when making graphic
t-shirts. You can create designs that mean something. It takes a little while
for me to come up with designs and lines for my clothing and apparel designs
within those lines. I never want to just come up with something that I wouldn’t
want to wear myself! I want every single design that I come out with to be
relevant and make sense. It’s hard to
come up with something that is relevant, understandable and people want to
wear.
