Main Street Logo inundated with requests for S-C band T-shirts

A small, locally owned business has gained international attention for doing what they do every day — designing T-shirts.

Main Street Logo is a full-service embroidery and screen print shop that has been operating in Sedalia for more than two decades. The business is located in the historic downtown area in a century-old building that is listed on the National Historic Registry.

The store was originally opened in 1986 by Jack Lewis. Mike Ingram joined as partner in 2002.

“Adding Mike (Ingram) as a partner was the best thing I ever did,” Lewis said.

Together the two men spend their days custom embroidering jackets, bags, shirts and caps. The embroidery work could be as simple as a name on a cotton shirt or as complex as a full-color race car stitched onto a denim jacket.

They also design and produce digital and screen printed T-shirts for groups, sports teams and individuals and custom banners to welcome home a baby or congratulate a graduate.

Lewis said he is able to create “just about anything.”

Knob Noster resident Melissa Wilson, 42, said she has used Main Street Logo for everything from T-shirts for her daughter to embroidery on her son’s school letter jacket.

“They do good, clean work and I would definitely use them again,” she said. “The possibilities (for design) are really endless.”

Lewis and Ingram have a steady local customer base that often picks up before the Missouri State Fair, but in the last week customers have been calling from across the United States.

The boom in business is the result of a T-shirt, designed by Main Street Logo, for the Smith-Cotton High School band. The design gracing the shirt was deemed “unacceptable” by a few parents and the shirts were eventually pulled by the school’s administration.

A photograph of the T-shirt, picked up by the Associated Press, was splashed on Web sites and newspapers across the country. As word spread, Main Street Logo became inundated with phone calls and e-mails from people wanting to buy a shirt. Lewis said orders have come from Florida, Texas and Pennsylvania.

“People from all over the world want one,” Ingram said.

Initially, both men debated whether or not to reproduce the shirts but eventually decided it was an opportunity they couldn’t pass up.

“We have carefully tried to consider the feelings of the people that feel strongly about the shirts,” Ingram said. “But, to survive in small business we’d be fools not to.”

Lewis and Ingram plan to start producing the shirts in several variations, including original artwork, as orders are confirmed.

Steven Luschen, an industrial designer from Newman, Ga., said he plans to place an order as soon as the shirts are ready.

“My initial interest (in buying a shirt) was to prevent the students being limited with a smaller budget for the administrators pulling all the shirts,” he said. “I wish Main Street Logo would be willing to donate a portion of the shirt sales to the school’s band and science programs.”