Local T-Shirt Company Hangs It Up After 28 Years
Real American Action Wear’s ride to the crest of the T-shirt wave has come to an end, and with it, the company demise as one of the largest employers in Salida.
The T-shirt manufacturer at the intersection of Third and F streets halted production in June, leaving its lender, High Country Bank, to sell its remaining assets. Printing and embroidery machines sit idle in the 11,000-square-foot main floor of the building, and bank employees are sorting through leftover T-shirts for bargain bin sales.
The company leaves a legacy as a locally built economic force and a leader in the tourist T-shirt industry.
"We ran it up to almost a $10 million a year business," John Pyson, part owner and former lead salesman, said He explained the company employed more than 100 people and ran three production shifts a day during its heyday in the 1980s and ’90s.
"We were growing just hand over fist," he said. "We paid a lot of rent and bills for a lot of locals for a lot of years."
Mike Jones and Carol Steffens, now residents of San Diego, founded the company in 1978. Pyson was their first employee. After a failed bid to sell political T-shirts through classified advertising in major newspapers across the country, the trio discovered the tourist market.
Beginning in 1980, they commissioned local artists to create scenes depicting places such as Vail, Steamboat Springs and Breckenridge in addition to other regional tourist magnets.
They printed the name of the place beside the scene and sold them to visitors.
"They call it the T-shirt business, but it’s an art on garment business," Pyson said regarding company philosophy.
Real American eventually expanded into 42 states, selling shirts with scenes specific to each area.
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