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Crowdfunder: Support Strong Island Clothing Co

Crowdfunder: Support Strong Island Clothing Co

We launched Strong Island Clothing Co in 2008 with a single design sold to friends and have grown to become a well known business with customers and supporters across the UK and beyond. Our designs are hand screen printed to last, with a huge amount of customers still wearing our products for years after. We’ve always prided ourselves on great design, high quality and a real attention to detail.

We have had 15 years of incredible support but we need some help to take Strong Island Clothing Co to the next level and also secure the future of our business. We’ve been on Marmion Road for 6 years now and our much loved shop would remain but with the exciting addition of a new in-house print studio!

As you can imagine this isn’t simple or cheap, we will need a lot of new equipment. This unlocks the potential to give customers a unique and special product, designed and printed in-house. To take on this opportunity is really exciting and something that will add a whole new dimension to the brand. Looking forward, the long term aim is to employ and train new staff as we grow and develop.

Support us here.

This is a pivotal time for Strong Island Clothing Co with our aim to take more ownership on the production process and help secure the future of the business. Times are tough at the moment, our supplier’s prices are increasing, our highest rising costs being t-shirts and the cost of printing them.

For a number of years we have absorbed these rising costs but there is only so much we can do with what we can control right now. By bringing t-shirt printing ‘in-house’ and take the design all the way to final product we can continue to make the very best quality clothing we can, manage our costs long term and also unlock the ability to have our current designs and sizes in stock for you when you need them.

New Strong Island Clothing Co Store on Marmion Road
New Strong Island Clothing Co Store on Marmion Road

We can be much more flexible and adaptive with the ability to print on demand, with no minimum quantities required or long wait times. Fundamentally, the more we can achieve ourselves and the skills we develop as we grow, the brighter the future for Strong Island Clothing Co.

We’ve always tried to be as inclusive and supportive as we can through the years, bringing together people and being part of a fantastic creative community. This is our first time crowdfunding and achieving a £15K target is a big deal in anyone’s world. Being able to achieve this Crowdfunder with the help and support of our family, friends, customers in Portsmouth and beyond would be awesome and very much in the manner of how Strong Island has always approached things! We also feel the unique rewards we can offer are a real way of paying back our deep appreciation for your help to take us to this next level.

With your help the plans of this project include remodelling the existing shop space, stock room and back of house.

Window artwork to the Strong Island Clothing Co store
Stack of t-shorts in the Window artwork to the Strong Island Clothing Co store store
Looking inside the Strong Island Clothing Co store with clothes racks and prints on the wall

With your much appreciated help the plans of this project include remodelling the existing shop space, stock room and back of house. This would include new plumbing for a wash area, new lighting systems for dark room capabilities, custom-fitted storage solutions for drying and lots of new creative space-saving storage for all manner of screen printing equipment, which is extensive in itself including inks & tools etc. This then opens up all the new available space for the real deal equipment which includes a 4 colour screen print carousel, exposure light box, wash & dry units, flash dryer and large format transparency printer, just to name a few. We would also introduce a certain level of redecoration and new branding to support this exciting change.

Our set target is to cover the costs of the equipment described as well as installation. Anything that is raised beyond this means we can invest in stock, better equipment and look further at more sustainable products. For example, a better flash dryer to heat cure our eco-friendly inks onto our tees means we can lower the amount of electricity we use, be more productive and it’s better for the environment. Everything raised will go directly into ensuring the longevitysustainability and success of this new endeavour.

In areas we can’t achieve ourselves then all installation and remodelling of our shop space will be undertaken by trusted local businesses.


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