B-Unlimited hit a revenue milestone in sales in 2019, but CEO Ben Clark doesn’t think that represents the peak of his company’s success.
Clark bought B-Unlimited in 2006 and kept the custom apparel company going through the Great Recession. B-Unlimited has since blossomed, with 15 full-time artists creating unique designs for clients nationwide.
“Things are going really, really well,” Clark said. “We crossed the $10 million mark in 2019, which was awesome. For us that was huge. We still look at ourselves as a startup. We feel like we are just starting to do the things we want to, nationally. We have the right people in the right places.”
Clark said B-Unlimited has the largest apparel print manufacturing capability in the state and uses a water-based ink that, while more complex and expensive to use, creates a higher quality product with many fewer non-biodegradable byproducts.
“We can print more shirts than anybody else in the state,” Clark said.
Clark and his team are such believers in the process that every summer he opens up the company’s headquarters for a training seminar for other printers to learn how to use the water-based ink.
“People don’t request it, but using that ink makes such a difference in the way [the shirts] feel,” Clark said. “The last three years, we have turned B-Unlimited into an academy. It was a long learning process for us. We’re trying to ease that pain and leave a smaller footprint on this earth, even though it is a secret to our success.”
B-Unlimited’s culture is another secret, Clark said. The company is a place where people want to work and hang out with coworkers after work.
“We just have an incredible team,” Clark said. “It wasn’t really the Ping-Pong table or the kegerator that we have at the office. It’s about listening to others. People can fail. People are heard no matter what position you are in. We’re not too corporate.”