It Started With a Teddy Bear
After several years in Corporate America, I found myself managing a group of smart, motivated people who worked well together and really didn’t need much managing.
Eventually, I realized I was probably getting in their way more than I was helping them.
It was time for a change.
Around that same time, my daughters and I were driving home from a trip to Build-A-Bear in Syracuse. We’d had a great time making a stuffed bear, but we joked that when we got home, our dog Rylie would probably just chew it up.
I said, “Wouldn’t it be great if we could have this much fun making something we could actually use?”
One of my daughters suggested:
“Clothes.”
And we were off and running.
Learning as We Went
We started learning everything we could about the apparel business. That included trips to New York City, where we literally walked into apparel companies and started asking questions.
We really didn’t know what we were doing.
Fortunately, our timing was pretty good. Direct-to-garment printing was just beginning to become available, and suddenly the idea we had talked about on that drive home seemed possible.
People could choose a blank shirt, create something of their own, and we could print it for them right there.
Now we just needed to figure out what to do with it.
Our First Party Was a Learning Experience
Our original idea wasn’t actually to print shirts at the parties. We thought we’d make pajamas.
Fortunately, my mom knew how to sew, so we recruited her to help. Everyone took their measurements, picked out their fabric, and we got to work.
The party started around 6:00 PM.
At about 1:00 AM, we were finally finishing.
Everyone put on their new pajamas and got ready for the fashion show. That’s when we discovered one small problem.
They were all really tight.
Apparently, when we took everyone’s measurements, there was one important detail we hadn’t accounted for:
The curvature of the human backside.
Let’s just say we learned a few things at our first party.
And eventually, we decided printing shirts might be a little easier than making pants. 😂
Then Came the Shirts — and the Runway
We changed direction and started building the experience we’d originally imagined.
Party guests could pick out a blank shirt, sketch their idea on paper, and then we’d help turn their idea into a design on the computer. While everyone enjoyed the party, we printed their shirts.
Then came the best part.
We turned off the store lights and turned on the runway lights.
Yes, we really had a runway right in the middle of the store.
I announced the fashion show while everyone modeled the shirts they had just created. We recorded the show, and afterward everyone could watch it together on the big-screen television.
It was fun. It was different. And it worked.
The parties became popular, but something else was happening at the same time. People coming into NuWaka were discovering that we could do much more than party shirts.
They started asking us to print shirts for their businesses, teams, organizations and events.
Little by little, NuWaka was becoming a custom apparel business.
Then Everything Changed
In 2020, COVID changed everything.
The parties stopped, and for a while, so did much of what we had built NuWaka around.
But the custom apparel side of the business kept growing.
The businesses, schools, teams, camps, organizations and other groups that had discovered us over the years became a bigger and bigger part of what we do.
Today, group orders make up the vast majority of our business. We still love when someone walks in with an idea for a single shirt, but NuWaka has grown into something we never could have predicted on that drive home from Build-A-Bear.
From one custom shirt to one thousand, we’re still doing what we set out to do in the beginning: helping people turn an idea into something they can actually use.
So…What Does NuWaka Mean?
That’s probably one of the questions we’ve been asked more than any other.
Before NuWaka, I worked for a software company called Aatlas Commerce. At one point, the company was preparing to go public and wanted to consider a new name. A consulting company was hired, and one of the names they came up with was:
NuWaka.
We had a lot of fun with the name around the office — “NuWaka, NuWaka, NuWaka” — but before the company ever used it, we were acquired.
The name stuck with me.
Years later, when I needed a name for the apparel business, I remembered NuWaka. A consulting company had already decided it was a good name, it was catchy, and nobody had ever used it.
So I figured, why not?
There was just one problem.
When I went to register the business with New York State, I was told the name needed to mean something or stand for something.
It didn’t.
So we came up with:
NuWave Kool Apparel.
And if I had a dollar for every time I’ve told that story since then, I probably wouldn’t need to print shirts anymore. 😂
NuWaka Today
Today, NuWaka is a custom apparel shop in Vestal, New York, helping businesses, schools, teams, camps, organizations, families and individuals turn their ideas into something they can wear.
Sometimes it’s one shirt made from a favorite photograph. Sometimes it’s hundreds of shirts for an organization or event. Sometimes it’s an Online Store that makes ordering easier for an entire group.
Whatever the order, we try to keep things simple, personal and easy.
And we still pay attention to the little things.
Every apparel order leaves NuWaka folded and separated by size and style.
Because somebody has to sort all those shirts — and we figure it shouldn’t have to be you.
One Less Job for You.
Some Things Haven’t Changed
NuWaka looks a lot different today than it did when we started.
The parties aren’t the center of our business anymore, and the original runway is long gone. But the idea that started all of this really hasn’t changed.
We still think making something of your own should be fun.
That’s one reason you’ll still find selfie stations around the shop. Pick up your new shirt, put it on, take a picture and have a little fun with it.
After all, this whole business started because my daughters and I wanted to create something together that we could actually use.
All these years later, that’s still what we help people do every day.
Every Shirt Has a Story.
And we’re grateful that so many of those stories have started here at NuWaka.