Edmonds designers build T-shirt empire

  • By Melissa Crowe For The Herald Business Journal
  • Tuesday, December 22, 2015 10:31pm
  • BusinessEdmonds

EDMONDS — Eric Carr is a T-shirt and jeans kind of guy.

In fact, so is most staff at South By Sea, the custom collegiate apparel company he and his friend, Brandon Metcalf, founded in 2011.

Despite the laid-back dress code, it’s all business at their small second-story office in an old building on Dayton Street in downtown Edmonds.

Atop the front desk, an inbox overflows with orders and requests, and past the dimly lit foyer, a team of designers hand-sketch and revise dozens of new illustrations a day while sales representatives take orders from universities in Florida, Georgia, Texas and more.

“We just ended up taking a leap of faith,” Carr, 31, said.

Their leap of faith is paying off. The company has nearly 50 full-time employees — about 30 in Nashville and 20 in Edmonds — a sales team that is set to break the $7 million mark this year, and a plan to continue growing.

The company offers custom apparel, hats, tumblers, koozies, water bottles, sunglasses, totes, socks and more, with free artwork and revisions.

In the past four years, they’ve sold more than 1 million products for bid days, semi-formals, homecomings and other Greek life events.

“We try a lot of different things,” Carr said. “What works, we’ll keep. What doesn’t, we scrap.”

It’s not just about custom gear. Along with South by Sea’s design office in Edmonds and print shop in Nashville, the company has an unexpected division — music.

Since the start, Metcalf, 29, dreamed of combining the apparel business with his passion for music. In 2012, after South by Sea saw 300 percent growth, he left the Pacific Northwest to take the business in a new direction.

With four employees and a recording studio in Nashville, the heartland of American music, Metcalf is already seeing success with artists like Frankie, who made Taylor Swift’s list of favorite new songs in October.

Compared to the apparel side, recording and developing artists is a small portion of South by Sea’s business. In between music projects, Metcalf oversees the print shop.

Ninety-five percent of the company is focused on the college market, but by the end of the year, South By Sea is launching a new corporate division aimed at gearing up local business owners, nonprofits and events.

“We’re not necessarily after water bottles for Microsoft,” Carr joked.

Carr and Metcalf have always had an entrepreneurial spirit.

In high school, Carr, who grew up in Ferndale, opened a business setting up Christmas light displays. By his sophomore year at Washington State University, he was president of his fraternity, Beta Theta Pi.

Metcalf spent his summers helping his father lay flooring in the Everett area.

As a teenager, he took that work ethic, which he said is “in his blood,” and started his first T-shirt business designing and selling musician merchandise.

“I don’t have a lot of formal education or training other than jumping in and figuring things out along the way,” Metcalf said.

When the two met and started talking business, they realized with each other’s help they could make something successful.

Building a successful business wasn’t easy, but with the help of their dedicated team, the two pushed through it.

“We’ve gone through a lot of ups and downs,” Carr said.

Every dime the company made was reinvested. They worked around the clock, putting in 100-hour workweeks.

Even still, they made sure to always have fun. “Some of our most enjoyable times at the company were at the beginning when we had nothing,” Carr said.

Back then, Groupons for Burger Madness, a local burger chain, were incentive enough. Anne Hornung, the company’s creative director, turned the company into a trio.

After two years running the business out of an apartment in Northgate with Carr living upstairs, they moved South by Sea to Edmonds, to its first bonafide office space.

“We just really liked the area,” Carr said. “This place popped up and it was a great deal, we have a cool view of the water and a safe environment.”

The bottom line is they stay focused on the future and excited about their growth.

Carr is planning how to double their collegiate sales and build up the new corporate division.

His goal is to break $25 million. Metcalf wants to add more capacity to the Nashville print shop and expand into the West Coast.

“Overall, I feel very fortunate to be involved and get to be exploring my passion,” he said.

The credit goes to the team for building the company into what it is today, he said.

“It was all part of the dream, but being here and living it is pretty awesome,” he said.

Talk to us

> Give us your news tips.

> Send us a letter to the editor.

> More Herald contact information.

More in Business

Black Press Media operates Sound Publishing, the largest community news organization in Washington State with dailies and community news outlets in Alaska.
Black Press Media concludes transition of ownership

Black Press Media, which operates Sound Publishing, completed its sale Monday (March 25), following the formerly announced corporate restructuring.

Maygen Hetherington, executive director of the Historic Downtown Snohomish Association, laughs during an interview in her office on Thursday, Feb. 15, 2024, in Snohomish, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
Maygen Hetherington: tireless advocate for the city of Snohomish

Historic Downtown Snohomish Association receives the Opportunity Lives Here award from Economic Alliance.

FILE - Washington Secretary of State Steve Hobbs poses in front of photos of the 15 people who previously held the office on Nov. 22, 2021, after he was sworn in at the Capitol in Olympia, Wash. Hobbs faces several challengers as he runs for election to the office he was appointed to last fall. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren, File)
Secretary of State Steve Hobbs: ‘I wanted to serve my country’

Hobbs, a former Lake Stevens senator, is the recipient of the Henry M. Jackson Award from Economic Alliance Snohomish County.

Mark Duffy poses for a photo in his office at the Mountain Pacific Bank headquarters on Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2024 in Everett, Washington. (Annie Barker / The Herald)
Mark Duffy: Building a hometown bank; giving kids an opportunity

Mountain Pacific Bank’s founder is the recipient of the Fluke Award from Economic Alliance Snohomish County.

Barb Tolbert poses for a photo at Silver Scoop Ice Cream on Thursday, Feb. 29, 2024 in Arlington, Washington. (Annie Barker / The Herald)
Barb Tolbert: Former mayor piloted Arlington out of economic brink

Tolbert won the Elson S. Floyd Award, honoring a leader who has “created lasting opportunities” for the underserved.

Photo provided by 
Economic Alliance
Economic Alliance presented one of the Washington Rising Stem Awards to Katie Larios, a senior at Mountlake Terrace High School.
Mountlake Terrace High School senior wins state STEM award

Katie Larios was honored at an Economic Alliance gathering: “A champion for other young women of color in STEM.”

The Westwood Rainier is one of the seven ships in the Westwood line. The ships serve ports in the Pacific Northwest and Northeast Asia. (Photo provided by Swire Shipping)
Westwood Shipping Lines, an Everett mainstay, has new name

The four green-hulled Westwood vessels will keep their names, but the ships will display the Swire Shipping flag.

A Keyport ship docked at Lake Union in Seattle in June 2018. The ship spends most of the year in Alaska harvesting Golden King crab in the Bering Sea. During the summer it ties up for maintenance and repairs at Lake Union. (Keyport LLC)
In crabbers’ turbulent moment, Edmonds seafood processor ‘saved our season’

When a processing plant in Alaska closed, Edmonds-based business Keyport stepped up to solve a “no-win situation.”

Angela Harris, Executive Director of the Port of Edmonds, stands at the port’s marina on Wednesday, Jan. 24, 2024, in Edmonds, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
Leadership, love for the Port of Edmonds got exec the job

Shoring up an aging seawall is the first order of business for Angela Harris, the first woman to lead the Edmonds port.

The Cascade Warbirds fly over Naval Station Everett. (Sue Misao / The Herald file)
Bothell High School senior awarded $2,500 to keep on flying

Cascade Warbirds scholarship helps students 16-21 continue flight training and earn a private pilot’s certificate.

Rachel Gardner, the owner of Musicology Co., a new music boutique record store on Thursday, Jan. 18, 2024 in Edmonds, Washington. Musicology Co. will open in February, selling used and new vinyl, CDs and other music-related merchandise. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
New Edmonds record shop intends to be a ‘destination for every musician’

Rachel Gardner opened Musicology Co. this month, filling a record store gap in Edmonds.

MyMyToyStore.com owner Tom Harrison at his brick and mortar storefront on Tuesday, Sept. 6, 2022 in Everett, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Burst pipe permanently closes downtown Everett toy store

After a pipe flooded the store, MyMyToystore in downtown Everett closed. Owner Tom Harrison is already on to his next venture.

Support local journalism

If you value local news, make a gift now to support the trusted journalism you get in The Daily Herald. Donations processed in this system are not tax deductible.