Today we’d like to introduce you to Michael Spielman.
Hi Michael, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstories with our readers?
My wife and I came to Surfside Beach for the first time in 2012, and as per tradition, we looked for some local T-shirts to take home as souvenirs. Sadly, we left empty-handed. That’s because I’m an unrelenting T-shirt snob. Even though the Grand Strand might have more T-shirts for sale per capita than anywhere else in the world, I couldn’t find a single one that I’d actually wear—or be willing to give away. I care too much about quality and design to settle for something from a big-box beach store, even if you can get three shirts for $10. So, when our family moved to the area a couple years later, I decided to start making my own T-shirts. That’s how the Surfside Beach Company was born.
In large measure, this is the natural culmination of a couple of my lifelong passions: T-shirts and the beach. I was born in the ’70s (on a sofa bed in Culver City, CA!), I grew up in the ’80s, and graduated in the ’90s. That, of course, was the golden era of T-shirt design, when surf and skatewear first burst upon the scene. And Southern California was the epicenter. Growing up, the Balboa Beach Company—on Balboa Island—was my happy place. I could walk there from my grandparents’ house long before I could drive. Sadly, it didn’t survive much past my childhood (which I still find painful), but I’ve tried to recapture some of its spirit—along with two-thirds of its name. Though I never had any ambitions to go into T-shirt design as a kid, I probably should have. In junior high, I routinely used my mom’s fabric paints to make my own T-shirts. In college, every time there was a T-shirt to be made, it seemed I was the one designing it. I graduated with a Fine Arts degree from Washington State University, but it would be almost a decade before I got back to T-shirts.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Truthfully, the Surfside Beach Company is still more of an expensive hobby than an actual business. Five years in, we’ve yet to turn a profit—which isn’t a business model I’d recommend. But I’m able to survive because this is a side hustle. Or more accurately, a side side hustle. I had to take a third job to pay for my second job! That being said, I’m not sure I would or could have reasonably done things differently, apart from not having ventured forward at all. Being ignorant of the obstacles that lie ahead can actually be an advantage. Otherwise, you’re liable to quit before you start. Nothing ventured, nothing gained! The main obstacle I ran into right out of the gate was finding local outlets willing to sell our shirts. I basically couldn’t. The shops I reached out to weren’t willing to roll the dice on a new, unestablished brand, and the local outdoor market in Surfside was unwilling to allow anything that wasn’t handmade. The second obstacle then became managing the significant debt I’d racked up on inventory that wasn’t selling nearly as fast as I’d hoped. The cancellation of almost all 2020 events was also a blow because festival sales at that time accounted for two-thirds of our revenue. Thankfully, online sales continue to trend up and now account for the majority of our earnings.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Whenever people ask me what I do for a living, I’m never quite sure how to answer. My day job for the last 20+ years has been in the non-profit sector. Over time that has included web development, video editing, animation, fundraising, bookkeeping, public speaking, and writing. Lots of writing. And for the last 18 years, it’s also included T-shirt design. T-shirts have been one of the primary means of marketing our web-based organization on campuses and in communities—so for me, it’s become a speciality of sorts. What’s my third job? I design T-shirts, of course, for a print company in Myrtle Beach. I’ve been there for two years now, and I’m quite certain I’m a better shirt designer now than I was when I started. I may not have reached the mythical 10,000 hours yet, but I have to be close. My problem now is I don’t have enough available hours to churn out all the shirt ideas in my head. My concepts folder is bursting at the seams, but that’s a much better problem to have than the reverse. Overall, my preferred T-shirt style gravitates towards the vintage feel of my youth. And generally speaking, simple is better. As such, I’ve carved out something of a niche market. Few people care about T-shirts as much as I do, but those who do flip out for our shirts—which is always rewarding. I obsess over details and try to infuse every design with something unique. My favorite designs are those that have a specific geographic connection to the location they name—the kind of designs that work for one spot, and one spot only. It’s not the most efficient way to work, but I think it produces the best results.
We’d be interested to hear your thoughts on luck and what role, if any, you feel it’s played for you?
When I first started the Surfside Beach Company, the plan was to just sell Surfside Beach T-shirts—but then I ran into a snag. After being accepted as a vendor for a festival sponsored by the town of Surfside Beach, I was notified that we couldn’t sell Surfside Beach T-shirts. At that point, the town had their own Surfside Beach shirts and didn’t allow anyone else to enter the market. But I was welcome, they assured me, to sell Garden City shirts, or Myrtle Beach shirts, or even shirts that said Surfside Beach Company. That was not happy news for me at the time, but it forced me to branch out—for which I’m now very thankful. It cost us in the short run, but we wound up with a far broader market moving forward. The second unexpected development that really changed the game for us was the advance of direct-to-garment printing. As I’ve already stated, I’m a stickler for quality. For me, it was screen printing or nothing—but then direct-to-garment printing got really good—virtually indistinguishable from traditional screen printing. And what that allows is for shirts to be printed one at a time, eliminating the need to buy inventory upfront and then sit on it until it sells. Not only did that eliminate the hemorrhaging of additional cash, it also allows us to offer a virtually limitless number of designs. That means I can do designs for all of the beaches my family and I have come to love over the years, from Florida to California, and I don’t have to worry about breaking the bank to make it happen.
Contact Info:
- Email: surfsidebeachco@gmail.com
- Website: https://surfsidebeach.co/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/surfsidebeachco/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/surfsidebeachco
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/surfsidebeachco
