Freshman starts T-shirt company

Freshman Roland Shen remembers when he got the inspiration for his T-shirt company. He was watching ABC's hit show "Shark Tank," and on the show was 9-year-old named Mo, who made and sold decorative bow ties.

Seeing what Mo had done and the success that followed the show, then-middle schooler Shen had an epiphany.

Shen conducted extensive research online and then launched a T-shirt printing company, which he named “Ansail,” as a sole proprietorship last summer.

“I started it for fun, because I didn’t expect it to get big,” Shen said. “At this point it’s a hobby.”

Shen’s T-shirt production is a two-step process. First, he sketches designs for the T-shirts and sends his sketches of simple images to graphic designers like Vu Huong, a professional designer who works in Vietnam, to make for his T-shirts. He then has a company print the T-shirts.

His favorite design by Vu Huong is a cartoon sandwich overflowing with meat, cheese, tomatoes and lettuce. A pickle speared through by a toothpick peeks out from behind the bread, and onions balance precariously in between slices of tomatoes.

“It is well drawn and it has a lot of colors,” said sophomore Clifford Wong, who has purchased a shirt from Shen.

Shen sells his online T-shirts to friends and strangers alike for $20 each. Although Ansail is a small-time project now, Shen has big plans for the future.

“It seemed like something I was capable of doing, because it wasn’t too big, and it wasn’t too small,” Shen said.

He hopes to start with advertising. Lack of publicity was what hindered him from selling more T-shirts in the past.

“In the future I want to get the company advertised and publicized more,” Shen said. “I plan to do it through forums on the Internet and lots of social media.”

Shen invests most of his profits from the T-shirts he sells back into his company. Even if his company expands, Shen plans to continue running it from his home.

“I like to interact with customers, and it’s really fun to talk to them about their order,” Shen said. “It feels really good when you see that the thing gets out to them and they receive it.”