Chamber welcomes Ol’Man Stitching with ribbon cutting ceremony

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Hats, shirts, woodwork creaions and other items greet visitors when you walk into Ol'Man Stitchin Embroidery, LLC. (Callie Jones/Sterling Journal-Advocate)
Hats, shirts, woodwork creations and other items greet visitors when you walk into Ol’Man Stitchin Embroidery, LLC. (Callie Jones/Sterling Journal-Advocate)

What started out as baseball caps for a few coworkers in the oilfield has now turned into a full-fledged business for Chris Rute. His business, Ol’Man Stitchin Embroidery, LLC, was welcomed as the newest member of the Logan County Chamber of Commerce with a ribbon cutting ceremony Thursday.

Located at 1010 W. Main St. Unit B, the former site of Domino’s, Ol’ Man Stitchin Embroidery provides custom embroidery and apparel.

“The business started with hats, I’ve always been passionate about hats,” Rute said.

It began when he was working out in the oilfield, the cold temperatures prompted him to buy a couple of “Make Oilfield Great” hats and sell them to the guys he worked with, soon another order followed. That led Rute to do his own research on embroidery machines and he decided to take the plunge and make the investment.

He worried that he had made the wrong decision when the machines arrived just as the COVID-19 shutdown began. Rute was sure that people would no longer have the money to pay for items like baseball caps, but he was pleasantly surprised. Sales took off and about three months later he left the oilfield to run his embroidery business full-time and in December he opened his storefront on W. Main.

Along with custom embroidery hats and shirts, Ol'Man Stitchin Embroidery also sells woodwork creations and sublimation t-shirts made by local artists. (Callie Jones/Sterling Journal-Advocate)
Along with custom embroidery hats and shirts, Ol’Man Stitchin Embroidery also sells woodwork creations and sublimation t-shirts made by local artists. (Callie Jones/Sterling Journal-Advocate)

Helping him run the machines and get his product orders completed are wife, Kerrie and employee Bre Freeland

While Rute’s specialty is hats, he also does hoodies and shirts. You can see some of his work on the polo shirts that are worn by employees at Family Food Market and he has also designed shirts and caps for some local schools. Rute said his main target is small businesses with 50 to 100 employees, but he’s also willing to do hats or shirts for special family events and community events, such as Sterling’s Meat In event earlier this year.

“My main motto is business order, so when I have extra time we’ll do some of the fun stuff, but I’d rather not have stuff just sitting on the shelf,” Rute said.

The way the process works is a customer will give him a business card or something with a logo and that image is then digitized or created into a sequential stitch order to form a stitch file the machine can read. Rute said digitization is an art that some people will spend years doing and if it’s not done right then the product will look bad.

The time to complete the embroidering varies depending on what that garment is and how intricate the logo is, while some might take only take just 10 minutes others can take 30 minutes. Rute typically stitches about 600 stitches a minute on hats, but on big flat garments he can do up to 1,000 stitches a minute.

Right now, his bulk order is anything over 12, but he also sells some walk-in single hats that you’ll find on display up front when you enter the store, along with woodwork creations and sublimation t-shirts made by local artists.

Even though the COVID-19 restrictions may no longer be in place, being a business owner still has its challenges, particularly with the current supply chain issues which Rute called “a nightmare.” Where he used to pay $4.70 a hat for a blank Richardson cap, now he is paying $5.30 to $5.80 a hat.

“You can’t pass all of that on to the customers. I’ve had to raise my prices, but year over year my prices are higher, but my margins are lower, so it’s kind of a juggling act,” Rute said.

While just getting inventory is a challenge right now, he feels fortunate that the community has embraced his business and people have been understating about the supply issues he’s dealing with.

“I think I’ve gotten a pretty good relationship with a lot of people so they understand, and most people in these industries they’re experiencing the same crunch on supply chain issues as I am, as far as getting stuff in a timely fashion,” Rute said.

Right now, his goal is to get the product to his customers in less than 30 days.

Looking to generate some more income, Rute is also in the process of starting another business, Big Gunz Pressure Washing and Window Services, which will do commercial and residential window cleaning and pressure washing. It’s a service that’s needed here as many businesses have to turn to cleaning companies outside of Sterling to do the job.

“I didn’t want to go all out with just pressure washing; this is a blue collar community, people tend to throw on their boots and do stuff themselves, so that’s I think a harder sell. But, the window services, people hate cleaning their windows and businesses have to have their windows clean, it just makes a good statement,” Rute said.

While he has already done mostly window washing services for eight residential house, as well as Brush Dental, Rute is still in the process of purchasing some more equipment and learning a few things before he gets the business fully off the ground.

Ol’Man Stitchin can be reached at 970-571-3767 and you can also find them on Facebook.

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