Keon Hutson’s business, DLK Printing, began humbly. He started the T-shirt production company from his living room in 2015 and later moved to a brick-and-mortar space shared with a friend. Before he knew it, however, that space became pretty crowded.
Fast forward nearly 10 years, and the business resides in a roughly 3,000-square-foot space at 552 Grand Canyon Drive in Madison. DLK Printing offers services like embroidery, screenprinting, custom artwork, and web store hosting. The company has expanded from serving primarily small businesses to sports teams and larger corporate clients, and is moving ahead with plans to conduct business on a larger scale while maintaining community connections.
Hutson called DLK Printing’s workspace “unconventional.” It’s a Black-owned, family business with a diverse workforce, but he said everyone shares a common goal: “To produce quality products and get them out to our customers in a timely fashion.” Moreover, DLK Printing not only provides custom apparel services, but models entrepreneurship.
The company has partnered with the Madison Metropolitan School District for a variety of workshops. “It doesn’t matter if it’s a second grader or a 12th grader … everybody likes to make their own T-shirts,” Hutson said. Workshops for older students delve into the higher level points of owning a business.
“We’re grooming future entrepreneurs,” he said.
DLK Printing has also partnered with the Grow Academy, a residential program offering comprehensive treatment for county- and state-supervised youth as an alternative to incarceration.
“Being able to work with the youth, I think, has been the most rewarding,” said Hutson. “Sometimes, we have some troubled youth come in here. … They see people that look like them in this space, and it encourages them, and it excites them, and they look forward to coming back — just learning and working on their own projects.”
Hutson said recent talks with local companies regarding possible partnerships are a step toward doing business on a larger scale.
“We’re getting further and further in the community,” said Hutson, “and not just Madison and surrounding areas.” In fact, the company has served customers from as far away as Cairo, Egypt, elevating the local business to an international level.
Recently, the company’s growth has prompted plans for a retail space, which Hutson said will help the company meet increasing demand, house more services and equipment, offer faster turnaround, and provide opportunities for local brands to showcase merchandise.
An in-house expansion is set to be complete by April, but “the ultimate goal” is to either build or purchase a space, potentially in a business park to facilitate additional partnerships.
“I remember when we were just doing one-offs or less than a dozen shirts,” Hutson said. “Now, we’ve had multiple orders at a thousand pieces each.”
For Hutson, the experience of owning DLK Printing has centered on more than just its expansion. His confidence in the company’s future comes from the way it conducts business, on a small and large scale.
“We’re doing something right,” he said. “Seeing people have a vision … coming here and working with a graphics team, and leaving with a smile on their face, saying, ‘this is perfect’ — We love the p-word around here.’”
