It began in 1986 with a dream to become a star stockbroker...like Bud Fox in the movie Wall Street.  However, Alan Gentry, a fresh FSU graduate, soon realized that his dream needed to be revamped. At the time, experienced stockbrokers were struggling in a failing economy that would later crash on a black Monday in 1987.  

​

Road-trip to Atlanta. Around this time Alan drove up from Tallahassee with his fellow FSU friend Bart Mitchell to take in the bright lights of the big city. With some extra time on their hands, they dropped in on a friend of Bart's family who owned a large t-shirt business. He was in the middle of printing two million t-shirts for Pepsi on every press he owned and commented that he could really use some good contract partners for these big orders. An opportunity that fell on interested ears...right place, right time, and right type of guys. Alan and Bart talked about it all weekend and soon approached Bart's father about helping them start their own t-shirt business.

Two weeks later. Now with a $10,000 investment from Bart's dad and an 80,000-piece contract order from the friend in Atlanta, this good contract partner started printing on their fresh new 6-color manual press. The plan was that Bart's family would contract orders and help run the company business while Alan would manage the sales development side of the operation. Success started with a reliable order stream from Alan's fraternity and sorority friends, which sustained the company in the early going. If Alan learned one thing as a broker, it was how to use the phone to solicit business, and that's what kept the company growing. Calling all the directors for local, regional and state events proved to be a success.

​

Two years later. T-Formation's reputation of doing whatever it takes to deliver a quality product, to specifications and on time, earned the company national contracts with large nonprofit organizations and with Corporate America.

 

Present Day. T-Formation boasts a 50,000 square foot production facility, 9 automatic presses, as well as fully staffed in house embroidery, customer service, art, and sales departments, and a global clientele the likes of Adidas, Aflac, Nike, Disney, McDonalds, Wells Fargo, NFL, and many, many more, and yes, Alan is still working the phones.

​

To learn more about how T-Formation can be a one-stop-solution for your decorated apparel needs, please contact us at 1-800-223-7919.