OMAHA, Neb. (KMTV) — Ink Images Custom Apparel has been open for 15 years.
"We are a screen printing company, so if you want a T-shirt that has your company's name on it, or your event on the front of it, we can design it, we can print it and it's gonna look great," said owner Susan Hawley.
They do shirts for all different types of organizations and businesses.
"I would say we probably had 400-500 clients in town. I mean between churches, and schools, and individual businesses, and events, and camps, because we do all that kind of stuff."
When COVID-19 hit, business was hit hard.
"Well like the first three weeks, it was pretty much just me sitting here taking cancellation calls," said Hawley. "Because when everything closed, schools didn't need their shirts, and churches aren't even talking Bible School yet, the camps that we had going, they canceled. And spring sporting events - things like that - it was disheartening."
Owner Hawley says she spent time by the phone, hopeful for some type of business.
"Hoping somebody would call and say, 'Okay, we're going to go ahead and do something or business even,' and we did have a couple of landscapers, or construction companies that were still going, and so we took those, but you're here just in case somebody calls, but for the most part, just cancellations."
Hawley has three full-time employees, all who lost hours during the pandemic.
"I let them go on unemployment, because I just couldn't know when I would have enough to give them enough hours to make it worth it for them. Now this week we finally got some hours," she said.
But thanks to a PPP Loan from Wells Fargo, Hawley has been able to bring them back to work this week. So she and her team can go back to making special shirts for her customers.
When asked what Hawley wants people to know, she said, "Just know that we're here. We're open, we are ready to get to work for them. Whether they need a new design or an old one tweaked...we can do it."
Ink Images Custom Apparel
LOCATION: 6950 N. 97th Cir. Omaha, NE 68122
ADJUSTED HOURS: Monday - Friday: 8AM - 4PM
CONTACT: 402-572-9495
