Chattanooga ties to your World Series T-shirt

November 4, 2021

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (WDEF)- At Custom Werks Graphics, they’ve been open since 1988 and they print all kinds of things. From awards to t-shirts for the TVA and jackets for the Chattanooga Mocs. But, the other day. They got a very special phone call to print 25,000 t-shirts for the 2021 World Series Champions, the Atlanta Braves.

Rod Hill, co-owner of Custom Werks Graphics, says, “More than anything, I felt sick because I knew what I was getting myself into. It’s one of those things that it is a tight timeline. You can’t have a machine breakdown, power go out or anything. You’ll never make your deadline and the way that they do the contracts. You’ve got to go. The trucks are going to show up in three hours and they are going to pick up x number and then three hours later they are going to pick up more. So, everything has to go perfect.”

Fanatics, which is a sports gear company, called Hill to ask them if they could fill the order.

To our surprise, he was hesitant to say yes.

But, his hesitation was based off of loyalty.

“In this environment, it is tough. When they first called us to do the order, I didn’t know if I could get the inks. I have inks. But, I have to make sure that this doesn’t hurt any of my normal customers because all of our ink suppliers are on a limit of what you can buy because they just don’t have it”, adds Hill.

With 25 employees, Hill knocked out the order overnight.

Custom Werks Graphics does a lot of sports gear for the Mocs.

In fact, they have been in this high pressure situation before when UT won a championship in 1998.

Hill says that stress would make him think twice about doing it again.

Hill says, “If they called me, I would talk to them about it. This is probably a once in a lifetime type thing. It’s kind of exciting to do. I don’t know if I would want to do it again to be honest with you it is very stressful.”

If you are interested in seeing one of these Custom Werks Graphics in the parade tomorrow, head on down to Atlanta. The parade starts at 12 pm.