According to Tim Cigelske, founder of Teecycle.org, the average person has about 27 t-shirts, many of which they don’t wear.
Based on that fact, Cigelski has created a business that benefits both the community and shoppers looking for unique vintage designs.
According to Tim Cigelske, founder of Milwaukee-based Teecycle.org, the average person has about 27 t-shirts, many of which they don’t wear.
Based on that fact, Cigelske has created a business that benefits both the community and shoppers looking for unique vintage designs.
Cigelske created Teecycle.org in 2008 after seeing advertisements in a magazine for t-shirt companies selling items for $20 to $30.
“I just thought they were charging way too much for t-shirts,” Cigelske said. “I decided that I could take my love for vintage t-shirts, thrift stores and garage sales, and turn it into a website where people could buy the t-shirts they like for minimal cost.”
People from all over the country have begun sending Cigelske their gently used t-shirts that they no longer need. Cigelske also collects shirts from rummage sales and thrift stores in the area as well.
“I started by hitting up as many rummage sales and thrift stores as I could,” he said. “I have found that the real gems come with a personal story behind the shirt that I can later pass on to whoever purchases it.”
The t-shirts are sold at www.teecycle.org for $7 a piece.
Purchase, N.Y.-based PepsiCo Inc. recently awarded Cigelske a $4,500 grant to assist in the development of Teecycle.org.
“I was attending the SXSW (South by Southwest) web conference in San Antonio a few months ago,” Cigelske said. “Pepsi was running this contest that gave individuals 60 seconds to pitch their business idea, and demonstrate how it was financially viable and would leave a positive impact on the world.”
Cigelske was selected as one of 20 finalists, and was recently chosen as the winner of the $4,500 grant.
“I was actually pleasantly surprised to find out I had won,” Cigelske said.
Other finalist ideas included web-based collaboration tools, social network managing sites, other entrepreneurial sites, and inventions like a kinetic battery charger.
Cigelske plans to use the grant money to expand his printed used t-shirt sales and to invest in some camera equipment to better document the existence of ethical clothing in the community, he said.
Cigelske recently started printing the Teecycle logo on blank used t-shirts and hopes to do other designs in the future.
“I do all my original prints through a local Milwaukee company called Orchard Street Press, they specialize in small order prints, and also use eco-friendly ink,” he said.
Those shirts retail for $18 a piece.
“I don’t turn anything away,” he said. “It actually surprises me sometimes what sells, but it’s really about the supply that creates the demand. A shirt that someone wants to get rid of might be the exact shirt that someone, somewhere else, really wants, that’s the beauty of it.”
Teecycle has shipped shirts as far away as Australia, London and Malaysia.
According to Cigelske, $1 from every t-shirt sold goes to the Milwaukee River Revitalization Foundation, which works to restore the rivers and trails in Milwaukee.
To date, Teecycle has earned over $300 for the organization, which is using it to help fund programs for inner city youth to clean up the trails in the community, Cigelske said.
