Tribal Warfare
09-11-2014, 06:32 PM
Business world suits Chiefs’ Chase Daniel to a T (http://www.kansascity.com/sports/nfl/kansas-city-chiefs/article2069840.html)
When the Chiefs took the field for warmups before their AFC playoff game at Indianapolis last season, they sported red T-shirts emblazoned with the words “Work to Win.”
The shirts were compliments of backup quarterback Chase Daniel’s burgeoning company, 10Star Apparel, as a means to galvanize the team and their fans, who were given the opportunity to purchase the same apparel as worn by the players.
Proceeds from sales of the shirts would be donated to charity each week, all the way to the Super Bowl.
“The shirts would have been a little stinky had we gone all the way,” linebacker Derrick Johnson said with a laugh, “but we would have worn them."
The Chiefs fell short of the Super Bowl, but the T-shirts, like Daniel’s business, were a success. Sales of the shirts raised $2,500 for three different charities, and Daniel’s teammates still wear them in the weight room and around the Arrowhead practice facility.
“For me, it’s fun, it’s a challenge,” Daniel said of his dual career as QB and CEO. “I’m a business owner, and that’s a lot of time and effort. I was a business major in college, so to actually take what I learned in college and to put it toward 10Star has been exceptional.”
Daniel, who played in college at Missouri, began his Arlington, Texas-based company in 2011 in his hometown of Dallas as a subsidiary to B&E Industries, owned by an acquaintance, Brian Elliott.
B&E, now known as Allgoods, LLC, provides sweatshirts, T-shirts and other spirit wear to more than 10,000 high schools. Daniel was offered an opportunity to invest in the corporate side and print T-shirts for major companies. The business took off beyond his expectations.
10Star, operating in Allgoods’ 250,000-square foot plant, has 300 employees, including 30 graphic artists, and prints 1.5 million T-shirts a year.
“We thought there was a niche in the market we could capture,” Daniel said. “I’ve always been into clothes and fashion. We’re not in the fashion business, but we’re young men who know what looks good on a collared T-shirt or your team’s shirts.”
Daniel came up with the name 10Star, based on his longtime uniform number, and he brought in a high school friend and teammate, Aaron Luna, who was a business finance major when he played football and baseball at Rice before spending four years in the St. Louis Cardinals organization.
Within four years, 10Star has compiled an impressive client list that includes On the Border restaurants, 7-Eleven, the Texas Rangers and University of Missouri, and has a goal of $1.5 million in sales this year, which would represent about 600 percent growth.
“We’re not a mom-and-pop shop down the street that can make you 12 shirts for a drop-dead price,” Daniel said. “We’re going to get you discounts on 1,000 T-shirts, 2,000 T-shirts, 3,000 T-shirts. We deal in bulk. That’s our business model.”
For example, Daniel said On the Border has 169 restaurants, and 10Star produces all the waiters’ T-shirts and plans to add the chefs’ coats, hats and aprons.
When the Chiefs took the field for warmups before their AFC playoff game at Indianapolis last season, they sported red T-shirts emblazoned with the words “Work to Win.”
The shirts were compliments of backup quarterback Chase Daniel’s burgeoning company, 10Star Apparel, as a means to galvanize the team and their fans, who were given the opportunity to purchase the same apparel as worn by the players.
Proceeds from sales of the shirts would be donated to charity each week, all the way to the Super Bowl.
“The shirts would have been a little stinky had we gone all the way,” linebacker Derrick Johnson said with a laugh, “but we would have worn them."
The Chiefs fell short of the Super Bowl, but the T-shirts, like Daniel’s business, were a success. Sales of the shirts raised $2,500 for three different charities, and Daniel’s teammates still wear them in the weight room and around the Arrowhead practice facility.
“For me, it’s fun, it’s a challenge,” Daniel said of his dual career as QB and CEO. “I’m a business owner, and that’s a lot of time and effort. I was a business major in college, so to actually take what I learned in college and to put it toward 10Star has been exceptional.”
Daniel, who played in college at Missouri, began his Arlington, Texas-based company in 2011 in his hometown of Dallas as a subsidiary to B&E Industries, owned by an acquaintance, Brian Elliott.
B&E, now known as Allgoods, LLC, provides sweatshirts, T-shirts and other spirit wear to more than 10,000 high schools. Daniel was offered an opportunity to invest in the corporate side and print T-shirts for major companies. The business took off beyond his expectations.
10Star, operating in Allgoods’ 250,000-square foot plant, has 300 employees, including 30 graphic artists, and prints 1.5 million T-shirts a year.
“We thought there was a niche in the market we could capture,” Daniel said. “I’ve always been into clothes and fashion. We’re not in the fashion business, but we’re young men who know what looks good on a collared T-shirt or your team’s shirts.”
Daniel came up with the name 10Star, based on his longtime uniform number, and he brought in a high school friend and teammate, Aaron Luna, who was a business finance major when he played football and baseball at Rice before spending four years in the St. Louis Cardinals organization.
Within four years, 10Star has compiled an impressive client list that includes On the Border restaurants, 7-Eleven, the Texas Rangers and University of Missouri, and has a goal of $1.5 million in sales this year, which would represent about 600 percent growth.
“We’re not a mom-and-pop shop down the street that can make you 12 shirts for a drop-dead price,” Daniel said. “We’re going to get you discounts on 1,000 T-shirts, 2,000 T-shirts, 3,000 T-shirts. We deal in bulk. That’s our business model.”
For example, Daniel said On the Border has 169 restaurants, and 10Star produces all the waiters’ T-shirts and plans to add the chefs’ coats, hats and aprons.