Still, he kept trying things. Alarik took a community college course on photography so that he could better market his shirts. “In the first three years, we almost went out of business 12 times,” he says, adding that he once did a Google search for “business” hoping to glean some tips. She worked alongside him that weekend and when he tallied their total sales, they’d brought in $6,200. If the business wasn’t going to be one that could help support their family, it was time to move on.Īlarik had already booked a space at his first trade show in Las Vegas and told her if they didn’t hit $6,000 in sales while there, he’d give the venture up. By 2011, Elizabeth (who now helps lead Grunt Style in San Antonio) gave him an ultimatum. It’s about pride, patriotism and culture.”Īlarik worked as a personal trainer to make ends meet and would spend hours after his shifts on Grunt Style. “If there were 200 people there, there might be five people who share those same ideals or philosophy as me and that’s who I’m talking to,” he says. He’d produce the shirts, pack them into his trunk and drive around to sell them at county fairs, flea markets and military installations.Īnd though he wasn’t making a profit those first few years, he was connecting with people. With $1,200 from savings, Alarik started creating patriotic T-shirts in 2009. “What’s the best way to show off your pride? Put it on your back,” he says, adding that he didn’t see a lot of other companies promoting that military culture. While at the gun range one day, he came to the conclusion he didn’t want to leave the ethos of the military that he loved behind and thought he’d go into business for himself instead. He found opportunities near his Chicago-area home for a former drill sergeant were limited.
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“It turned out the military was full of pride, patriotism and opportunity,” he says.Īfter Alarik and his wife, Elizabeth, had their first son in 2009, he wanted to be home more and started assessing what he could do next. He deployed twice following 9/11 and also served in the Army Reserve and National Guard, becoming integrated into a culture that he says was the opposite of what he expected.
“Sloppy, undisciplined, lazy.” But with limited prospects for college and no intention of working a 9-to-5 desk job until the end of his life, Alarik enlisted. “I actually thought very little of our military going in,” he says. He was nearing the end of high school with what he describes as a “stellar two-point-something GPA” when he received a call from a recruiter. Growing up, Alarik knew he never wanted to work for someone else. I want to be a movement, not a clothing company.” “Our bigger focus is defining what the mission is. The company will open its first physical store on the ground floor of the 1930s building this month. That’s the obvious stuff,” says Alarik, while sitting in his industrial-style corner office at Grunt Style’s downtown San Antonio headquarters. “Absolutely, we want to grow and we want to clothe you seven days a week.
Grunt Style is on track to top $200 million in apparel sales by the end of this year but founder and CEO Daniel Alarik insists T-shirts are not his passion.
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