FCMA’s Government Affairs Committee Wins State President’s Award!

Great Atlantic Outfitters is proud to be one of more than 1,500 manufacturing companies on the First Coast, supplying over 45,000 jobs and generating nearly 15% of the total gross regional product. We were thrilled to learn that the Government Affairs committee has been awarded the President’s Award by the Manufacturers Association of Florida (MAF). This committee has been chaired by our very own Blair Wygle for the past 2 years.

According to MAF executive director Nancy Stephens, FCMA was selected for the award for their leadership and technique in handling government affairs; political contributions; education of association members about the political issues and process; relationships with their state legislators; their success in passing legislation the same year as its first introduction; and overall political savvy. This award was presented in December at the MAF 6th Annual Summit in Orlando.

“I think it’s important for the manufacturing community to stay informed and engaged in the legislative process as we strive to protect and improve the competitive business environment in the state of Florida. I am proud to be a part of this effort."

-Blair Wygle

Great Atlantic Outfitters Artist Wins Design Award

Great Atlantic Outfitters is pleased to announce that our staff artist Mike Whitaker has once again won the t-shirt design contest for the 2009 Walk to Cure Diabetes.

The event held in Jacksonville, FL raised over $300,000 for the cause and over 5,000 participants walked in hopes of finding a cure for this disease which touches millions of families nationwide. Mike became involved in the charity when his nephew Rush Grey was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at a young age and has won the logo design contest for 2 years in a row!

Great Atlantic Outfitters - v1.0

Back in 1991 I was working as an auditor for Walt Disney Co. when a good friend of mine, Bert Morris (no relation), told me he had purchased some equipment and was going to do some screenprinting on t-shirts. He was underfunded and couldn't get everything he needed to make the business work so I agreed to invest some cash into his venture so he could buy a new 6 color press and Renegade Graphics was formed.

Being that my degree was in International Business and I wasn't a CPA, my career at Disney hit a "glass ceiling" of sorts. I decided to move back to Jacksonville and pursue my accounting degree at the University of North Florida while doing the t-shirt business on the side with eventual plans to return to Disney. The business sputtered along but slowly grew and it became a priority for me over my continuing education.

In 1992 we merged with OZart which was a graphic design company owned by Mike Osborne (Ozzie) and moved from Bert's garage into a 800 square foot commercial property in the San Marco neighborhood of Jacksonville. A quirky bit of trivia is that in a previous life our warehouse was a rehersal studio for .38 Special and Molly Hatchet who were two of the nation's most famous southern rock bands.

I took on the role of office manager/sales, Bert did all of the production, and Mike did all of the logo design. Unfortunately, we did not generate enough revenue to support three owners and in 1993 Bert left the business and went on to form a nationally successful radio show which currently finds him on the air in Las Vegas. http://www.dickdaleshow.com/

The business relocated to Atlantic Beach where Ozzie and I continued to make a go of it but in 1994 he also left the business in search of greener pastures. By this time I had learned how to screenprint from Bert and how to do color separations and some artwork from Mike so the skills to run the business by myself were in place.

Florida Gators NCAA Championship T-shirts!

Wow, those Gators are something else!

In addition to being a great team to watch, Tebow and the boys came through big time for Great Atlantic Outfitters when they knocked off Oklahoma for the BCS Championship.

That's because we had been contracted to run shirts in a "hot market" scenario for a NCAA licensed vendor which were distributed to regional K-mart and BJ's Wholesale stores. In this type of situation, the vendor depends on screenprinting companies such as Great Atlantic to provide printing services the minute a big game's outcome is decided. That way, the "hot" demand can be met by retailers who are able to stock their shelves in time for their morning opening.

Sooo, this is kind of a big deal for us in what is traditionally our slowest month of the year. Fortunately, we have a kick a$$ staff and everybody pulled together to make it happen. We were able to run just shy of 10,000 shirts starting around midnight and finishing up around 9am.

Welcome to Great Atlantic's Blog - Celebrating our 15th Anniversary!

I'm Bob Morris a.k.a. "T-shirt Bob" and am an owner of Great Atlantic Outfitters along with Blair Wygle and Shawn Riley.

We are excited to be entering our 15th year of business in 2009 and I will be sharing some company history as well as current news with this blog.

Please accept my invitation to learn more about Great Atlantic from myself and our team. Your feedback is welcomed!