Issue link: https://nbm.uberflip.com/i/1491554
3 0 G R A P H I C S P R O • M A R C H 2 0 2 3 G R A P H I C S - P R O. C O M A P P A R E L D E C O R A T I N G S cott Govertsen became interested in screen printing when he was a dirt track racer. While he was executing controlled drifts at high speeds, his wife Michele and daughters Jessica, Krissy, and Racheal, sold T-shirts in the grandstands for his sponsor, a race apparel company. When customers began asking for cus- tom apparel, Govertsen decided to print his own. After attending classes at screen print- ing trade shows, he purchased a manual press and founded Gfab Graphix, a cloth- ing line catering to local race teams. As he continued to attend trade shows and take classes, he observed equipment demonstrations that sparked the idea of staging live printing events. "At the expos, big crowds would gather around the printer and dryer waiting for the shirts to come out," he says. "I thought if I could do that at car shows and other events, everybody standing there would want a T-shirt." Winning ticket spurs live print venture In 2017, he and Michele attended a trade show in Atlantic City, New Jersey where they entered a raffle for a V-100 one-sta- tion, one-color tabletop printer from Vastex International. Govertsen won the printer, and Michele won a $200 voucher, with which they purchased another sta- tion and upgraded the press from one to four print heads. "We chose to add three more heads so that we could have four different designs on press at once," Govertsen explains. "We also wanted the option of having two shirts on press at the same time." Screens on the Scene B Y M A R K V A S I L A N T O N E , P R E S I D E N T , V A S T E X I N T E R N A T I O N A L , I N C . Dirt track racer screen prints live at events Scott and Michele Govertsen, owners of the Chatham Clothing Company. (Images courtesy Chatham Clothing Company) Micro-registration knobs on the rear clamp facilitate precise adjustments.