New printing shop offers custom apparel to groups on campus

If you’ve been walking down Indiana Avenue near the Sample Gates recently, you may have noticed T-shirts hanging in a window next to Buffa Louie’s.\nThe T-shirts belong to Underground Printing, a custom apparel printing store based in Ann Arbor, Mich. Underground Printing will open its new Bloomington store July 15, according to a press release.\nRyland Ferguson, Underground Printing’s regional manager for the Midwest, said the business will specialize in apparel and promotional products made for local and campus groups, such as greek organizations, recreational sports teams and \nbar crawlers.\n“We don’t offer anything retail,” Ferguson said. “Everything we make \nis custom.”\nFerguson said it will be the company’s seventh store. Its first store was bought out from previous owners in Ann Arbor about seven years ago, Ferguson said, and it has since expanded to six other college towns around the Midwest. Its most recent expansion before coming to Bloomington was in West Lafayette.\n“It’s great to be coming to a school like IU and a town like Bloomington,” co-owner Rishi Narayan said in the press release. “We feel there’s a lot we can offer the students, departments and campus businesses that is unique in terms of custom apparel.”\nFerguson said the company defines itself is by its \nfast turnaround time and “cutting-edge” fashion style, including such items as T-shirts made from sustainable-environment materials and fitted shirts.\nHe said while most custom-apparel places take one to two weeks from the time an order is placed to complete an order, Underground Printing’s turnaround time is about five days.\nThe store’s staff will be comprised entirely of members of the Bloomington and campus communities, according to the press release.\nFerguson said the origins of the business’s name \nare unknown.\n“It doesn’t have anything to do with being underground or subversive ... That’s just the name when (the current owners) bought it.”