Today we’d like to introduce you to Robert Mendieta.
Hi Robert, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
Satellite Printlab started in 2015. I had owned a wakeboarding company for the past 12 years and moved the company from NC to Texas in 2010. Trying to find a printing company for my apparel that I enjoyed working with was becoming more and more difficult. A friend of mine was moving to NYC and asked me if I wanted to buy his manual screen printing equipment and I said yes right away. I built my own printing company in my garage at a house i was renting.
Oddly enough, I had built a network in Austin Texas of service industry businesses from 2010 til 2015. It had become pretty expansive over those 5 years. When a few bar owners found out I had a secret printing set up in my garage, they began asking if I wanted to print their apparel…. and so it all began.
In 2012, while at a watersports convention in Orlando Florida, I met a rep for Brother Direct to Garment Printers. At the time, I didn’t think much of it. It was too expensive and I wasn’t trying to start a full blown company. The Brother printers were just leaps and bounds above all other printing styles and brands. I just was focused on printing my own apparel for the wakeboarding company, Empire Wake.
Funny how life works though, a couple years later, I was on the phone with him purchasing my first printer set up. I moved from my garage to the guest room of my house. It was just large enough for 1 printer, 1 heat press and a pretreater. I worked alone in that room for the first 2 years. On larger orders, I would outsource to a company around the corner that was very good at screen printing. I did this while I continued to learn and perfect the use of Direct to Garment printing.
My focus in the beginning was building a solid foundation and model that I would be proud of and that could sustain the trials of owning a small business. The model created was a private company where we picked and choose whom we worked with. We wanted a company that focused on customer service and quality. That would be accomplished by not taking on too many clients and overloading our abilities. By keeping the company controlled, no client was ever neglected or treated like just another client. We spent time building lasting relationships, not just taking orders. Our customer retention has been 90% over the years.
As we grew, we began offering embroidery. This was also outsourced to a contract embroidery company in Austin. I studied and learned as much as I could over the years knowing one day we would have our own machines. It was priceless being able to learn from Scott and have the time to truly understand what is needed to have a top tiered embroidery company.
In 2017, I moved into a larger house and added a second printer set up. The new house was basically a printshop with a bedroom for myself. This allowed me to stop outsourcing all printwork and have full control over my quality. I hired my first employee and we would print a combined 19 hours a day. Our business was growing 50% year over year.
In 2018, we added custom stickers and vinyl.
In 2019, we moved into an even larger house and built a shop in the basement level. This gave us about 800 square feet to work in and add more employees. I now had 2 full time employees working 5 days a week. Those 2 employees are still with the company today. It is rare to have a blessing like my staff.
The company survived Covid with no slow down. As a matter of fact, in 2024 we moved into our first stand alone shop and grew from 800 square feet to 5000 square feet. The shop has been a dream come true for me. It is everything I wanted a shop to be. It has a beautiful show room, my own clothing brands, a place for clients to come visit, and a great environment for my staff to work in. It even comes with a bar and lounge upstairs.
Satellite Printlab now offers in house, high end printing, embroidery, promotional items, apparel crafting and stickers. We have a hat company, activewear brand, and own supply company for all our needs.
We still to this day are a private company that only accept clients by referral. Our client list has grown astronomically since 2015, but we still follow our original business model of taking care of our clients.
On our 10 year anniversary, we can say we love what we do and have built a company we are all proud of. Each employee takes pride in their work and continue to strive for perfection. We love our clients and continue to help them grow their own brands like they are our own.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Surprisingly, the road has been pretty smooth. Every year, we scale the business to what we can offer and never overload our abilities. Moving from 800 sq ft to 5000 sq ft has been the hardest challenge. We didn’t take out any loans, or borrow money, so it set us back a bit. We believe in the long run it will pay off immensely .
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
We are most proud of our quality of work. In a time it seems like most corporate companies do everything they can to lower quality, grow margins and charge the consumer more, we want to be the opposite. Our pride is in being the best. Everyday we learn and prefect our craft. Our employees care about every order and find ways to improve the next.
Some of this starts with our equipment. We only buy the best brands for printing. Our printers are Brother, our embroidery machines are Baruden, and our vinyl printer is Roland. To improve even more, we have created our own line of supplies such as threads, paper, adhesives and more.
We want our readers to know if they are looking for high quality apparel and a printing company that will look after their brand, then we are just a call away.
What quality or characteristic do you feel is most important to your success?
Our success comes from our passion for what we make. We build relationships so we can help. Our clients aren’t just clients. We look out for their brand and growth. We make sure they are printing on good blanks, and selling what is in fashion. Their success is our success. We have 6 employees and everyone is passionate about what they come to work to do.
To see someone walking down the street in something we make, is the best satisfaction.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://satelliteprintlab.com
- Instagram: @satelliteprintlab
- Facebook: @satelliteprintlab
Image Credits
I took all these Photos. (Photos by Robert Mendieta)
