Today we’d like to introduce you to Ryan Burkhart.
Hi Ryan, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I came to screenprinting through a printmaking education. I have a BFA and MFA in Printmaking and spent years running a university-affiliated collaborative print studio, while teaching studio art. At the time, screenprinting was treated as a lesser art form in academic circles. That always bothered me. I understood how adaptive the medium was and that it could do far more than print flat shapes and bright colors.
When the opportunity came to move back to Texas, I took it. My business partner Bruce Braden had worked in tech but had experience printing shirts in college and wanted to work with his hands again. We’d both joined the Austin Screenprinting Co-op independently, and that’s where we met. We started helping each other out, and eventually decided to build something together.
Kong started in a repurposed WWII Quonset hut. No heat, no AC. Part of the shop was literally outdoors. Winters were freezing, summers were brutal. We printed everything by hand and worked until the job was done. That’s still the culture we run on today, just with better equipment, a real roof, climate control, and an amazing staff of 12 people.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
The hardest single day in Kong’s history was laying off our entire team at the start of the pandemic. We didn’t know if we’d survive it. A large Topo Chico anniversary order, around 15,000 shirts, kept us alive. Bruce and I printed it alone in an empty studio. That experience reminded us what we were built on.
But the challenge we wrestle with every day is harder to see and harder to solve. People think of t-shirts as commodities. Things you order cheap and fast, like breakfast tacos. What we actually do is different. A well-made custom garment is identity, advertising, and culture all rolled into one. It communicates who you are, what you are a part of, and sometimes what you care about before you say a word. Getting clients to see that, and to invest accordingly, is the real work. We’re not selling shirts. We’re helping people tell their story.
That reframe matters for our business, but it also matters for the people we serve. When they get it right, it shows.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
Kong Screenprinting offers custom apparel, screenprinting, embroidery, and branded merchandise. We’re based in North Central Austin and we’ve been here 15 years.
We’re built for clients who care about getting it right. Brands, businesses, and organizations that are ordering in volume and want a shop that treats their project like it matters, because to us it does. That’s the kind of work we do best and the kind of relationships we want to build.
The market has changed a lot. Online print vendors have made it easy to upload a logo, click a button, and get a box of shirts in a week. We can’t compete on that and we’re not trying to. What we offer is different: real conversations, real expertise, and real accountability when something goes wrong. We’re working hard to modernize our tools and our presence to match the experience we deliver in person. That’s an ongoing effort and we’re honest about it.
What we know is that a shirt from a company that actually knows your brand is a different thing than a shirt from an algorithm. Some clients figure that out the hard way. We’d rather help people get it right the first time.
In terms of your work and the industry, what are some of the changes you are expecting to see over the next five to ten years?
The custom apparel industry is going through a real shift. On one end you have high volume online vendors driving prices down and training buyers to think of decorated apparel as a disposable commodity. On the other end you have brands that are waking up to the fact that what people wear and carry represents them in the world, and that it’s worth investing in. A quality branded t-shirt gets worn for years. Most people hold onto them for five years or more, which means the impressions they generate over time dwarf almost any other marketing spend at the same price point. We’re betting on clients who understand that. The brands that want something built to last, not just something built to ship. Austin is full of those kinds of businesses, and that’s the market we’re building toward.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.kongscreenprinting.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kongscreenprinting
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kongscreenprinting
