Stix figures throw opportunity at entrepreneur - Business

Aries Spears Stand-Up Comedy

Anyone with opposable thumbs and a pencil can draw a stick figure, but not many people would turn that simple drawing into a lucrative clothing line; but one exists. Stix Bristol, a native New Yorker, began vending his clothing line, Stix-N-Phrases, out of the trunk of his car nearly four years ago. Currently, Bristol owns three stores in Maryland, one in Gaithersburg, VA, and sells everything from hats to sweat suits and socks.

The idea came about in a casual conversation one night some time after he had been laid off. "My wife and I were sitting in the living room one night, and I told her how tired I was of going back and forth to New York to find clothes I like. She said, 'why don't you just start your own clothing line,'" he recalled. "And I said, 'how? I can't draw anything but stick figures.'"

"And there you have it,"replied his wife. Stix called a friend who was more artistic, and together, they came up with the concept for Stix-n-Phrases -T-Shirts with a stick-figure illustration of a theme, coupled with a catchy "Stic" phrase. They made a few shirts, found a receptive audience at Howard University's Homecoming, and with that, began selling right out of the trunk of his car.

Then he made the biggest sale of all - Clinton Portis, runningback for the Washington Redskins, loved his shirts, and before he knew it the Redskins were sporting Stix-n-Phrases. He quit his job to concentrate on making Stix-N-Phrases T-shirts.

"The hardest part was trying to fill up the store!" Bristol said, surprised. "I didn't have as much stuff as I thought I did, and then you have to find companies that give top quality supplies" at an affordable rate. And then there was the problem of visibility. Although Bristol already had a fan base where the store was located, his store's entrance was in the back of the building.

"I would stand on the street and have to walk people to my store through this alleyway," he said, remembering customers' awkward apprehension on this walk. "But people know where I am now. I have been blessed to be so successful," he said.
The success has eliminated the thought of quitting from his mind. Just two months ago, he turned down a job offer from MCI in the IT department. "I just can't see myself going back to that rat race," he reasoned.

Bristol credits the success to the combination of a great team - his wife Lanetta, airbrush artist Kevin Malone, and the artist who brings Stix's visions to life, Siaka Hines. "You've got to stay focused, and stick to it," Bristol asserted, quoting one of his T-shirt phrases. "Anything you do is going to take time."

His business has afforded him the opportunity to serve his community. He engages with every customer like an old friend and will even forgo profit in the name of helping out. Oftentimes, he has given newly released inmates clothes for free, and even sent a shipment of clothes to an orphanage in Africa that one of his customers had visited.

"I want to be there and open stores in the black community," he said. "It's the best feeling in the world when customers come in and say, 'thank you, we needed this.'"

Stix figures throw opportunity at entrepreneur - Business

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