History of Relentless: From Basement to Business

Every business has a start, ours started with a band, a bathtub, and a lot of practice

Back in 2012, Nathan Richardson and Nate Skinner were in a band that needed some custom merch. And like many musicians, they didn't have a ton of cash to throw around at the time, so when they went to a printing shop in Kearney, a thought hit Nathan: "Why don't we just do this ourselves?". 

So they did. 

Nathan and Matthew Richardson bought their first press, a Ryonet silver 4-color single-station setup, and turned the bedroom of their college house into a screen printing lab. Screens were cleaned in a bathtub, orders were figured out on the fly, and everything they knew/learned was from the instructional DVD that came with the press and YouTube tutorial videos. No background in printing, no formal training, just a drive to learn and get better.

 

The Early Days: Late Nights, Long Hours, and a Lot of Learning

The rental house they used to live at, about a block from UNK, was ground zero. In 2014, Nathan quit his job selling music gear and leaped into running the shop full-time out of a four-car garage. The following year, Nathan, Matt, and Nate moved to Lincoln, and Matt left his job in the automotive industry to go all-in on printing.

The hustle was real. They'd roll into the shop around 10 AM and work till 8 PM. They cleaned screens in their bathtubs and printed on their birthdays. One that stands out. A particularly long day on Nathan's birthday, naturally, he was not thrilled, but they all knew getting that order out mattered more than cake. 

 

From Rental to Warehouse

As the jobs got bigger, so did the shop. In 2017, we took a significant step forward with our first automatic press, which had a substantial impact on our production. In 2018, we moved into a larger shop on Pierce Drive (OGs remember that spot). Then in 2022, we made our biggest move yet into our current warehouse in the Havelock area on North 63rd Street, where we continue to grow and refine our work. 

The shop has changed a lot since those college house days. Now, there's always someone working nearly 12+ hours a day, and the operation runs with a level of professionalism and pace that only comes with time, grit, and a whole lot of print jobs.

Favorite Projects? There Are a Few.

One of our first big wins was when we got our first automatic printer and were able to print for Thousand Foot Krutch. That was the first big contract we took and it changed everything for us. 

Another was the SmartLess tour. Coordinating merch for multiple dates, shipping out 15 pallets across cities, it was tough, but incredibly rewarding. It marked another moment where we really bumped up our game.

And the job that really put us on the map? Printing for the Kansas City Chiefs during Super Bowl 58. That one was intense; we had to print, sticker, and ship 10,000 shirts in one night. But we pulled it off and proved we had what it takes to be considered one of the best. (You can read all about that right here.)

Looking Ahead and Lessons Learned

Growth is still the name of the game. This year, we're not only expanding our shop, but we're also putting serious time and energy into atonal, our in-house headwear brand. It’s exciting to build something new while still staying rooted in what we love, screen printing.

If there’s one thing we wish we knew when we started, it’s how much of this job is really about people, understanding clients, working well as a team, and staying flexible. Growth doesn’t just mean more orders; it means learning to communicate better, collaborate more efficiently, and pivot when things change, because they always do.

Still Relentless As Ever

Relentless Merchandise isn’t just our name, it’s how we were built. From DIY beginnings to national tours and Super Bowl contracts, we’ve always kept that same mindset.

Even now, more than a decade in, we’re still pushing and printing with the same passion that started it all in a college bedroom.

And if you’re just starting out in screen printing, here’s our advice: most things begin as a side hustle. You won’t have all the answers right away, and that’s okay. Try something, see how it goes. Some ideas will hit, some won’t. But if you stay consistent and ask questions, things start to click. That’s how it worked for us.