About Us
A little history about AirshipIn 2005 John Magee of Fake skateboards and Grindwell In-door Skate Park shipped a press and dryer out of storage to Castle Rock to print shirts for his two businesses. He took the random order here and there from customers of the skate shop. Very quickly, the demand for printed shirts justified opening a small store front a few doors down from Fake. Just over a year later under the name “Airship Printing” he expanded into a larger retail space and then took over the space next to it. As a result of the down economy and the strain on his time he closed Grindwell. Soon after that in 2007 Airship was outperforming Fake by leaps and bounds. With the down economy the employees of Fake had to have their hours cut. Meanwhile John operated both store fronts simultaneously by installing a door bell system so that if he was printing at Airship he could respond to customers at Fake. Soon enough- Airship was printing day and night. When the doorbell rang at Fake, John would peer out the door of Airship to guess if the customers waiting to get into Fake were coming in to shop or just hang out. He eventually stopped answering the door to Fake and when the economy showed no signs of improving immediately he shut down the skate shop. What little extra time he had hoped to gain by closing Fake was quickly filled with more orders for apparel and sign printing. By January of 2009 it was apparent that Airship required an automatic press and some shop help. Just a week after installing a brand new M&R automatic 7 color press it was time to hire Dustin, a recent transplant from Michigan. Steadily, the two refined their processes and became overwhelmed by the constantly growing customer base. Renee did the math and decided to leave her career in executive management to fast track Airship into a position that could support the family. The pay cut was substantial, but immediately Renee improved the sales and administration processes and Airship was able to steadily update and add new equipment as needed. By 2011 Airship had hired a few more people and it was obvious it was time to grow again. Vowing to not have to work through a jam packed year like in 2010 again, John and Renee located a 7000 sqft facility down the road from the old shop and placed an order for the fastest Screen Printing press built. As soon as the 12 color M&R Challenger and 28 ft M&R sprint Dryer were installed and inspected at the new location, both locations had to continue printing until an opportunity to move the old shop into the new building presented it self. It was several weeks until all operations were located in the present building, and it could not have come any sooner. The day John began opening crates at the new location a semi truck pulled up with over 10,000 shirts to print immediately. “Either the business was going to come anyway or enough people knew Airship was expanding. I don’t know what we would have done with out additional presses” says John. During the move Airship was recognized in trade and business publications for their work . Airship continues to grow and slowly create more jobs here in Castle Rock while our work is shipped nationwide and internationally. We welcome you to schedule a time to browse our showroom or even tour our facility. We strive to be the best and create jobs here in Castle Rock. We love what we do, and we are happy to prove everyone wrong who said that you can’t make a living in the art and design field! Airship continues to test out products for the industry and find responsible and safe methods of printing.
