I grew up in Limburg, in a little town where the local tee-printing shop still used a squeegee, a hair dryer, and a lot of patience. My dad worked shifts. My mum sewed band patches onto every jacket I owned. I was that kid who cut up a perfectly good sweater to put my own print on it — and then cried when it bled in the wash.
Twenty-something years later I found myself staring at a warehouse full of unsold hoodies. Twenty thousand of them.A brand I worked for had over-ordered for a season that didn't land. They were printed on decent cotton, with a decent graphic, and nobody was ever going to wear them. That was the day I quit.
Copybanana is the direct opposite of that warehouse. We print the piece the moment you buy it, from a small press in Rotterdam, on heavyweight cotton that drapes. We don't guess what you'll want next season. We don't stock hope. And when a drop closes, the file gets retired — so the piece you got stays yours.
The name? My daughter started calling every t-shirt a "copy". And she loves bananas. The rest wrote itself.
We don't stock hope.
We print on wish.
Still small. Still Dutch. Still doing it properly.
A garage in Heerlen. A second-hand heat press. A handful of tees for friends.
Opened the Rotterdam press room. Hired our first printer, Janne. First 200-piece drop sold out in 11 days.
Launched design-it-yourself. 2,140 one-of-one pieces printed before we even told anyone.
Drop 04 in the press. Five people on the team. Zero warehouses. Onwards.
Ex-brand guy. Writes the copy. Still thinks printing on cotton is magic.
Runs the press. Catches every dust speck before it becomes a reprint.
Builds the drops. Has opinions about kerning. Correct ones.
Packs your parcel. Probably added a sticker. You're welcome.