T-shirt makers celebrate 20 years of making riches from rags

FAYETTEVILLE — Production at the Houndstooth Press may have been busier at times, but it was likely never happier.

Founder Michael Baker and his wife, Catherine, entertained a couple hundred friends and supporters with a shrimp boil, beverages and custom-made 20th anniversary T-shirts during a party at the press Friday night (Aug. 10).

The couple took Michael’s initial storefront location at 29 N. Block St. in Fayetteville and expanded to seven retail outlets in key locations all over the state. In the confines of the warehouse, guests partied among screenprinting presses and stacks of shirts in all colors, designs, sizes and styles. 
Houndstooth is famous for its unique line of licensed Razorback T-shirts, sweatshirts and hats, but perhaps more than that, wearers develop a love affair for the soft feel and sentimentality of the shirts.

An example of this hangs framed in the Houndstooth home office, next door to the press shop. With a tattered plus-size original Houndstooth shirt is a letter from the owner, a resident of North Carolina, that reads:

“I can’t bear to throw it away or turn it into a dust rag. It’s far beyond repair or continued wear, so I thought it would be prudent to return it to the place from whence it came.” Then “ I return it out of respect for your store, your product and out of a bit of homesickness.”