Hey there. I’m Paul Riva and this is our story.
This business was founded by my best friend Jason Turnage in 1997. At 24 Jason was young but still 5 years older than me. He’d recently gotten out of the Navy and was learning to be a dad. He acquired a manual screen printing press after a local clothing manufacturer he was associated with went bankrupt and we put it to good use. (Photo: 1997, Jason at our first shop)
I was a local skate rat who recently graduated high school. I had a passion for art and always hoped I could find a way to make a living doing something creative. I worked random jobs in construction, as a tattoo apprentice and if I was lucky got small design projects. Thats when I met Jason and convinced him to give me a job. It was the ideal situation. We’d print shirts till we decided we were tired of working, then we’d head out to the skate park. It may sound like we were slackers but we were just enjoying life. Those same days you could find us working late at the office to make up for lost time. (Photo: 1996, Me in my backyard)
The heat was on at 322 N. Yosemite. Sometimes it would get so hot at the office we’d print half naked. I once convinced Jason to let me break through the cinderblock wall so I could put the conveyor dryer in the adjacent room and we’d feed shirts through the hole. At times the heat was unbearable. It was common for us to pass the time and freestyle rap while we printed, sticking to the format and making crude jokes about each others mom’s or significant others. This went on for 4 years when we both decided to get more serious, about making shirts. (Photo: 1996, So tough. My first tattoo on Choppy)
Before my “on paper” partnership with Jason, and being relatively young I decided I needed a break. So I took a month and traveled around Costa Rica. When I returned I had a deep realization that I had to get my shit together and decided to start my own thing. The idea was to buy an embroidery machine, and of course there was a common problem, I had no money. Still living at home I convinced my mom to refinance her house and loan me 20 grand, as she knew I was good for it. Shortly after starting my own business Jason and I decided to leverage both of our capabilities and join back together under one roof as partners, and Apparel Graphics was born. (Photo: 2007 Getting Jason his nutrition. Hanalei, HI.) (Photo: 2011 Last vacation with Jason. Catalina Island)
The company pressed on with slow and steady growth for many years. In 2008 we’d just began to push it more and started expanding when the housing crisis and great recession hit. I lost my first house, and worse than that, Jason was diagnosed with Stage 4 colon cancer. After being down we got sucker punched. It started with extreme pain in his gut. And while the doctors worked to diagnose Jason’s source of pain we both tried to convince ourselves it was just a serious case of “bad taco truck”. Thinking back on it, all of the signs were there. (Photo: 2009 Jason powering through it. Northstar Resort) (Photo: 2008 Jason’s Cancer)
The next four years were very rough and it only got rougher. I spent a lot of time mentally preparing myself for the inevitable, and Jason spent them trying to enjoy his life to the fullest while he battled the disease. It was hard on all of us and in January of 2012 Jason took a turn for the worse. We lost him on March 14, 2012. One day after my 34th birthday and 10 days after his 39th. (Photo: Jason’s not so temporary headstone. 842 was a longstanding joke we had. It’s placed on the shape of a bmx racing plate. Jason was ranked #2 of his division in the nation.)
Life went on. As the sole owner, focusing on the business was a huge help in keeping my mind off of losing my best friend. There were indeed low moments, but I was driven to make Jason proud and turn the company into what we’d envisioned it could be. Since 2012 we’ve grown about 400% and continue to thrive. We have a big team of rad people making rad stuff and Jason would definitely be proud of what Apparel Graphics has become. (Photo: Jason’s son Ethan winning)
