It took 22 months for Tekton’s fluorescent monument sign to hang alongside their store at the heart of the fashion district in downtown Los Angeles.
For Christian Nuńez and Ladi Saka, the founders of Tekton, this sign symbolizes the success of two immigrants, but most importantly, their mission to bring light to the issue of sustainability in the apparel industry.
Tekton is a custom apparel printing company that serves direct consumers. Since opening in 2017, Christian and Ladi have worked with known brands, celebrities and influencers across different industries.
We had the opportunity to visit their brick and mortar store and learn more about their mission and plans for the future.
Read our interview with them below.
How is Tekton different from other custom apparel printing companies?
Christian: Traditional custom apparel has been the center of businesses and enterprises that order in bulk. When direct-to-garment printing (DTG) came out, we wanted to utilize this technology to make custom apparel accessible to direct consumers — without a minimum restriction. Similar models out there have you do it yourself, but we want to do it for you and as quickly as possible.
Ladi: Our mission is to educate our communities about the importance of sustainability through technology and quality material to print on. We don’t focus on bulk orders and just printing out t-shirts – we want to bring greater awareness to alternatives of decorating your garment through DTG.
You both take pride in sourcing your materials from ethical companies and have been vocal about being an environmentally-friendly. Is this a main component of your mission?
Christian: Our goal is to educate our community and customers on the importance of joining the circular economy.
We want to develop pioneering technologies that can offset carbon emissions and produce custom apparel for the 21st century using the least amount of resources possible. That’s our main mission.
One way that you’ve been able to generate awareness has been through your live printing experiences. How does this work?
Ladi: With live printing experiences, we bring our equipment straight to you and print your design on a piece of clothing within minutes. We’ve been fortunate enough to work with Dennis Graham (Drake’s dad), do bar mitzvahs and big events like the Crypto Invest Summit at the Los Angeles Convention Center. When we do an event, people become engaged as soon as they see our machines and it has created an opportunity for people to network and make new experiences.
You have also made it accessible for designers and artists to get involved and monetize their work. Could you talk more about this?
Christian: We’ve been able to attract people from all different kinds of backgrounds and cultures because we pose no barriers. You can customize your order online or if you’re local, you can stop by and do it in-person.
We do things as friction-less as possible. Similar to how Uber is for cars, we want to be exactly that for decorating apparel and garments to direct consumers.
Ladi: One way we help creators is with their branding. We create woven tag labels for you that can be sewn into clothes. When someone makes something hot and someone else replicates it, it hurts the creator. So this is one way of letting people know where it came from and highlighting the creator. It’s about establishing a community for individuals to create their vision and bring it life. We have collaborated with a lot of successful artists, designers, and creatives such as Phree Art, Furfountains, ArtsBySosa and many more.
What are your goals for the rest of 2019?
Christian: For 2019 we want to go mobile. We want to launch our mobile app before the holidays – that’s our biggest milestone. We also want to develop more of an online presence and be an online-focused company. So those are two main focuses for the rest of 2019.
Ladi: We are on a 100 day marathon to to create our mobile platform. We’d like to help 50 people launch their brand and scale.
What would you like people to know about Tekton?
Christian: We want people to know that we’re fully driven in addressing environmental concerns. It’s going to be an uphill battle to change the behaviors of apparel consumers, but we’re committed to making a difference with Tekton.
Ladi: Tekton is a community focused on educating and tackling environmental issues through art and apparel. Shifting towards creating clothes that last longer as opposed to the typical cheap and wasteful process. We want to win together and expand the future with sustainable fashion.
Connect with Christian and Ladi and follow their journey here: