Smash (company)
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Started in October, 2005, SMASH is a clothing store and screenprinting/design shop that has played a critical role in the revitalization of downtown Des Moines, Iowa. The store quickly built a solid reputation locally, but recently has gained more national attention recently after being featured in the New York Times, National Geographic Traveler, Slate.com, the Huffington Post, on C-SPAN, and on NPR.
Primarily, SMASH is a Des Moines-centric clothing brand with a full clothing store at East 4th and Locust in Des Moines. Though they wholesale their designs across the Midwest, they have turned down offers from stores on either coast and major chains like Urban Outfitters, preferring to be "a regional anomaly" in the words of SMASH-founder, Mike Draper.
But SMASH is run by a team of designers (Mike Draper, Justin Meyer, and Garrett Cornelison) who have been hired to design or screenprint for a wide variety of local and national companies -- from Farm Bureau to MTV.
In 2006, SMASH's star rose with Des Moines' growing music scene, and Draper, Meyer, and Cornelison were contracted to print shirts for local bands like The Envy Corps, The Nadas, and Randy Burk. By 2007, SMASH was designing and printing for regional bands like Dick Prall out of Chicago and Pomeroy out of Kansas City.
By the Iowa Caucuses of 2008, SMASH was very much at the center of the action: printing and designing for Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and Bill Richardson.
In the spring of 2008, SMASH expanded its downtown store (doubling its square footage) and expanded its online presence.
[edit] References
SLATE.com HuffingtonPost.com NYTIMES.com Iowa State Daily
