WORTHINGTON — Ten minutes outside of Worthington’s downtown and just off Interstate 90 sits a small building tucked in the backyard of Jarrett and Heidi Hanten's acreage. While it might look like a simple, slightly larger than usual shed, there’s a lot going on inside .
It’s the home of J&H Screen Printing, and the inside is practically covered with tumblers, T-shirts, hats and more — all sporting custom designs. What started out as a screen printing business some 30 years ago has grown to include three embroidery machines, a laser engraver, and whatever else owner Jarett Hanten decides to try his hand at next.
“We do the full, start-to-finish for almost anything anybody could ever need,” Hanten said, gesturing around the space. “Usually, people come to us and they ask ‘oh, can you do this?’ and I just kinda figure, yeah. Yeah, why not? It’s a learning experience every time you turn around.”
The business began with some help from Hanten’s cousin, who had experience in screen printing in downtown Worthington. In 1997, Hanten moved out to the craft shed on the family’s property, and for the last 15 years, it’s been a full-time business for Hanten, his son Nicholas and his wife Heidi.
While the shed has grown since the 1997 move, the business has also expanded to include an online store, which allows the Hantens to take orders and ship all over the country. Still, the largest part of his business stays in Minnesota, and Hanten likes being able to provide a service for the surrounding area.
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“We like to help the community out. We like to give them a good price because we want people to be able to make money on their end too,” he said, noting that they’ve done shirts as part of fundraisers for people struggling with medical conditions. “We usually end up giving them back, probably 50% of the proceeds, just to try and help them out.”
For Hanten, creating a quality product has always been the main goal with his business. A self-taught artist, he does most of the artwork in-house, with customers sending in their ideas and Hanten making changes when necessary.
“Probably 97% of the product we put out is made here,” he noted. “There are a lot of people out there that say they do screen printing and they're doing heat transfers or they're putting vinyl on. It's not the same. You're looking at apples to apples. Here, I like to know what product we're putting out.”
J&H has done T-shirts for King Turkey Day races and sports teams, engraved tumblers for wedding parties, and embroidered hats, shirts and even gloves with business logos. Hanten estimates they do approximately 5,000 T-shirts a year, in any color the customer picks — and no order is too big, or too small.
“We always want to provide the highest quality work, for the lowest price available,” Hanten said. “I’m always willing to try anything once, and sometimes, it’s just doing the job no one else is willing to do.”
J&H Screen Printing was nominated for The Globe's Community Pride project by Robert Munkel, who said it's a business "that can always be depended on for prompt, speedy and friendly service. A nice asset to the business community."
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