M&R is pleased to introduce a video profile of RagsofHonor, the latest addition to M&R’s video series about successful screen printers.
Provide employment
Chicago-based RagsofHonor was founded by Mark Doyle when he returned home following a year military service in Afghanistan. Seeing the unemployment rate, the rate of suicides, [and] the rate of homelessness among returning veterans, Doyle decided he had to do something. That something was RagsofHonor. He started the company with no real plan beyond his determination to provide employment to homeless and unemployed veterans.
Slow beginning
Doyle started by putting six veterans on the payroll, but the company wouldn’t own a screen printing machine for the first nine months. Instead, the veterans spent eight months training on a small rented press in the basement of a screen printer and former Marine. Rags of Honor veterans also received free training at M&R’s corporate headquarters.
American-made shirts
However, in the eleventh month, a new manual press was donated to the company. Since then, RagsofHonor has acquired an automatic press and moved to a much larger facility, printing shirts for local businesses, Big Ten conference schools, professional sports teams, as well as the National Football League. Along the way, they decided to print on American-made shirts and adopted this motto: “They Had Our Backs. Let’s Keep the Shirt on Theirs”.
Mission
When asked about his goal for RagsofHonor, Doyle said, “The mission is simple: be the largest employer of homeless veterans in the country. But we’re going to take all veterans if they need a job. And if you want to help a veteran and want to make a difference, just buy a T-shirt or give us some business—and you’ve just helped a vet.”
