Ryan Moor has come a long way from his days as a high school punk rocker screen printing T-shirts in his parents’ kitchen in Washington state. But that DIY punk ethos never really went away. Instead, Moor channeled his can-do spirit into work, first building a screen-printing supply and education empire, and later branching out into manufacturing and selling a line of eco-friendly, printer-approved T-shirts.

It all began at that kitchen table. “We started printing our own shirts because we needed merch for our band,” Moor recalls. Pretty soon, though, Moor found himself spending more time teaching other bands to print their own merch than creating his own, which sparked an idea: Why not sell screen-printing kits to would-be printers online?

“We’ve helped over 200,000 people learn the art of screen printing."Ryan Moor, Allmade/Ryonet

Moor launched Ryonet (asi/528500) in 2004. A year later, he’d grown the screen-printing supply company over 1,000%, and rapid growth continued for the next few years. “Our biggest years of growth were through the 2008 recession,” Moor recalls. “People were looking to start their own business or augment a current business. We’ve helped over 200,000 people learn the art of screen printing.”

In addition to selling equipment and supplies, Ryonet developed a robust educational platform, offering regular instructional videos and organizing countless in-person training sessions. “It came as a point of necessity,” Moor says. “It’s really hard to learn how to screen print. We started creating content so we wouldn’t have to help new printers as much, but it turned into a great opportunity.” Moor estimates that Ryonet teaches about 1,200 aspiring printers a year how to print during hands-on classroom training.

Ryonet’s motto has long been “Powering the Print,” and the focus on making good screen printers better led Moor to his next pivot into apparel manufacturing. “Better T-shirts make better printers,” he says. “We’ve always been a big fan of a good shirt.”

In 2017, Ryonet and a group of 10 screen-printing companies launched Allmade Apparel (asi/34341), a socially conscious, eco-friendly apparel line. The tri-blend shirts are made from organic U.S.-grown cotton, recycled polyester and Tencel modal, cut and sewn in a Haitian factory that uses ethical labor practices. “We started a business that creates an impact with every T-shirt sold,” Moor says. “If you can create an economy around that, the impact is so much better than donating a percentage of the proceeds. … If you sell a shirt for $5 and everything that goes into making that shirt goes into something good, you’re giving $5 to the world.”

The initial capital for Allmade was raised through a crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo. More than 500 backers donated over $123,000 to fund the Haitian facility where Allmade shirts are produced. Since its launch, Allmade has been steadily gaining traction in the industry. And though the company has been getting more attention, launching a brand-new T-shirt company has been more challenging than the scrappy Moor had anticipated. “Starting Allmade almost shut us out of business,” Moor admits. “It was very humbling.”

Humbling, yes. Discouraging, no.

“Humility opens up opportunities,” Moor says. Allmade in June struck an exclusive deal with Top 40 supplier SanMar (asi/84863) to take the brand to the next level and further its reach in the promotional products space.

Even in the coronavirus pandemic itself, devastating as it’s been for the industry, Moor has been able to find opportunity. Allmade has started mass-producing the Allmask, an eco-friendly face mask that can be imprinted (and Ryonet’s website already has videos posted – starring Moor himself – with tutorials on how to screen print the masks).

With so many irons in the fire, Moor doesn’t have time for hobbies that aren’t related to his “two buckets” in life: work and family. (The father of three boys says, “Our house is full of energy, life and a lot of noise,” but he and his wife Amanda “wouldn’t trade it for the world.”) But even though he’s no longer in a band, he hasn’t abandoned his love of music entirely, nor his penchant for playing to a crowd. When he’s asked to speak at industry trade shows about Allmade and his business successes, Moor will often bring a guitar on stage and sing about it instead. “The message sticks with someone better than just looking at a PowerPoint,” he says. “I like doing things differently and making a splash.”