Student's clothing company will be seen on MTV's "Taking the Stage" show
By Elizabeth Tertadian
Norjak is the name of the file that holds the mystery of D.B. Cooper: his daring plane hijacking, unexplained disappearance and missing money. Norjack is also the name of sophomore Michael Calhoun's clothing company, which stars will be wearing on the next season of the MTV show, "Taking the Stage" that is scheduled to air in January.
The MTV deal came unexpected. This year, Calhoun met a friend at UP who had connections with a few producers, and he asked Calhoun if he would want exposure on the channel. Soon after, MTV managers checked out the Norjack website, and gave Calhoun a call a few days later, explaining an opportunity for his clothing to appear on a show called "Taking the Stage" that was being filmed.
Calhoun and roommate sophomore Steven O'Dowd quickly put together new designs and printed out a bunch of shirts which they sent to Cincinnati. They tried new, brighter colors than they usually do, such as hot pink, highlighter yellow and neon green, in hopes that something would catch MTV's eye. A few days later, Calhoun got a text message from the manager saying that MTV "LOVED" his stuff and they wanted more.
His reaction was nothing short of pure bliss. "Oh my God, MTV wanted stuff, and they loved it," said Calhoun after receiving the text.
The show producers asked for more women's clothing and sweatshirts, and Calhoun shipped out another box a few days later. After checking in with producers to see if they liked the clothing and pitching more design ideas, he was given the green light to go ahead and do whatever he liked.
"It all happened so fast," he said.
Norjack will be worn by the stars of the show and Calhoun will be given credit, but the details are still being worked out. He doesn't know how often or when the stars will wear his clothing, since the show has already been partially filmed. In terms of being given credit, the details remain fuzzy: it could be his name showing up in the credits at the end of each episode.
"I'm expecting a lot of doors to open from it," said Calhoun. "It's not popular yet, but I'm hoping it will become popular."
His goal is to have Norjack clothing stocked in stores, and he plans to take advantage of anything he gets. Currently, he sells his shirts to friends and anyone who orders one for between $10-15 each. He also does sweatshirts.
"Anything that goes big was small at one point, but I definitely l wasn't expecting to do stuff for MTV within the year," Calhoun said. "I just want to take this Norjack thing as far as I can."
Norjack was casually born during Calhoun's senior year in high school. While surfing the internet, Calhoun saw a contest on bustedtees.com for people to design a shirt and potentially win $100.
He designed one, but later saw his design on another website. So he decided to make and sell his own shirts instead of entering the contest, and make more than $100. He and his friend then stumbled over the mystery of D.B. Cooper and the missing money.
"We wanted the name tied to something local," Calhoun said.
After coming up with their name, they set out to design a logo, which also came as a surprise. Calhoun was experimenting with drawing lightning bolts, and realized that if he put two of them together the open center created the shape of a tree.
"It's a tip of the hat to Harry Potter," Calhoun joked about the lightning bolts.
In keeping the company as local as possible, they saw the logo as perfect, "because there are so many trees in the Northwest."
"It's simple, but unique," Calhoun said.
That summer, Calhoun and his friend bought a screen printer off of Craig's List, and taught themselves how to make shirts. They bought a book about it, but mostly learned by their mistakes.
"We got more and more efficient the more we did it," he said.
Calhoun works out of his home, using the garage as his t-shirt print shop. Buckets of open paint cans with brushes sticking out sit on a table. The paint is a special kind that doesn't dry until it is heated to over 350 degrees. The screen printing process Calhoun uses to make Norjack shirts is the same as other brands; like Nike. The only difference is that Norjack shirts are handmade, and Nike shirts are done exclusively by machine. After painting on the design, the paint must be cured in order to dry.
According to Calhoun, it usually takes about 30 to 40 seconds, "or until it starts smoking." He has numerous screens, and boxes of shirts that he prints to order. Until a few weeks ago, Calhoun used a heat gun to dry the paint, which sometimes left spots uncured. He recently acquired a flash unit that distributes the heat evenly over the entire shirt, instead of having to use a gun to dry the design by hand.
"If there was anyone in school what would become a millionaire, even out of sheer luck, it would be him," said sophomore friend and Norjack fan Julie Rilling.
Neither Calhoun nor his roommate are business majors. Instead, they are both pursing degrees in engineering, skipping the business thing and straight up doing business. Wanting to do things right, Calhoun and his partner got a business license though the city of Portland, making them an official business, which enables them to get blank shirts at wholesale prices from makers such as American Apparel.
Norjack also has its own website that allows people to order shirts. All of the profit goes right back into the company's account. His partner, who currently attends the University of Montana, is majoring in business and eventually plans to take over the accounting side of the enterprise.
"But I did sign up for that business etiquette dinner," Calhoun said. "I should probably learn how to eat."
Last year, Calhoun printed shirts for all kinds of things. Besides making shirts for fun, he made shirts for The Beacon staff, UP Democrats Club and the Guam Club. He also made shirts for his high school and "I heart Kayla" shirts for a friend who had cancer, giving the proceeds to help pay her medical bills.
"To go from negotiating with RA's about doing hall shirts to negotiating with a manager to do stuff with MTV pretty much overnight, it's pretty sweet," he said.
