Strategy June 26, 2025
Seattle’s ‘Birthplace of Grunge’ Brings Screen Printing In-House To Meet Merchandise Demand
Seattle’s Central Saloon hosted Nirvana’s first Seattle show. Now, the legendary bar and venue is meeting demand for merchandise by printing its own T-shirts.
Key Takeaways
• Strategic In-House Merchandising: Central Saloon, known as the “birthplace of grunge,” brought its T-shirt printing operation in-house using professional screen-printing equipment, allowing for greater control over branding and inventory.
• Significant Revenue Growth: Since managing its own merchandise production, the bar increased monthly T-shirt sales from $2,000 to over $10,000 by aligning production with local events and tourist demand.
• Expanding Entrepreneurial Reach: Beyond its own merchandise, Central Saloon now prints apparel for local bands and businesses, turning its branding initiative into a broader entrepreneurial venture.
The story goes that Central Saloon hosted Nirvana’s first Seattle show, making the bar the “birthplace of grunge.” Having such a distinction as the wellspring for a generation-defining movement also comes with a responsibility for, you know, branding yourself as such.
“We make sure pretty much anyone who wanders in leaves with a T-shirt,” Co-owner Eric Manegold says.
To boost its own T-shirt and branding game, and also offer that same support for the city’s music scene, the bar and music venue just brought its apparel decoration operation in-house by investing in a premium shop package from Vastex, which includes a six-color/six-station V2000HD manual press, EconoRed-II-30 infrared conveyor dryer and RedFlash flash cure unit, an E-2000 LED screen exposure unit, 10-screen Dri-Vault drying cabinet and VWB-3627 washout booth. Also, the package included hands-on training from Vastex on how to go from vector images to completed T-shirt.
The Central Saloon in Seattle has brought its merchandise printing operation in-house with the help of Vastex equipment and training.
In the year the venue has been printing its own merchandise in-house, it’s seen T-shirt sales grow from $2,000 a month to more than $10,000. The ownership team attributes that growth in part to being able to manage its own T-shirt inventory and strategically print more to align with local happenings like sporting events at nearby Lumen Field and T-Mobile Park, or simply influxes of tourism where grunge fans might want to take a pilgrimage to see where it all started.
“We’ve created a new revenue stream by controlling our supply based on seasonal demand,” Manegold says. “We’re creating our own branding on our terms and at our pace.”
The bar, known as the birthplace of grunge, invested in a six-station, six-color screen-printing press, among other pre-press, curing and drying equipment.
The idea isn’t too dissimilar from what others are doing in the e-commerce space with print-on-demand. When pop culture moments capture the public’s attention, merchandise designers can ride that demand and tailor their own supply of products to the volume of orders. The same goes for annual spikes in demand like holidays or professional sports seasons.
Central Saloon was able to invest in equipment to control its own apparel stock and manufacturing, but Manegold admits it was a calculated risk given the bar’s status.
“Make sure it makes sense for your business, and consider printing jobs for your existing vendors and partners to get started,” he says. “There was already demand for shirts at the Central, so it made sense to add them as another revenue stream.”
By managing its own merchandise inventory, the bar has seen its merchandise revenue grow from $2,000 per month to more than $10,000 per month thanks to strategic planning and nationwide appeal.
From here, the bar plans to use its print capabilities for local bands needing merch, as well as other businesses, and has recently fulfilled a 400-shirt order already, making it clear that even with grunge’s slacker aesthetic, The Central Saloon is anything but lazy. It’s downright entrepreneurial.