10/01/2026
From Clover High School to Fresh Threads
What started with a $10 hoodie, a Sharpie and a little boredom during homework has grown into a thriving custom apparel and promotional products business founded by Adam Allen.
The story began when he was 17 and still in high school.
“I didn't really love school, I just loved my friends and teachers” Allen said with a laugh. “I was always kind of looking for something else to do whenever I was doing homework.”
One day in 2018, Allen pulled one of the inexpensive hoodies he had bought at Walmart out of his closet. Inspired by Lil Yachty, the popular rapper at the time, he grabbed a Sharpie and drew a small sailboat on the front.
At school the next day, people noticed. “A bunch of people were like, ‘Oh man, that's so cool,’” Allen recalled.
Then a friend offered him $45 for the hoodie. Allen had paid about $10.
“I was like, man, he really wants this thing,” Allen said. “My total cost is $10. I drew on it with a Sharpie. I'm going to make $35 if I sell it. That's pretty good, especially in high school.”
But he didn't sell it.
“I hung on to the sweatshirt because at the time I really believed in what I was going to try and do, so I thought it would be cool to have several years later to look back at what started everything.”
His mother eventually framed the hoodie as a birthday gift, and it now hangs in the Fresh Threads shop as a reminder of where the business began.
Around the same time, Allen had listened to a podcast featuring Elon Musk and The Boring Company. The concept stuck with him.
“I was like, ‘What am I going to call this?’” Allen said. “I was like, I kind of like boring. That's kind of what it is.”
He paired “boring” with what he considered the simplest description of a shirt or hoodie: cloth.
Boring Cloth was born.
Allen began taking orders and delivering them to classmates, gradually turning the idea into a business. His parents eventually helped him purchase his first printer after he presented them with a plan for how he would make money.
“They told me, ‘If you sit down and show us how you're going to pay for this and how you're going to make money doing this, then we will help you out,’” Allen said.
They invested in the business rather than putting the money toward Allen's college education.
Allen briefly enrolled at York Technical College but soon decided he would rather build his company.
“I remember one day I was like, ‘I'm not going back to school. That's stupid. I don't want to do that. I want to do this,’” he said.
Growing the business wasn't always straightforward.
Allen began running Facebook ads, thinking increased revenue meant increased growth. He quickly discovered that selling more doesn't necessarily mean making more money.
“I got way upside down on Facebook ads because I was too stupid to know about my cost of goods and factor in my shipping costs,” Allen said.
The experience forced him to pay closer attention to profitability.
While doing pop-up events in Charlotte, Clover, Rock Hill and Lake Wylie, Allen repeatedly heard the same question from customers.
“Do you print your stuff?” He did.
Allen saw an opportunity. Instead of convincing someone to buy something, he could produce what they already needed and focus on doing it well.
“I was like, dang, just doing the same thing over and over,” Allen said. “I take care of them. I deliver on time. I make it easy for them. I provide a quality product, and then they come back.”
That repeat business became the foundation for Fresh Threads.
As the business shifted toward working with businesses, teams and organizations, Allen felt Boring Cloth no longer fit.
“I was like, they're probably going to be confused why it's called Boring Cloth,” Allen said. “It's not a very appealing, like, I don't want to go get my gear that I want to look good and be nice and look cool called Boring Cloth.”
So he chose a new name: Fresh Threads.
“It's like a different company now,” Allen explained.
Boring Cloth remains its own LLC, and Allen hasn't completely ruled out bringing the brand back someday. Customers still ask about it.
The early days of Boring Cloth took place in Allen's parents' house. As orders increased, he moved production into his great-grandmother's former home, where employees printed shirts, sewed tags and fulfilled orders.
Then came the move to a warehouse on Meek Road, marking the beginning of Fresh Threads as Allen knows it today.
He still has his first printer and eventually added a manual screen-printing press, digital printers, an automatic press and a larger dryer.
“You just don't need brand-new stuff in this industry,” he said. “It's really expensive. So I never bought anything brand new, and just waited around until good deals came around.”
But Allen says equipment isn't what ultimately makes a business successful.
People do.
“You've got to hire great people,” he said. “If you don't have people in production that really care about what they're doing or care about what you're trying to do or the mission of the company, then you're just not going to get very far.”
Fresh Threads now handles screen printing, embroidery, promotional products, custom
apparel and more.
Recent projects have included paper grocery bags for CBRE and Harris Teeter, embroidered polos for the Carolina Panthers, your merchandise for the band Mt. Joy, and many other promotional and apparel products
“We can pretty much bring anything from idea to in your hands,” Allen said.
For Allen, the biggest differentiator isn't the equipment or even the products.
It's service.
In a world where customers can order custom apparel online with a few clicks, Allen believes there is still value in having someone who knows the customer, understands the project and takes responsibility for getting it done.
“Obviously the quality is important. The timing is important,” he said. “But I want people to be like, ‘Man, that was so easy.’ Because that's what you want at the end of the day.”
Fresh Threads has also embraced live screen-printing events, giving customers more than a finished product.
“It's just providing an experience,” Allen said. “That's the biggest thing.”
Although Fresh Threads operates just outside Clover, Allen sees the community as an important part of the company's future. He hopes to invest back into the area through events, partnerships and opportunities for local young people.
The company is also interested in hiring high school students looking for summer work, early-release opportunities or hands-on experience.
“We're right down the street, and we can always use help from somebody in high school who's got early release or wants a summer job,” Allen said.
It's a fitting message for Allen, who was once a Clover High School student looking for something to do besides homework when he picked up a $10 hoodie and a Sharpie.
That hoodie sparked Boring Cloth, which eventually became Fresh Threads, a growing business built around quality work, service and making things easy for customers.
