WEST LONG BRANCH - Growing up in the Morris County town of Chatham, Michael “Mika” Hon was very handy and always enjoyed art and technology.

So it came as no surprise when he and business partner Javier Espinoza combined those interests to launch NJ Ink Shop, a full-service print shop in West Long Branch that’s provided screenprinting, embroidery, printing and design services since 2011.

“As a kid, my father built our house, repaired our cars, and was very hands-on; I inherited some of those skills and was into video games and Legos,” said Hon, 50, a West Long Branch resident.

“After high school, I worked as a cook at a restaurant and thought I’d be interested in owning a screenprinting company because I’d dabbled in that in high school and a friend of mine in college was making great money doing it," he continued. "In 1996, a colleague at the restaurant I worked at knew someone who was selling an entire screenprinting setup — including a screenprinting press to do multiple shirts and a dryer to cure the ink on the shirts — and within 24 hours I was getting set up in our basement and printing items for the restaurant.”

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Over the next 15 years, Hon ran several screenprinting businesses, but a fire in the building of his last company in the summer of 2011 was the impetus for the launch of his current business.

“Javier, who had worked for me at my previous company, was interested in partnering with me in my new company, so we found an ideal space in a strip mall in West Long Branch and started NJ Ink Shop later that year,” Hon said.

Frisbees to mugs to T-shirts

Today, in their 2,400-square-foot space, “we provide any promotional products that people need to market their business, such as Frisbees, mugs, business cards or whatever you can print something on, but the majority of our business involves textiles like T-shirts, and we also do vinyl graphics signage for automobiles, such as wrapped vehicles or vans with a name and/or graphics on it,” Hon said.

“We do T-shirts for everyone from families going on cruises or attending family reunions to musicians/bands selling T-shirts at concerts,” Hon said of such past customers as Naughty by Nature, Queen Latifah, AC/DC and Eddie Vedder.

“So many factors go into how we price a custom T-shirt — from the type and quality of the garment itself to the colors requested, the number of sides the garment will be printed on, and more, so the price could range anywhere from $5 to $20 a shirt, and we can either source the T-shirts or any other items ourselves or people can bring them to us,” Hon said. “We have a digital direct-to-garment printer for textiles, so we can also do one-off jobs such as a photo of someone’s grandchild on a shirt for $25.”

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In addition to area residents, NJ Ink Shop’s customers include schools, companies of all kinds (including landscapers, restaurants, banquet halls and corporations), and brokers of promotional products that contract with NJ Ink Shop to fulfill orders for printed items.

“We have five-color automatic presses, which help avoid a lot of pain in our shoulders and elbows, but we also do things by hand for smaller and more delicate jobs, such as a run of 12 shirts or small print on a child’s shirt that you can’t fit on bigger equipment,” Hon explained. “Our two manual screenprinters can do six and 14-color jobs, respectively and move product through quickly, but direct-to-garment technology is more cutting-edge and geared towards full-color printing as opposed to speed.”

Among industry trends, Hon said that schools are a big market.

“We’ve made custom T-shirts for different graduating classes, field trips and the recent ‘Battle of the Classes’ event at Shore Regional High School in West Long Branch,” he said. As for technology, “the vinyl cutter ‘Cricket’ machine enabling people to make their own shirts at home is getting popular, as is direct-to-film technology, which is the modern version of iron-on transfers without the rectangular border you’d get back in the 1970s,” he said, adding that tie dye looks have also come back into vogue.

What’s “out?” in the field of screenprinting? “T-shirts that are four times the size you need,” Hon confirmed. “More form-fitting shirts are in.”

As for challenges, Hon said that shipping delays and supply chain issues made it difficult to get certain products they needed during the pandemic. In addition, “online competitors can be tricky because there’s no one for customers to talk to,” he said. “We take pride in being here to answer any questions, give the customer a feel for what they’re getting, and stand by our product.”

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While he acknowledged that there are numerous other screenprinters in the Shore area — either in the business full-time or as a side hustle — Hon isn’t concerned.

“There are a fair number of competitors set up to provide these services here, but we’ve actually bought a lot of equipment from some of them over the years once they realized that this business wasn’t for them,” he said.

“A lot of years of experience and mistakes teach you the ropes in this field and there are a lot of nuances that make it not as easy as people think. It’s not like pressing a button on a copy machine,” he said. “But we know the other printers in the area and we all help each other if anyone is overloaded or stuck.”

'Bring people's ideas to life'

Operated by Hon and Espinoza with occasional part-time help — as well as the full-time support of Hon’s dog Tandy, who serves as company mascot and CEO — Hon said that he and his longtime business partner are a well-oiled machine.

“We’re interchangeable in terms of what we do here, but Javier is especially good at designing logos, determining pricing and managing the front end,” Hon said. “I tend to handle more of the equipment, production and customer interface.”

Looking ahead, NJ Ink Shop is poised to add valuable new services this year.

“We’re getting into designing custom websites for ordering promotional products,” Hon said. “For example, we recently set up an online portal to help a school take orders for T-shirts in an organized manner; by securing all of the data through our website, it saves school personnel from having to collect hundreds of students’ shirt sizes and deal with the logistics of payment.”

As for his favorite part of the business, Hon enjoys being part of the creative process.

“I love the different things people visualize and then seeing their ideas expressed on a T-shirt that they either wear or sell,” Hon said. “It’s exciting to help bring people’s ideas to life.”

NJ Ink Shop

Location: 177 Locust Ave., West Long Branch

Phone: 732-759-8719

Owners: Michael ("Mika") Hon and Javier Espinoza

Founded: 2011

Website: njinkshop.com

This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: NJ Ink Shop in West Long Branch handles screenprinting for everyone