In 1976 Terry and Jim founded TEE JAYS Mfg. Co working out of Terry’s garage with nothing but a bunch of sewing machines. After a few years, Jim decided to leave the company, and Terry continued carrying out his dream. Living in the beautiful countryside of Florence Alabama, Terry and his family knew textile manufacturing and worked in the industry for their entire careers. Terry’s grandmother worked her whole life for a single garment-manufacturing mill running a flat lock machine every day until her retirement. His father Paul started in the mills right out of high school. The garage with the 25 sewing machines quickly became a full vertical production plant with knitting, dyeing, cutting, sewing, and screen-printing. The Wylie family was determined to bring the complete T-shirt with decoration into the premium market. Terry saw the potential in making printed and custom-made garments instead of selling blank printables as a key strategy, which turned out to be a very clever and lucrative move. In the period from 1976 to 2002, Terry and his family build a very well respected company in Florence Alabama. At their peak, TEE JAYS employed 4000 people in Florence, had 19 production plants and shipping departments and was the third largest employer in the Shoals area and the fifth largest T-shirt manufacturer in the USA. ACROSS THE ATLANTIC On a sunny day in 1979, my father George visited a tradeshow in Anaheim, California. At that time, he and my mother Lone owned the wholesale business LG Sportswear in Denmark. As my dad walked past the TEE JAYS stand, a man remarked, “I love the smell of your pipe”. The man was Terry, and his comment became the beginning of a lifelong friendship. My dad later visited Terry in Florence, Alabama to discuss the possibilities for representing TEE JAYS in Europe. Four weeks later the first shipment of Sof Tee heavyweight T-shirts was sent from Alabama to LG Sportswear. At that time, my mom and dad ran LG Sportswear from the basement in our home, and my older brother Anders and I earned our first pocket money packing the orders. My dad did a great job for TEE JAYS. He made a success of selling the original US SOF TEE T-shirt in high-end retail stores in Denmark and wanted to do the same in other European countries. In 1980 he was hired as the European Sales Director for TEE JAYS – a job that he was dedicated to for more than 20 years. The business grew stronger, and so did the friendship between Terry and my father. In 1986 my dad had a Danish artist draw a new logo for TEE JAYS, and he gave it as a gift to Terry. Terry loved it so much that he changed the logo on all T-shirts, boxes, trucks, etc. STORY OF 250
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