Broken Arrow Custom T-Shirt Printing Name Blog

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It is Thursday, I thought I would jump on the bandwagon and do to a Throwback Thursday Post! I am taking it back all the way to 1974 – well before my time!

The Broken Arrow Bar's original sign
The Broken Arrow Bar in Polk City’s original sign

Have you ever wondered where the name Broken Arrow came from? Well, you would probably be 1 of hundreds of people who have asked us. If you are like many of the customers from across the United States, you might think we are a custom screenprinting and embroidery shop in Broken Arrow, OK. You would be wrong!

So what is the real story of Broken Arrow? If you are from Des Moines and were born prior to 1958, you probably have heard of the Broken Arrow bar that used to reside on the square in Polk City. This bar opened up in 1974. It sure was a popular bar! It had a marvelous Beer Garden with luscious trees and great bands and dances upstairs. Well this is what I am told anyways, I am too young to remember. The slogan was “All roads lead to the Broken Arrow”. This as the motto because no matter which direction you came into town from, it would lead you to the Broken Arrow. Clever isn’t it? It was considered a landmark of Polk City at the time.

Well once upon a time (in a year I am not sure of) the bar closed down 🙁  As the owner of Broken Arrow (Mari Coppola) tells the story, they started using the building for less moral things such as mud wrestling. Well, Mari didn’t much like that, so she and her husband decided to purchase the building so they could do something really great with it!

What was that something great? Imprinting the world one t-shirt at a time!

They decided to buy a screenprinting company called Creative Illusion. They then moved the staff and the equipment of that company into the old Broken Arrow bar. You might have guessed by now, but they decided to keep the name because it was such a landmark! Thus, the birth of Broken Arrow Custom T-Shirt Printing in 1989.

Over the past 25 years, Broken Arrow has grown from that original bar of 3,000 square foot facility to a state of the art printing facility of 30,000 square feet. We have added many services over the years including embroidery, DTG digital printing, rhinestones, all over printing, fulfillment services, and much more! Broken Arrow has become a one stop shop for all of your custom apparel needs, much like the original bar was a one stop shop for all of your drinking needs.

Although our production facility no longer resides in Polk City, many locals still refer to us as that place in Polk City on the square. It will always have a special place in our hearts!

So, now you know the simple story of where Broken Arrow got its name? Pretty cool huh?

Kortni Remer

GM and daughter of Broken Arrow’s original owners (the t-shirt printing company, not the bar!)

About Post Author

Kortni Remer

Hi, I’m Kortni Remer, CEO of Broken Arrow Wear — a second-generation, family-owned custom apparel company. I’ve been in this business for over 20 years, with most of my time spent on the customer service, sales, and operations side. I’ve helped grow Broken Arrow into a multi-million dollar company with in-house production and fulfillment that serves customers all over the U.S. While I’m not the one running the press, I have a strong working knowledge of our production workflows and know what it takes to keep things running smoothly so we can deliver with one of the fastest standard turnaround times in our industry. I still sit on the customer service floor with my team because staying close to our customers (and their feedback) is one of the most valuable things I can do. If you're curious what it looks like behind the scenes of a busy custom apparel shop, follow along as I share real moments, lessons learned, and a look at how we keep things running — from customer service to production and everything in between.
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