Today we’d like to introduce you to Mike Womack.
Hi Mike, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
I’ve been a professional graphic designer since graduating from Louisiana Tech University in 1989. Since then, I’ve had an amazing career helping people achieve their dreams by giving life to their visions through my design work. With our kids off to college and a little more time on our hands, my wife, Carmen and I decided to chase a dream of our own and create an apparel brand that taps into our adventurous and creative sides as well as our heritage. Since I was a small child growing up in Louisiana, I’ve dreamed of a life filled with excitement and adventure in the great outdoors. And as an aging adult, I feel like I’ve accomplished that dream, oftentimes with my family in tow. Whether it was chasing Humpback whales in Resurrection Bay, Alaska, or American saltwater crocodiles in the Everglades of Florida, we would always return home to the south and have incredible adventures nearly every single weekend. There are grand adventures to be had right here in the south. Anybody who has immersed themselves into a primordial swamp and soaked in the sights, sounds, and smells, will tell you that it is just as captivating as any of the other incredible natural wonders on our planet. It is here that our company was born – Swampy Supply Company.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
The creative part of the business has been easy, that is what I do. The business part on the other hand, has been a challenge. I am a right-brained person, I am geared for creativity. When it comes to left-brained activity, I am pretty useless and depend on my wife for all the heavy lifting.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
After several years of working at large ad agencies in Memphis, I landed a job working for a couple of guys from Mississippi who had a hare-brained idea of starting a hunting apparel company. They had no apparel experience and I had no experience at building a brand from scratch, but with hard work and determination, Drake Waterfowl Systems became the largest waterfowl hunting apparel brand in the country. Along the way, we built other brands – Ol’ Tom Technical Turkey Gear, Non-Typical Big Game Technology, DPF – Drake Performance Fishing, and McAlister Company.
After 19 years, this past October I left all of this to start up a new brand with one of the original owners of Drake – off to a new adventure!!! Even with this awesome career, some of my proudest achievements have happened outside of the office, when I merged my love of kayaking with my love of graphic design. I designed the brand logo for Dagger kayaks back in 1995, and I designed several of their kayak logos for years afterwards. I also designed logos for Fluid Kayaks, a company out of South Africa. I’ve also done work for Jackson Kayaks as well as American Whitewater. The last few years, I’ve helped brand a kayak race in Chattanooga called ChattaJack. It has become one of the largest kayak races in the U.S., drawing people from all over the world to participate.
How do you think about luck?
I am an incredibly blessed man and I would rather give recognition to the Big Man upstairs for all my good fortune than to say I’ve been lucky. As a new graduate from a small college in north Louisiana, my instructors gave me no hope for landing a job in a large agency fresh out of school. My very first interview, I was offered a job at the largest ad agency in Memphis. I moved around, even got fired a couple times, but each time ended up somewhere better. Those early jobs molded me into the designer I am today, and for that I am thankful.
Pricing:
- S/S T-Shirts $24.99
- Richardson Caps $24.99
- Foamier Caps $19.99
- L/S Performance Tee $39.99
Contact Info:
- Email: support@swampysupply.com
- Website: swampysupply.com
- Instagram: swampysupplyco
- Facebook: Swampy Supply Co
Image Credits
Ronnie Adams
Jen Smith Adams
Ernie Brown Jr.
