Meet Garrett and Laura Johnston | Owners/Founders of The Crease H.C.

We had the good fortune of connecting with Garrett and Laura Johnston and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Garrett and Laura, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
Everyone who knows us knows how much we love hockey, and it was our passion for hockey that really pushed us to take that first step of starting our own business. It honestly was a short thought process – we both like what we do for work, but we had that “do what you love, love what you do” mindset and wanted more. Garrett initially approached the topic of opening a hockey facility, and Laura was immediately on board. Shortly before the pandemic hit, we began putting this idea into play. We planned the layout of the facility, had mock-ups drafted, and were figuring out materials and costs. Then, everything began closing down, and we were hit with the reality that our facility would have to wait. But our vision still remained, and we weren’t willing to give up on it. We adjusted our plans to still start our business – albeit on a much smaller scale – and we began an online apparel company that caters to the hockey community through unique designs. We are still working our way towards our facility, but with a whole new, creative perspective.

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?
We are an online apparel company based in Lakewood, CO that sells t-shirts, tank tops, hoodies, etc., to hockey lovers of all forms, particularly the “beer league” community that is comprised of adult league players and their fans. We started out by making and sharing funny hockey memes, pictures, and clips from Garrett’s own games on social media for a while before we even had apparel to sell just to get our name out there. It was important to us to engage with people in the hockey community to show them that wherever they play or watch league hockey, we relate to their experiences. When our website was up and running and we actually had items to sell, we got a lot of traffic that came from other beer leaguers who we engaged with on social media. While we are not as refined as some of the other companies that sell hockey themed apparel, we are working hard to be able to stand up with the best of them. As with all businesses, we have our fair share of challenges. With being relatively new, it’s difficult getting the name and vision out there with the limited resources and time we have. We both have full-time jobs so there’s never really a day off, but we knew that would be the case going into it. The lessons we’ve experienced so far in our young existence and in the age of social media is that you really have to put out content every day, multiple times a day. The creative and marketing side of everything has proven to be more difficult than anticipated, but we learn something new every day, and know it’s an important part of the process.
We are just proud that we took that first step, especially during a pandemic. We knew that there would be inevitable challenges and started our business anyway. We are excited to see what the future holds, especially with the facility, and to see like-minded people come together forming a community all over the country through our custom apparel. It’s always fun to be at a game or a tournament and see someone wearing one of your shirts, or seeing one of your stickers on someone’s water bottle. You just do this double take like, “Hey! We made that!” It’s really exciting to see your thoughts and ideas come to fruition.
What we want the world to know about our story is that it’s just beginning and that we have big plans in store for the future!

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
We would definitely take them out for brunch at two of our favorite places in Edgewater – Rupert’s at the Edge and Sloan’s Bar and Grill. We would enjoy ciders on the patio at Waldschänke Ciders + Coffee and order a pizza from Crush Pizza and Tap nearby, as well as check out the new brews at Chain Reaction Brewing. We would of course take them to Red Rocks for a show, as well as to an Avs game at Ball Arena. If it’s winter, we would make our way up to Evergreen Lake for some ice skating and pond hockey, or in the warmer months, hit an ODR for some inline skating and hockey. There are a lot of hidden gems in the area and up in the mountains, so I’m sure we’d stumble on more places along the way!

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
Pretty much all of our friends and family have supported us from the start, whether by modeling our apparel for photo shoots, buying something as soon as it became available on our website, or even helping us get several orders at a tournament just by wearing our shirt and talking to people (looking at you, Jess!)

We’d love to give a special shoutout to our friend Dave Collier, owner and trainer at High Road Gym in Lakewood, CO (www.highroadgym.com), as he has been one of our biggest supporters since we started this journey. As a small business owner in the area for 30 years, he has helped us navigate different aspects of starting and running a small business, and even sells our shirts at his gym! We would also like to give a shoutout to Willie Angelo, who runs his own street wear apparel brand here in Colorado called Imbued Clothing (www.imbuedclothing.com), as he has also given us tips about starting our own brand.

Website: www.thecreasehc.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thecrease_hc/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheCreaseHC

Other: https://www.pinterest.com/thecrease_hc/