In October of 2023, the Wagner community heard a rumor that the old bowling alley building had been purchased and was not going to be remodeled with already established local business moving into the space. Rumors were true as owners of Apparel WorX, David and Rachel Woods bought the property, remodeled it in seven months and had the business up and running in their new location by the first week of June 2024.

The whole purpose of the move was that Apparel WorX needed more space. They have added new services which in this case meant bigger machines. The previous Apparel WorX building was 3,500 square feet while the current building offers approximately 11,000 square feet. As they were approached about buying the building David and Rachel saw what a perfect opportunity it would be to remodel it to their needs. Luckily for the Woods’, David is a contractor by trade and was able to do the majority of the work this past winter during what tends to be his slower months. With David doing all the work it saved the business a lot of money that would have otherwise been spent on the remodel just in labor costs. David and his small one-man crew did an amazing job on the buildings’ remodel.

Some of the bigger improvements that were needed on the building during “Phase 1” of the remodel were a new roof, new siding and awning (this part still is a work in progress), major work to the electrical and HVAC, completely gutting out the bar portion (which is the southern half of the building) down to the studs. The kitchen and set of bathrooms had to be completely re done. Where the bar used to be located, now is home to Rachel’s production room. The production room’s floor is a beautifully painted concrete that Rexwinkle Concrete and David worked on together. Where the old office used to be located next to the kitchen is now a kid hangout room for the employee’s children when they are there. The area that used to be the dining area had new flooring installed and was painted. It is now being utilized as a break area on one half and production space on the other. Once the new siding and awning have been completed that will complete “Phase 1” of the remodel. As the lanes and bowling equipment are still in the building, when more space is needed that will be a part of “Phase 2” of the remodel.

What began as “Extravagant Design by Rachel” in the basement of the Woods’ house in August of 2014, steadily grew until she changed the businesses’ name to Apparel WorX near the end of 2015 and eventually took to looking for a store front for the business. Currently, Apparel WorX has five employees along with Rachel. Kari Brecke has been with Apparel WorX since 2017; Katie Swatek and Lindsey Wiechmann joined the team in 2020; Hannah (Mattis) Stewart has been with the company since 2022; and the latest addition to the team is Traci Payer who started in 2023. Most of her staff have the ability to do almost all the different jobs at the shop, with several who specialize in certain areas. Katie is the team’s graphic designer and is full of creative ideas for new designs. Lindsey is the “embroidery empress” because she can do amazing creations on the embroidery machines. Kari helps with customer service, managing orders, online stores, etc., as well as she and Hannah being the main screen printers. Traci does a great job of getting everything organized for all of the orders and keeping the shop organized. Overall, it is a great team effort where they all do a little bit of everything and focus on the tasks needed for the current workload.

Apparel WorX offers an array of services including screen printing; embroidery, banners, graphic design and logo creation, full color apparel printing, vinyl printing (apparel only), online stores and fundraisers.

With a new store location, came a new automatic screen printer. This past April, Rachel, David and Hannah traveled to Vancouver, WA to meet with their screen-printing supplier, Ryonet. They have been Rachel’s go to for all her screen-printing equipment needs since 2016. She had called the company inquiring about an automatic screen printer. Rachel was in turn contacted by the president of the company and they discussed whether her business could sustain such a big investment in this type of screen printer. The president offered to host her for two days which would include the touring and hands on training with the machines that Rachel was interested in to see if it would be the right fit for the business. They left the Ryonet supplier exhausted, full of information and with the intention of ordering the machine after they came back to Wagner to discuss it with the whole team.

The automatic screen printer that Apparel WorX purchased is a huge machine that in all honestly looks like a spaceship, but what an amazing tool that spaceship is. Rachel had only ever used manual screen printing in the shop. Some of the benefits of the automatic screen printer in comparison to the manual are that it prints at a much faster rate, up to 500 shirts an hour, while the most that a manual screen printer can do is 80 (with a single-color print) per hour. It also provides a much higher quality print due to the automation, leaving very little to no room for any variation between shirts that can come from manual screen printing where human error, fatigue and different techniques come into play. One of the biggest reasons that Rachel decided to invest in this new machine was to save her and her employees backs, literally. Manual screen printing can be very hard on the bodies doing it with the affects very noticeable causing pain in the hands, upper arms and back. She did not want to lose her incredible team to physical burnout. When the new machine arrived, it fit through their front door within a couple of inches on either side. A technician from the Ryonet company actually flew out to Wagner for four days to both install the machine and teach the team how to operate it.

A grand opening for Apparel WorX’s new location is in the works. It will most likely coincide with a celebration of the new building, new machine and 10 years of being a Wagner business. Rachel and David have enjoyed being business owners in their hometown of Wagner. Their business fills a need that allows the community to shop local which in turn supports local families and the community with tax revenue. Apparel WorX is very active in the community and enjoys being able to donate to many local organizations and groups and will continue to do so. Some of the challenges of being a business owner in Wagner include not being able to get inventory in a timely manner and building their clientele requires more of a reach. They not only have customers in many of the local towns, but also in Nebraska, Minnesota, Iowa, Colorado and Kansas.

A couple of the unique aspects that people may not know about Apparel WorX is that they offer thousands of different types of promotional items such as koozies, pens, lanyards, drinkware, letter openers, mini footballs, etc. that can all be printed with any business or organization’s logo. One of the most convenient services is their online ordering. Apparel WorX does a lot of online stores for events, businesses, teams, reunions, benefits, etc. This allows the company to reach so many more customers who may not live in the Wagner area or be able to physically pickup orders from the store through their online shipping options.

As the 2024-2025 school year is quickly approaching, Apparel WorX is coming into their busiest season of the year. With school starting, means different sporting events will be close behind with teams and fans needing new gear. They will be starting their apparel fundraising stores at the end of July with mid-August being the time they will be printing and embroidering nonstop for several months. All of the online stores are run as fundraisers with a portion of the purchases going back to that specific team or booster club. On Facebook follow ApparelWorX or on Instagram @apparelworx to stay up to date with the latest online stores, examples of merchandise and some of the team’s funny shenanigans.

Congratulations David and Rachel on the beautiful new Apparel WorX building and thank you for growing your business in Wagner.