(Des Moines, IA) -- Raygun, a Des Moines-based T-shirt company, is celebrating its 20th year.
The company opened its first store in September 2005. The company now operates more than 10 stores across Iowa, Illinois, Nebraska, and Missouri, with plans to open two additional locations in the coming year.
"It's essentially a media company dressed up as a T-shirt shop, in that we sell content—we just sell it on T-shirts. The time it takes somebody to create a meme about Taylor Swift getting married is the same amount of time it takes us to make a design about her getting married," said Mike Draper, owner and founder of Raygun.
Raygun is able to produce designs in record time. Draper says that thanks to their staff and design process, Raygun has a production warehouse right in Des Moines, allowing the company to get designs on T-shirts within a matter of hours.
The company used to print all of its designs in-shop, but as the business grew and expanded to more locations, they had to increase production. Draper says they now operate seven screen presses, a wood shop, and a welding shop.
At its core, Raygun has stayed similar to what the company was when it first started, with Draper making T-shirts at the University of Pennsylvania.
"There are some slogans that we’ve had, whether it be 'Iowave the next time you fly over' or 'Des Moines Hell Yes', we’ve literally had those shirts since before the store opened," said Draper.
The Madison location is planned to open later this fall, and a second downtown Chicago location is scheduled for 2026.