You're an airbrush artist who wants to open a T-shirt shop in the mall. Because you're an accomplished airbrusher, success is assured, right? Not!

More emphasis on mastering merchandising principles and less on the painting part of the business is essential to the success of a retail T-shirt airbrushing operation, according to Pat Gaines, whose West Coast Airbrush Company may well be the nation's largest.

"Obviously," says Gaines, "you have to be a good airbrush artist. But too many airbrush artists are content to think only about the art aspect, rather than learning and understanding how to adapt lo a mall environment and properly merchandise a retail store whose mainstay product is airbrushing."

The artistic end of T-shirt airbrush retailing, as important as it is, is only one element, Gaines contends. "A fantastic airbrush artist in an environment lacking proper merchandising or a practical understanding about how to target customers—anything that any retail salesperson should know—won't make money. But even a moderately skilled artist in an environment that has mastered these principles will make good money."

West Coast (as in the west coast of Florida, where airbrush flowered) has prospered through mastery of what Gaines refers to as "common-knowledge uses of merchandising and sales strategies available to everyone at the library," and the 40-year-old entrepreneur urges others to follow suit.

In six years. West Coast has grown to 1 1 permanent stores in malls in five midwestern stales, supplemented by seasonal setups in Sam's Wholesale Clubs at Christmastime. The I I stores include three associate companies, with three more anticipated by this summer. In addition, at its headquarters in Mattoon, Illinois, West Coast maintains a training center available to artists both inside and outside the organization.

It was in 1989 that Gaines, with the help of fellow Panama City, Florida, artist Larry Bloid, opened West Coast's first store in Terre Halite, Indiana.

At the outset, Gaines and Bloid asked themselves what designs midweslern mall shoppers wanted, as opposed to the artists' preferences (although. Gaines concedes, there has to be a certain amount of those designs "to keep us enthused as artists") In response, they developed a broad-based portfolio of designs to appeal to a mass of people. Today. West Coast has at least 170 basic designs at all it's stores, and as many as 300 in its larger outlets.

Like any prudent retailer, Gaines made use of information available from the mall and targeted the particular selling venue's customer, determining that a mall's major retail base is women between tlic ages of 19 and 45. Thus even with a design that might appeal to men (say. a sports motif), they'd avoid purple in favor of colors that women prefer to give to men. West Coast also went heavily into boyfriend-girIfriend designs and "attacks the seasonal market" with appropriate designs.

"You have to keep your store changing to keep up with what's going on." Gaines declares. "In a hometown mall, as opposed lo a beach or resort area. it's crucial that you keep your store fresh and your standard designs changing constantly, so that people are not put off by seeing the same thing over and over again."

Display is another key element. He feels that items have to be displayed not only in an aesthetically pleasing way but "logistically, so that customers move through the store, rather than seeing something and immediately moving out."

This is one reason that West Coast stores keep sale items toward the rear. Also, each of the display panels presents designs in various price ranges, to give a customer an idea of the broad range of prices, rather than hunching all of the more expensive designs together and have the customer wrongly assume that all of the store's designs are similarly priced.

The chain's price range, according to Gaincs, is "geared to gift giving," with many of its designs and T-shirts available for $15. He estimates that 60 percent of mall T-shirt business is "quick, inexpensive low-end art and high- end impulse. Stores should never underes- timate the power ol' that impulse sale and should have a good repertoire ol' designs for that category."

West Coast's standard designs range in price from S3 to $15 and take 3 to 15 minutes to paint— about a dollar a minute. Simple lettering or what Gaines calls "low-art-ability types of design" (say, a small pony with cowboy hut) accounts for 80% of the business. (Blank T-shirts and swcatshirts for children sell for $4.95 and $6.95, respectively, and blank T-shirts and sweatshirts lor adults. $7.95 and $10.95.)

In addition to T-shirts, West Coast stocks such blank goods as caps, tote bags, pillowcases, sweatshirts, can wraps, and beach and hand towels. There are a few taboos (the stores won't do any copyrighted or gang-related material or any tasteless or vulgar designs), but other than that, "we don't say 'no' to anything. Even though the artist may not think it's the end-all of designs, he still has to do it. When you took at a $2,500 monthly lease payment and other expenses, you have to do everything, and almost at a price set by the customer!"

Gaines explains, "The good artist—and all of ours are—can oblige customers not only with the design they want but also for pretty much the price they want to pay. If it's ten dollars a customer wants to spend, the artist will spend what he considers ten dollars' worth of time.

"The artist may not like the design because he isn't able to do as much as he wants on it, but he's satisfying the customer's desires and budget. There's a certain amount of art in it. but we treat the airbrushing, at least on our standard designs, as strictly business."

And what about the custom work, a 40% segment of the business?

"In this area. too, we've been successful." says Gaines. "by accommodating the customer not only with subject matter but also with price." He acknowledges that there's a point below which prices on custom designs can't go but says, "We have a few easy ways around it with custom designs that people commonly want, particularly car portraits, which account lor about three-quarters of our custom business."

One way is to offer 90 car models in custom-transfer, black-outline iron-ons for $15 to $25, depending on time spent and how elaborate the artist makes them.

To a customer who considers a $70 freehand car that her young son wants too expensive. West Coast will oiler a comparable one at $15 from the car portrait portfolio, even a Lamborghini. "Presumably, mother and child will be happy with the substitution. and we don't lose a sale." The portfolio also accommodates people who just want a car on a T-shirt to commemorate a car show they've attended.

For custom cars done freehand from a photograph. Gaines says that most airbrushers' prices start at $50 or $60. but West Coast prefers to start its prices at $35 to $40 for "just the nice car, without pretty background or elaborate lettering, rather than lose potential customers who don't want to spend more." Those willing to spend more for enhanced artwork also accommodated, of course, with prices for a fully detailed freehand job ranging up to $70 or $75.

"You let the customers build the price for themselves," says Gaines, adding, "If you let them choose what they want to pay, most times they will spend more than what we would have quoted in the first place. That's because they're being given the choice; we're not dictating a price to them."

West Coast doesn't offer the same price range on all designs, but for cars and some of the higher-end designs, "we have to be very Flexible on what we charge people. And most people understand what you can and can't do for the price you quoted."

Making sure nobody walks out of the store without buying, he feels, boils down to a combination of offering a broad base of standard designs and all- important price. The chain maintains a grouping of thirty standard custom stencil designs by company artist Mark Daehlin of dogs, horses, bears, jaguars, lions, and tigers, which meet most customers' requirements for these popular animals, "although not necessarily their horse or their dog."

Also among the good-selling stencils are the dragon, lion, and tiger full-shirt designs that Gaines describes as "very bold. artistically done, full-shirt designs for which most artists would charge $100. Mark's been able to reduce them to a single stencil that can he airbrushed quickly without too much line work. with a very dramatic technique, and they allow an artist to do what looks like a $100 shirt for $25 to $35."

Gaines notes that many customers seeking custom designs come in expecting to pay a lot and are pleasantly surprised at the cheaper price. Beyond pricing, , there arc such considerations as neatness and cleanliness in the courtesy toward customers. Often, in Gaines' experience, someone approaching a mall to set up a T-shirt business has to overcome the manager's recollection of an airbrusher who was there previously. It's not unusual for a manager to say, "They were terrible—the booth was dirty, the operators were rude to customers, they had a bad attitude problem, and they didn't know anything about business. We don't want airbrush again "

Yet, Gaines says, most managers will agree that a T-shirt shop belongs in a youth-oriented mall, which most are. "And if you can present airbrushing to the mall as a legitimate business—not only its structure but the merchandising and all of the elements that the management thinks belongs in a retail store—- they'll let you in, not because it's an airbrush shop, but because you're a legitimate business, and they get a cut of what you make."

One necessity, in his opinion, is to adjust the merchandising approach according to the venue, each of which has it's own special flavor and format requirements. Whereas the typical customer base at a mall is women aged 19 to 45, at a fair it can be anybody, usually in the 12-to-50 age range, and anybody at a fair is primed to spend whatever money he or she is carrying.

Another popular airbrushing venue is the car show, where the market is almost exclusively male. Tom Davison does several large national custom car shows for West Coast. Davison, and artist who's been airbrushing for over 35 years, joined West Coast Airbrush in 1992 and has played a vital role in the company's success. Gaines describes him as "my administrative partner and personal mentor."

According to Gaines, Davison is "among a half-dozen airbrushers who popularized the the artform in the early 1960s and the only one still plying the trade on a daily basis. He's in the forefront of the evolution of airbrushing for the '90s."

The training center that West Coast maintains at its Mattoon headquarters is a mock-up of an actual T-shirt store that might be found at the mall, with all of the same displavs easels, components, and signage.

Those who attend the training center are instructed not in how to paint but in how to be more efficient in running a store, from keeping it clean to displaying properly to acquiring bookkeeping skills. Initially, the sole purpose of the training center was to train West Coast people in a store environment without having to go to stores. But the company decided to make the facilities available to outsiders as well.

Students not connected with the company must sign up for a minimum of two days of classes at the cost of $200 a day, training with Gaines or with selected West Coast Company artists. Attendees select a specific subject to major in and depending on their selection, are trained either at the center or at a store site with the expert in that subject(such as Tom Davison on cars).

In addition to offering training at the center. West Coast sells a training portfolio package that includes 17 hours of videotaped instruction and all 170 designs used in its stores, as well as the stencils required to produce the designs and color photos of the designs. There are also a 90-minute introduction video on West Coast marketing and merchandising ideas and a 90-page training manual including essays on airbrushing techniques, shop setup and management, and a list of suppliers. Also offered is Tom Davison's iron-on custom car design package in two series.

West Coast also has an advice phone number. (800) 500-4599 (99 cents per minute), to answer any questions pertaining to airbrushing. As part of what he calls "mentor service," Gaines will review, over the phone. photos and videotapes of airbrush artwork or shop layouts sent to him by clients, critiquing their work and ideas as to their value and practicality in the retail world. With 300 clients from the United States. Canada, and five other countries, Gaines speaks to as many as 15 artists every day of the week on this personal consultation phone line.

Gaines, who somewhat reluctantly gave up airbrushing in 1993 to devote full attention to management, feels that his artistic ability is best channeled into creating standard designs that are time-efficient and organizing the airbrush work area so that as much work can be produced and as many customers served in a given period of time and within the available space. West Coast stores vary in size, with most having about 750 square feet, although some are as large as 1,200 square feet.

West Coast Airbrush Company artists, who work as self-employed subcontractors, generally get paid 55% to 60% of their gross sales for airbrushing. Some, according to Gaines, make $55,000 a year. The artists, who do not share in income from merchandise sales, have to maintain their own airbrushes and paints, anything having to do with the design, while the company pays all store expenses outside of those directly related to painting. There are currently 17 artists at West Coast stores; additional airbrushers work at West Coast only at Christmas. There are generally three or four employees other than artists at the stores, not all of them present at the same time.

Gaines says he learns every day, getting useful ideas from people he talks to across the country and "incredible input" from West Coast artists based on their daily experiences that underscore what should or should not be done.

The airbrushing business is experiencing "ongoing evolution," says Gaines, who claims that West Coast Airbrush—comprising artists who are "friends working together toward a common goal"—is in the forefront because of the chain's "controlled environment" in which proposed across-the-board changes can be tested to determine whether they work, not in just one location but in all 11 stores. "That's something that a lot of people can use."

Gaines wishes West Coast had started mall chain stores sooner. He would like the company to have about 25 outlets altogether—five or six more of its own stores and a total of about len associate stores. Any more than that, he feels. would require management restructuring and bringing in professional help.

As to the industry's future, he reiterates his belief that airbrushing T-shirts has the chance to become prominent in the sportswcar industry, including transfers, silk-screening, and embroidery.

"Airbrushing has always been around, but in the background rather than the mainstream of retailing imprinted sportswear. The retailing end is where airbrush belongs," Gaines declares. "If it's approached properly by the airbrush artist, either working for himself or for a store owner, then it will be accepted by a broader base of businesspeople who give us the opportunity to operate in those venues."

If artists start doing it properly. Gaines is convinced, airbrush as a whole will become more widely accepted and become "a legitimate force in the multi- billion-dollar imprint sportswear industry."

Author of more than 20 Airbrush Action articles on every aspect of the artform, with emphasis on standard-design and business aspects, says that he and West Coast Airbrush Company remain committed to helping all airbrush artists maintain uniform standards consistent with good business practices. "It doesn't necessarily have to be the way we do it," he says, "just so long as there's a planned, orderly, common thread that will help airbrush be better accepted by the business establish- ment and enable it, this time around, to stick." WCA