Siblings’ bond extends to business with retail venture: Sister Shirts

When siblings Samantha Dobbs and Amanda Glidewell went to work at a custom shirt company owned by family friends, they knew nothing about creating and applying decorative designs for apparel. But what a difference five years can make.

Today, Dobbs and Glidewell own the enterprise — Sister Shirts — and not only opened a brick-and-mortar shop in Trussville in April, but they also have seen its online operation expand to include orders from customers in every state.

“We worked as employees for our mom’s friends and when they decided to sell, we purchased it,” Dobbs said. “We learned how to process the shirts and other skills from them and now we’ve grown their idea into a larger business.”

Dobbs said the two originally specialized in children’s clothes, first with T-shirts and later adding kids’ shorts and bathing suits.

“We do custom printed clothes using the customer’s design, can come with our own designs that we create or purchase from other artists,” Dobbs said. “Someone was having a Snoopy party, so we came up with a design for that theme. And on all our designs we try to incorporate a space for their names so each child had his own customized shirt.”

The two have also begun to offer several different types of adult shirts, including tank tops, V-necks and baseball and regular T-shirts, Dobbs said.

“We can do most anything from Bible verses in watercolors to special pattern monograms to fun seasonal designs,” Dobbs said. “We’re also creating original Hewitt-Trussville and Clay-Chalkville designs that are more feminine for moms and grandmothers. Right now, they’re in general support of the schools, but we’re aiming to eventually do more specific sports.”

The women’s original designs also include one for each season, back to school, all of the major holidays and other major occasions, Dobbs said.  

“They can be florals, watercolor and all kind of patterns including polka dots, stripes and verses in cursive,” Dobbs said. “We pair all kinds of patterns, backgrounds, images and fonts to create our original designs.”

Most items range from $22 to $35, Dobbs said.

The sisters have also recently begun embroidering, Dobbs said.

“Anyone can bring in pretty much anything and we can do it, including purses, towels, shirts, dresses but also stuffed animals, blankets, backpack and hats,” Dobbs said. “We have a relatively large six-needle machine and can load a lot of colors, which makes our job easier.”

A large part of the sisters’ business is custom orders and they encourage patrons to come into the shop at 104 Watterson Parkway or to send in their own design online, Dobbs said.

“We have a lot of Birmingham area customers come to the store, but people from all over the country and even Germany are purchasing online,” Dobbs said. “You just go to the website, choose your shirt type, fill out the design information and submit it.”

Natives of Center Point, Dobbs, 22, and Glidewell, 30, live in Springville and Trussville, respectively.  

Glidewell, who with her husband recently welcomed their second child, said the women decided to keep the Sister Shirts name.

“There are actually five sisters in our family and we’d like to hire our other sisters and our mom in time,” she said. “Their support and the encouragement of our husbands has meant everything. In fact, I had told my husband many years ago I wanted a store of some sort, and while I don’t know this is exactly what I had envisioned, … I’m very grateful it’s all worked out so well.”