• Products & Services
  • History

    Primo Designs is a wholesale manufacturer and supplier of screen printed and embroidered apparel and Promotional Products, as well as digitally printed signage and sublimated products.

    A message from Founder Len Naumovich: The History of Primo Designs

    I started Primo Designs, printing t-shirts in the basement of my Uncle’s duplex in January of 1985. I had learned to screen print on a single color wooden table top press in my garage as a hobby. My Uncle Joe agreed to help me finance the purchase of a 4 color press, 4’ dryer and a vertical camera with a film processor.

    This was the beginning of a journey that has lasted for over 38 years at this point. It was a one man shop, where we did art with Letraset, burned screens with grow lights, washed them out in a shower stall and reclaimed them in the bay of a car wash. In order to survive, we had to “Serve Others” in any possible way. Just give us a chance.

    We had to:

    • Solve Problems” like learning how to print on a hat or nylon jackets or using number stencils.
    • “Compete” with a few local printers, hoping to one day print as well as they did.
    • Grind” through every job, with very little industry knowledge and even less business background, to make a little bit of extra money.
    • Focused and Disciplined” enough to keep reading and experimenting to develop procedures that we could depend on to print quality products. That was our existence in 1985.

     

    Recent history

    Fast forward to 2019, we had 32 employees, 15,000 square feet of production in screen printing, embroidery and digital printing. We had a retail location on the “West Side”, a newly renovated back building, a sales team, art department, printers and embroiderers. We were a growing company.

    March of 2020 brought the Covid-19 pandemic, and we would never be the same again. We had the same core values, but they had to be used very differently, to help us change our business in the middle of a worldwide shutdown.

    We learned that “Serving Others” meant serving the customers who were still needing our products and serving the very minimal staff who had to produce them. We learned to “Solve Problems” by being efficient and doing more with less. We found that our greatest “Competition” was leaving our old ways behind and learning new ways to communicate with our customers and our fellow employees. We had to “Grind” through days of staff shortages, supply chain issues and economic uncertainty. We needed great “Discipline and Focus” to keep from slipping back into our comfortable and familiar ways of doing business in our community.

     

    Our Plan for Success

    This is an amazing story of a 38-year-old business, learning a new way to measure what matters, developing the next group of leaders, getting people in the right seats where they can use their talents to reach their goals and help the company grow. This is a story of new ideas, new markets, automating what is possible and training the processes that will make us successful.

    It is time for the next generation to grow from contributing, to leading. It is time for us to grow new leaders from within the company, and for them to develop leaders from their peers. It is an ongoing process of growth, both as individuals and as a business. That is our plan for success.

    I believe in all of you.

    Len Naumovich
    Owner, Founder, Primo Designs

    “It is very easy to order, and the communication with Primo staff helps relieve the stress associated with group orders.”

    “Primo is amazing to work with, from finding the perfect items to fulfilling anywhere between 1 to over 2200 orders, their customer service and commitment to quality never changes.”

    Lindsey speaks, HR business partner & employee relations, springfield clinic

    “We create a t-shirt every year to give to employees. They enjoy getting them because Primo has nice work apparel. We want our people to be proud of where they work.”

    Jamie Alvarado, HR Generalist, Advanced Filtration Systems, Champaign, IL (Primo Customer Since 2021)

    “We have worked with several different design companies over the years when ordering t-shirts and hoodies for our program including several negative experiences. This year we chose Primo Designs for our fall play. Our student designer created the production artwork and their staff worked with her to create beautiful show shirts for our students. This spring we have chosen Primo Designs again to create Clinton High School Theatre shirts to sell to our students, families, and supporters as a fundraiser. The shirts were created and delivered quickly with quality printing and perfect order accuracy.”

    Lisa Groves, Director of Theatre at Clinton High School

    “Called them on a Tuesday gave them design Wednesday they were closed Thursday and Friday for the holidays and they got my shirts Tuesday mid-morning and rocked out 20 hoodies and 30 shirts for me for our racing this Thursday. Thank you to the staff for rocking these out.”

    Cindy Werner-Hancock

    “Love Primo! They are always very accommodating and Nick N. is the best! He is very helpful, quick to respond, and always puts customer satisfaction first.”

    Stephanie Webster

    “I have had a great experience with Primo. They do all of our shirts, jackets, hats, etc. They do a great job for us and we consider them a partner in success.”

    Max Bumgardner

    “Competitive pricing, solid designs, extremely fast turnaround.”

    Tim Roberts

    “Primo Designs rocks! … They do what it takes to get the job done and to get it done right.”

    K Stouffer

    “Primo did a bulk order of t-shirts for Boys and Girls Club of Illinois. The t-shirts were great quality and it took less than a week to receive. We just finished the first launch of the webstore and plan to launch another through them later this year. Multiple members of our staff have ordered from Primo for events and staff. They also had a great experience.”

    Alex Doyle

    “Primo is the best in town. They have embroidered many different types of shirts and jackets for our company, they all look great. Highly recommend.”

    ROB FIRST

    “The team at Primo worked diligently on creating a web store for Boys and Girls Clubs of Illinois employees to order a variety of apparel in a wide range of sizes and colors.”

    Alex Doyle, Boys Clubs

    “The team at Primo worked diligently on creating a web store for Boys and Girls Clubs of Illinois employees to order a variety of apparel in a wide range of sizes and colors. We just finished the first launch of the web store and plan to launch another through them later this year.”

    Alex Doyle, Boys and Girls Clubs

    “The team at Primo worked diligently on creating a webstore for Boys and Girls Clubs of Illinois employees to order a variety of apparel in a wide range of sizes and colors. We just finished the first launch of the webstore and plan to launch another through them later this year.”

    Alex Doyle, Boys and Girls Clubs