On a 17-mile bike ride to work in 2007, an idea struck screen printer Adam Enfinger.
Call it a $350,000 idea.
The Enfingers were a young, broke married couple who just had their first baby.
Adam prints Dark Cycle Clothing t-shirts (left) and places them on a dryer (right). Chris Zuppa/The Penny Hoarder
Buying a new car was out of the question.
But the cheapest road bike at Walmart?
Adam could afford that.
He even started to enjoy it.
On his commute one day, Adam saw some school kids bolt across the road.
What are they running from?
Adam recalls asking himself.
Thats when I had the image of a shark or a whale on a bicycle chasing them.
It was a track team.
But the idea stuck with him: Animals on bicycles.
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So Adam put pencil to paper.
His designs always start on paper.
Thinkmanatee on a fat-tireorsloth on a 10-speed.
These designs later skyrocketed the Enfigers screen printing business,Dark Cycle Clothing, to the No.
3 hand-made clothing store on Etsy, reaching audiences all over the United States.
Even Canada and England want in on the bicycling beasts.
But it would take a little while for that design epiphany to materialize into a burgeoning business.
We were high school sweethearts, and we were crazy punk rock kids, Coryn says.
At first, we would design up shirts and get them screen printed by local screen printers.
Before launching Dark Cycle Clothing in 2009, they took on odd jobs to make ends meet.
During breaks, he would screen print his own designs.
Perhaps being on a bike for 34 miles a day seeped into his creative process.
Over time, his sketches changed from punk band logos to bicycle designs.
And people started to take notice.
Passers-by would fawn over Adams screen-printed tees and after their first daughter was born onesies.
Whered you get that?
Oh, I made it, hed say.
But the Enfingers were game anyway.
We sold maybe two necklaces, Adam says, but people kept praising their shirts.
With the surplus products from the fashion show, Coryn created an Etsy store to pawn off the leftovers.
Thats when things really took off for us on a global scale, Coryn recalls.
Their first T-shirt sale on Etsy?A giraffe on a tall-bike.
The online store soared in popularity and became the couples full-time career in November 2009.
We were so busy.
We grew really fast, Coryn says.
The upside of starting their business on Etsy is that there was little overhead.
Coryn says Dark Cycle Clothing was profitable right off the bat.
Coryn says the additional employee has been a game changer.
For diving full-force into a screen printing business as new parents you might call the Enfingers fearless.
Lucas saw Dark Cycles apparel trending on Etsy, loved it and reached out to the Enfingers directly.
I courted Coryn for probably three years, Lucas says.
But every time she asked, hammer-and-sickle flashbacks kept the Enfingers from accepting.
Finally, Lucas gave them one last push: Come down to Sarasota.
Youll make thousands and thousands of dollars, Lucas goaded them.
And when she put it that way, how could Coryn and Adam resist?
This time was going to be different.
They had a game plan, too.
We made it feel like a boutique.
And this time, the attendees were indeed a shopping crowd.
[Lucas] definitely didnt oversell herself, Coryn says.
People were so receptive.
Even down in Sarasota, population around 55,000, Dark Cycle Clothing had fans waiting for them.
At that point, Dark Cycle was solely an online endeavor.
Markets now generate about a third of Dark Cycles revenue.
The company frequents flea markets in the Tampa Bay area, especiallyTampas Indie Flea,St.
Petes Indie Market and theAtomic Holiday Bazaar, of course.
But Coryn and Adam like to keep it local for the most part.
That helps cut down on travel costs, too.
Hes thankful for many things mostly the easier commute.
People like to do that to cyclists for some reason, Adam says.
Adam Hardy is a reporter, editorial assistant at The Penny Hoarder.
He lives off a diet of stale puns and iced coffee.
Read hisfull bio, or say hi on Twitter@hardyjournalism.
When you log into your bank account, how do your savings look?
Probably not as good as youd like.
It always seems like an uphill battle to build (and keep) a decent amount in savings.
But what if your car breaks down, or you have a sudden medical bill?
