
Allentown native Nick Beers found a niche and turned it into a growing business.
Smooth Gear, a lifestyle clothing company in Slatedale, Washington Township, Lehigh County, not only designs and prints a line of clothing and sneakers but provides printing services for others looking for custom jobs.
Smooth Gear weathered the COVID-19 pandemic and is growing revenue year over year. Beers, who still works a fulltime job, said he hopes to go fulltime into this venture in the next two to three years.
Last year, the company grossed $35,000 which was up from $25,000 in 2021 and $15,000 in 2020, he said.
“Most of the revenue comes from the custom printing side. That allows us to continue to grow our line of clothing and sneakers,” Beers said.
In fact, Beers said he started with printing jobs for 10 shirts with a one-color design. Now, he takes orders for 500-600 shirts with multi-color designs.
“A week ago, I got an order for an 11-color design which proved to be a challenge, but because of the design, we were successful,” he said.

The idea for a line of clothing came from a project in a high school graphic design course where Beers designed and screen printed a T-shirt with his nickname “Smooth” on it. “I really liked having my own brand,” he said.
Admitting he is not the graphic designer; he enlisted the help of his cousin Chad Holschwander to do the design work. The two went to Drexel University together where they continued to design, print and sell clothing heavily influenced by hip hop, sports, sneaker and streetwear cultures.
After graduating, Beers moved to Mechanicsburg where he continued to grow the business in his basement with a one-color screen printer. He said after a short time, he was out of space.
He and his wife, Kate, bought a house in Slatedale from Holschwander, who refurnishes properties. “I bought the property because the warehouse was there,” he said.
The warehouse, which Smooth Gear refers to as Smooth Gear Creative Lab, is three stories with room for Beers’ new six-color screen printer and sewing equipment. He said it also has room for photo shoots to market his clothing line.
The business, since 2014, has grown through word of mouth. Beers said he made a move at the end of last year to grow the business through direct sales by attending trade shows and pop-up shops.
“We did a pop-up at Corporate which is a sneaker boutique in Cincinnati, Ohio,” he said. “It was a marketing effort really, but we were also hoping for sales.”
Beers said his wife is pushing the marketing aspect of the business in hopes of getting the Smooth Gear name out.
“Our target audience for the clothing brand and sneakers is the 16-35 age demographic. A subset being people who are also interested in fashion, athletics and the sneaker culture,” he said.
“We created our own silhouette, so it’s exclusively a Smooth Gear brand sneaker,” Beers said that he puts his designs on.
Looking forward, Beers said the company is looking to get into retail stores to increase exposure to the brand.
“This is our passion,” he said. “Sometimes I look back and see what time and money I’ve put into this and wonder if it’s worth it. But when I travel and see people wearing our stuff, it definitely is.”