From Startup to Industry Leader, the Mission Stays the Same

The company that started in a spare room of Vic Kennett's Arkansas home has become the industry leader in Christian-themed apparel—with Kennett as CEO. But the story of Kerusso, Inc.—named from the Greek word meaning "to preach"— begins years before, in 1987, when Kennett pulled his first messaged t-shirt off the screen press.

"I was 12 years old and working two jobs," Kennett recalls. "In my uncle's motel and at the Passion Play as an actor."

Growing up in Eureka Springs, Ark., home to the outdoor event called The Great Passion Play, Kennett was in fact working three jobs. At age 12 he'd also launched his first entrepreneurial venture—selling shoes door-to-door. The ups and downs of self-employment, Kennett would later say, led to his career sharing the Gospel with products about Jesus.

Those products originate at Kerusso headquarters, a 65,000-square-foot facility in Berryhill, Ark., a few miles from Eureka Springs, sitting on 10 acres and selling through more than 5,000 retailers in 90 countries. But in 1987, when Kennett saw his first messaged t-shirt and thought, "I want to do that," he was coming off one of those "down" periods.

Because a few years earlier, at age 20, he'd left the University of Arkansas to start a fitness center.

"I had the entrepreneurial blood," he said. He also had a nest egg. His parents were Depression survivors and all the Kennetts practiced safe finances, saving money and avoiding debt. (In fact, Kerusso today operates debt-free.)

In the 1980s fitness centers lacked the established niche they have now, and rural Arkansas lacked the population to sustain Kennett's enterprise. He was forced to close his center down.

What next? Kennett tried his hand at real estate and other sale jobs. By 1987, he was working construction, even adding a couple of rooms onto the home he shared with wife, Melody, whom he'd married two years before.

Still, the drive to own his own business never left, and about that time he saw his first t-shirt with a Christian message.

Just as he had been on a journey in his work life, Kennett was on a spiritual path as well. He'd been a believer since age 15, but in his early 20s, Kennett's walk with the Lord began to deepen. And it happened to coincide with a frustrated entrepreneur seeing a product he believed in and believed he could sell.

Kennett jumped in, selling his Christian t-shirt designs originally through Campus Life magazine, by mail order, waiting to accumulate a significant batch then printing shirts at a local shop, not even using his own equipment.

"It's a glimpse into how little I knew," he says now. "But I had a ton of determination and God's grace. It's a great example of ‘not by might, nor by power but by My Spirit."

At that point almost every experience in Vic Kennett's life came into play: His conversion and spiritual awakening, for example, gave him a thirst for a business with eternal significance. Business experience prepared him for the challenges of a startup. Construction work provided a spare room. Even his work in the Passion Play factored: in selling shirts to them he learned about manufacturer's reps, the traditional go-between for producers like him and the retailers he needed.

In short order Kennett was out of the mail order business and Kerusso shirts were on store shelves in a five-state area. Kennett had his own screen press and a dryer he fashioned himself.

"There was no Google then, and I was unaware of the trade association for screen printing," Kennett said. "I received a short lesson from a friend and started printing shirts."

Within a year Kerusso was in a 1,500-square-foot converted garage in an industrial building. Another year and he had the facility's other half. In 1992, just five years in business, he built a 6,000-square-foot building and doubled his space again. Kerusso relationships now spanned the U.S. and year-by-year Kerusso bought and assimilated neighboring properties until it now employs 100 people on its 10-acre campus.

In 1998, Kerusso added gifts, jewelry and accessories to its clothing lines. Exclusive licensing agreements are common now, with Kerusso as the exclusive apparel licensee for the highly anticipated new Sherwood Pictures film COURAGEOUS, premiering Sept. 30, 2011. (Kerusso enjoyed a similar relationship with Sherwood on its previous movie, FIREPROOF, the No. 1 independent film of 2008, and with many well-known Christian authors and organizations such as Francis Chan and Women of Faith.)

The Kerusso story continues to unfold with more than 10 million messaged shirts sold and thousands of lives affected. Kennett routinely hears from customers who have life-changing encounters, often with total strangers, because of conversations the clothes start. It continues to meet the mission that has guided Kennett and Kerusso since doors opened almost 25 years ago: "Proclaiming the Good News to the world through products about Jesus."