☆ OUR STORY ☆

MORE THAN A SHIRT

 

Salt Tees started with a simple belief:

What we buy can help build the communities we belong to.

 

At its heart, Salt Tees is our story. We are a family-owned apparel company shaped by community, school spirit, and firsthand experiences that changed the way we think about the importance of showing up for one another.

We make apparel we genuinely want to wear while creating opportunities for the people and organizations around us to benefit from those purchases.

 

We're not just here to sell shirts. We're here to build something that gives back as it grows.

☆ WHERE IT STARTED ☆

WE GREW UP KNOWING WHAT COMMUNITY LOOKS LIKE

 

 I'm Harley, the owner and operator of Salt Tees, right here in Pickerington, Ohio.

 

Salt Tees grew out of the same place most of my life has: a chaotic, loud, loving family that somehow always has something going on. At home, it's me, my husband David, our two daughters, Jalen and Blake, our dog Fiona, and our three cats, Nala, Oliver, and Binx.

 There is rarely a quiet moment, but there is always someone to laugh with, help, cheer on, or occasionally tell to get off the kitchen counter.

 

While my husband and I both grew up in smaller, more rural communities in the South, our childhoods taught us something that has stayed with us long after we left:

COMMUNITY MATTERS.

School spirit mattered. People showed up for one another. Families volunteered, supported local organizations, and found ways to help when someone needed it. Being involved wasn't something reserved for a select few. It was simply part of being part of the community.

 

As we got older, I began to appreciate those experiences in a different way. I also began to see how difficult it can be for schools, nonprofits, and families to maintain those same kinds of communities when the resources available to them don't always match the needs around them.

That realization became one of the foundations of Salt Tees.

I believe the strongest communities aren't built by one person, one organization, or one big gesture. They're built by lots of people finding small ways to show up for one another.

 

Salt Tees is my way of showing up.

☆ OUR MISSION ☆

YOU CAN'T DO IT ALONE

 

I've learned that community becomes even more important when life gets complicated.

 

Our family has experienced that in ways I never expected.

Raising a child with a rare genetic disorder has shown us the ongoing care, planning, and expenses that can come with something you can't simply fix or walk away from. Living with chronic illness has also changed what I'm physically able to do from one day to the next.

Those experiences have changed the way I think about support.

 

I've learned that sometimes the thing that makes a difficult situation manageable isn't one person having all the answers. It's having people around you who are willing to help carry part of the load.

I see that same principle in our schools and local organizations.

Schools have needs that aren't always covered by their budgets. Teachers give more of themselves than their job descriptions require. Nonprofits and community organizations often stretch limited resources to accomplish things that directly benefit the people around them.

 

And that's why organizations like Parent Teacher Organizations matter so much to me. They're a reflection of what I believe community should be: people recognizing a need and deciding that, together, they can do something about it.

I don't believe Salt Tees can solve every problem. That's not the point.

I want to build a business that contributes to the places and people that make our communities worth being part of.

For me, that means creating apparel people actually want to buy and wear, while building opportunities for those purchases to put something back into the community.

 

That's the idea behind community reinvestment at Salt Tees.

✓ WHY SALT TEES? ✓

BECAUSE WHAT YOU WEAR CAN DO MORE THAN LOOK GOOD

  • APPAREL FIRST

    We make products that are designed to be fun, meaningful, and genuinely worth wearing, whether you're shopping for yourself, your family, your school, or your community.

  • PURPOSE BUILT IN

    Community reinvestment isn't an occasional fundraiser or a marketing campaign. It's part of how I want Salt Tees to operate as a business.

  • CLEAR IMPACT

    When you shop a School or Non-Profit Collection, we establish a specific dollar amount per qualifying sale for the participating organization, so you know exactly what your purchase supports.

  • GROW THE GOOD

    We're starting with one community, but I want Salt Tees to grow into more partnerships, more collections, and more opportunities for your purchases to put something back where it matters.

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Buy something you want. Help strengthen something you care about.

✓ HOW IT WORKS ✓

YOU BUY. THEY BENEFIT.

Choose a collection.

Shop a School or Non-Profit Collection and find something you genuinely want to wear.

Shop Eligible Collections

Place your order.

Purchase your shirt or other qualifying item directly through Salt Tees.

Check Out

Your purchase gives back.

For each qualifying sale, Salt Tees sets aside the specific dollar amount associated with that collection for the participating organization.
Those contributions go back to the organization to support the people, programs, activities, resources, or needs identified by that community.

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FEATURED: The Violet Collection

 

Salt Tees is starting right here at home with a community that's especially meaningful to our family:

 

Violet Elementary and the Violet Parent Teacher Organization


The Violet Collection gives families and supporters a way to show their school pride while helping support the work of the PTO.
For every qualifying Violet Collection sale, $10 goes directly to the Violet PTO.

These funds help support:
 

  • School resources & equipment
  • Student activities & experiences
  • Teacher & Staff Appreciation
  • School Events
  • Other needs identified by the school community

 

Wear your Violet pride and help your school at the same time.

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ONLY GETTING STARTED

THE BEGINNING OF OUR STORY

Salt Tees doesn't have hundreds of stories to tell yet.
We're just getting started. And I'm okay with that.

I don't want to pretend we've already built something enormous. I want to build something meaningful, one collection, one customer, and one community at a time.

Violet Elementary is our first community. It's the place where we're putting this idea into practice and learning what Salt Tees can become.

As we grow, I hope there will be more schools, more nonprofits, more designs, more partnerships, and more opportunities to put something back into the communities that make a difference.

If you've found something here that you genuinely want to wear, I hope you'll consider being part of that beginning.

Buy something you want. Help strengthen something you care about.

This is just the beginning.


Welcome to Salt Tees.