Meet the Crew Behind Crew of 5 ❤️

If you've ever wondered where the name Crew of 5 came from, the answer is pretty simple.

There are five of us.

Dad, Jason. Mom, Christine. And our three boys, Trevor, Parker and Collin.

But over the last 11 years, Crew of 5 has become a whole lot more than a name.

It's grown up right alongside our family.

It Started With Easter Baskets

Crew of 5 started in 2015, shortly after our third son was born.

I was a full-time stay-at-home mom looking for a way to help support our household while still being home to raise our boys.

And somehow, that started with Easter baskets. 😂

Except they weren't really baskets. They were custom tins and buckets that we decorated using a Cricut. We'd cut ridiculously detailed vinyl decals and create each one around a theme.

I loved being able to take an idea and turn it into something completely different and personal.

So, Who Is the Crew?

The five in Crew of 5 are Jason, Christine, Trevor, Parker and Collin.

We chose the anchor as part of our identity because our family is rooted in Faith & Family, and those two things have always been at the center of what we're building.

Everybody's role has changed over the years.

Jason is our idea sharer and one of the people always helping get our name out there.

Christine handles the majority of the designing and shirt pressing, along with approximately 4,972 other things that somehow come with running a small business from your house. 😂

And then there are the boys.

They've Grown Up With Crew of 5

When Crew of 5 started, all three of our boys were little.

Today, our oldest, Trevor, is a freshman at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.

He's obviously not around to help with events, setup and teardown the way he once did, but his fingerprints are still all over parts of the business.

Our JROTC collection started because of Trevor and our involvement with his local JROTC program. Now we're working on custom UTK ROTC gear, and we still run ideas by him from time to time.

Then there's Parker, our middle child.

And yes, he's a middle child to a tee. 😂

He's not especially interested in joining the Crew of 5 production line at the moment, but when we need extra hands at an event, he's there.

And then there's Collin.

Collin is the reason Crew 3D Lab exists.

One 3D Printer Became Five

For Christmas in 2023, Collin got his first 3D printer.

He wanted to create his own part of the business, and we wanted to give him the opportunity to do it.

One printer became another.

And another.

We now have five 3D printers, and Collin and I work together on designs, products, colors and what we want to make next.

Some of my favorite things we've created are our skeleton dinosaurs and bookends. They're different, they're beautiful, and they're exactly the kind of things I love finding and making.

And there's one pretty simple rule around here:

If you put in the work, you earn the money.

We've always believed in teaching our kids to fish.

Crew of 5 just happens to be one of the ways we've been able to do that.

Yes, Our House Looks Like a Workshop

People see the finished shirt or the cool 3D print.

They don't necessarily see what happens behind it. 😂

We have 3D printers in our family room that regularly run 24/7, with more printers out in the garage.

Sometimes we're waiting up at night because we didn't time a print quite right and somebody needs to swap a plate or start the next job.

And when a big shirt order comes in?

Our house gets taken over.

The dining room table?

You mean the workshop?

And Sometimes You Find a Screw...

Recently, Collin and I were doing some maintenance on the printers.

The next day, I could NOT get one of them to run correctly.

Eventually, I found a screw Collin hadn't put back.

So I had to start backtracking through everything we'd done until I figured out exactly where that little screw belonged.

And that's when I started laughing.

My dad had a business servicing laser printers.

When he was in school learning how to work on them, they weren't allowed to finish with any screws left over after putting a printer back together.

One day, he and his friend had a couple screws left.

So naturally, they quietly dropped them into the bucket belonging to the guy next to them. 😂

I'm sure that guy didn't think it was nearly as funny.

Years later, there I was trying to figure out where Collin's leftover screw belonged.

It was one of those little moments that catches you completely off guard.

My dad isn't here anymore, but suddenly there he was.

In a printer.

In a leftover screw.

And in my son.

I laughed out loud. ❤️

Creativity, Quality & #ShopLocal

Being a small family business means something to us.

We're trying to build a name for ourselves here in Smyrna, Tennessee, and we know that every time someone chooses Crew of 5, they're choosing to spend their hard-earned money on something we created.

We don't take that lightly.

Whether it's a shirt or something coming out of Crew 3D Lab, one rule matters:

If I wouldn't buy it, I don't want to sell it.

For our 3D prints, that sometimes means printing something stronger or more durable instead of simply figuring out how to make it faster.

If it's meant to be played with, we want it to hold up.

If we're putting our name on it, we want to be proud of it.

11 Years Later...

Crew of 5 looks very different than it did when I was sitting at home with three little boys and a Cricut making custom Easter buckets.

We've made shirts.

We've made tumblers.

We've outfitted schools, teams, businesses and organizations.

We've spent weekends at markets and events.

We've added five 3D printers.

We've had dining rooms disappear under giant shirt orders.

And somehow, one of those little boys is now off at college.

The business has grown up alongside our family.

I hope it keeps growing, but I want it to happen organically. I don't know exactly what Crew of 5 will look like a few years from now.

And I think that's part of the fun.

Because if the last 11 years have taught us anything, it's that we probably haven't even thought of some of the things we'll be making next.

But whatever comes next, it'll still be us.

Dad. Mom. Trevor. Parker. Collin.

Our Crew of 5. ❤️

Made by us. Made for your crew.