Hi, I’m Megan, I’m so excited to share a little bit of my story with you. Prairie City Apparel has been a dream years in the making, and it’s because of local support from customers like you, whether you’ve made a purchase, joined my email list, stopped to chat at a market, or even just told me you love my shirts when you see me in town. Every kind word has kept me going and made this possible.
I’ve never had what you’d call a “normal” job. My entrepreneurial streak started in high school with 120 laying hens and a little egg stand my dad built on wagon wheels. We sold eggs from the front of our house, and I was definitely the “crazy chicken girl” in town. I also raised slow-growing, pasture-raised meat birds, enough for my family to eat for a year. At the height of it, we had 300 chickens, and I wore my hot pink cowgirl boots and lime green cowgirl hat everywhere. My style has always been a little quirky and a whole lot of cowgirl.
Around this time I started a blog called Old -Fashioned Girls, which is what I first called Prairie City Apparel when I started it. At this time I was also teaching sewing classes and taught to 4-H kids. At 16, I started working as a birth doula, and at 18, I began apprenticing as a midwife. I loved the birth world, but I was also dealing with a chronic illness that can flare unpredictably. I knew I needed to create work that allowed me flexibility, some days pushing hard, other days resting.
While working in midwifery I was also earning my degree in psychology with a specialization in life coaching, thinking it would be a skill I could use anywhere life took me. Around my senior year, I started dreaming seriously about running my own business. When my husband and I got married and moved, I stepped back from birth work to focus on my health and our growing family. Having my own business online appealed to me for the flexibility and the fact that we knew we would be moving several times during those first few years of marriage.
At first, I sold pinecone and camping-themed necklaces, but I always knew I wanted to make t-shirts. I finally bought a heat press, and after a few months of it just sitting there, I took the leap. I made my first Western tees and set up a booth at our local rodeo. I was hooked. As a maker and creative at heart t-shirts were an outlet for both my Western and creative sides!
Since then, Prairie City Apparel has grown into a mix of online sales and weekends at rodeos and fairs. I love the balance, most weeks I’m home with my toddlers working from my dining room table, but every other weekend throughout the summer, I get to be out meeting customers face-to-face at rodeos across Oregon. Those connections, hearing your stories, sharing laughs, and soaking in the atmosphere of rodeo life, always makes for a good time!
Looking ahead, my vision is to keep growing online while continuing having booths at the rodeos I love, and expanding more into doing custom tees for local businesses, schools, clubs and events. Eventually I hope to open a local warehouse and create jobs here in our small town. I believe the economic impact small businesses can have are very important to small towns like ours.
Prairie City Apparel is more than a business to me. It’s a way to connect with people, to keep my creativity alive, and to share a love of the Western lifestyle, all while raising my kids in a community I love, while creating a positive economic impact.
Thanks for being here and being part of this journey with me. None of this would be possible without the continued support of loyal customers like you!