Help Rebuild Juke City

On Friday, May 10th, three tornadoes touched down in Tallahassee, Florida. Two of these tornados intersected in Railroad Square Art District, the location of Juke City’s first brick-and-mortar shop. This was an unprecedented weather event that turned the entire city upside down in a matter of seconds. Thankfully our home was spared, but Juke City was in ruins

The roof was torn off and the ceiling collapsed inward. Water filled every crevice of the building as storms persisted long after the tornado had passed. Almost everything in the shop was damaged or destroyed. This would be devastating to anyone, but for Brando, Juke City’s owner, the damage was soul-crushing.

Brando began learning to screen print in 1995 and started printing professionally in 1997. A decade later (while still pulling squeegees), Brando graduated from college with a graphic design degree allowing them to advance through every aspect of the printing process from design to physical product. After moving to California in 2014 and taking a job with another screen printing shop, Brando went back to school to study business management with the hopes of opening their own screen printing company. “I’ve been doing this my whole life. It’s the only thing I’ve ever wanted to do.” Then in 2017 after 22 years of dedication to their craft, Juke City was born. “We started production in Andy’s garage and operated solely online. We wanted to open up a brick-and-mortar shop eventually, but the garage gave me the opportunity to have a starting point. Our friends would stop by to check it out and everyone was surprised that we had all of this professional equipment crammed in there. It was definitely a ‘make it work’ kind of situation but that’s exactly what we did. We made it work and it was successful.”

In 2021, Juke City moved to Tallahassee Florida, and found a home in Railroad Square. “Brando would be in that shop every single day busting their ass.” Andy, chiming in

“I’d come in to help reclaim screens or do whatever other shop work was needed to help out and it would be 100 degrees in the production area in the summer. I don’t think people know how physically demanding screen printing is, but it’s exhausting work. I would typically only be there for a few hours at a time, but Brando was there ALL the time. Suffocating heat and freezing cold, Brando worked harder than anyone I’ve ever met in my entire life. They just never stopped working to grow the business and give customers the best experience possible. No cheap shortcuts, no rash decisions, just hard work and immaculate attention to detail. You won’t meet a more driven person than Brando.”

Now we’re here to humbly ask for assistance to keep this dream alive and help us stay afloat. Your donations will go towards procuring a new business space, replacing damaged equipment, lost income, and damaged inventory. Right now our goal is to get back up and running as quickly as possible. Many of our customers come from the Roller Derby world and for those of you in league leadership who have reached out to us wanting to help, we want to give back as soon as we can. If we raise more than we end up needing, we plan to redistribute funds back to the derby leagues who are able to donate.

Thank you so much for your support. We look forward to many years of supporting the community with our small business!