CAN'T AFFORD EM BUTTONS

Handmade Revolutionary Goods

Can’t Afford Em Buttons at 5 Years

Can’t Afford Em Buttons was founded in the spring of 2005 by Patrick Stanley and Angie Spitzer.  But to understand the history of CAE we must first back up to the planting of the seeds that eventually sprouted into the current incarnation.

The story begins with Patrick, Alec, and John. These three lads lived on the same hall freshmen year of college, and late one night during spring semester hatched a plan to start a record label. So over the summer, they pooled their money, put together a compilation CD, and made arrangements to release a full length album with a Tallahassee band named Believe in Toledo. Thus, Can’t Afford Em Records was formed. (It should be noted that the first name was First Floor Records.  Shortly after the release of the comp, they discovered there was another label with the same name and according to a reliable source this label had some drug money funding it. Not wanting to get themselves involved in those shenanigans they promptly began thinking of a new name).

Fast forward six or so months to the spring of 2003- the new name had been decided, Patrick had acquired a button press to help raise money for the label, the compilation and full length had been released, and sales were going steady. Believe in Toledo was now on tour heavily promoting their sophomore album, and they were staying in Patrick’s and John’s dorm room while they played some shows in New York. Patrick got to talking with guitarist and singer Dave about how they made their shirts.  He explained how they made the screens, printed them, and heat set them.  The next morning the band went on their merry way toward the promised land of middle America.  And thus the seeds were planted.

Over the next 15 months or so, things went along as things often do. A couple more releases were completed by the Can’t Afford Em crew, and all three continued to push the music in hopes that the next band would be the “big one.” It was summertime, and Patrick decided to spend his time creating buttons and art.  He began taking his buttons to Union Square in NYC a few evenings a week and selling them for 50 cents each, and amazingly was able to cover rent in this manner.  A few weeks into the summer, his thoughts turned back to that late night conversation with Dave about screen printing.  He decided to give it a try.

Using some of his savings, Patrick went online and purchased some wholesale shirts, a couple of screens, screen filler, and a few colors of ink. He decided his first screen would be the record label’s logo.  The next two days were spent hand painting the image with multiple coats of screen filler.  Once the finished, Patrick set up shop his kitchen and began printing Can’t Afford Em Records Shirts.  It was a success.  The next six months were spent doing small orders for friends and various groups on campus.  Many of these were done at material cost while Patrick honed his skill set and prepared to start charging for his labor. At this point, Angie entered the scene and began collaborating on designs and painting screens.  This allowed Patrick more time to make buttons and print shirts, and out of this partnership Can’t Afford Em Buttons was created.

From an early stage, Patrick and Angie knew they wanted to be doing more that simply making shirts and buttons.  They wanted to produce items in a socially healthy and aware manner.  They wanted their items to be outlets for their messages...a form of media. And so the first website was launched in the summer of 2005 with this in mind.  It contained a small handful of shirt designs and info for ordering custom buttons.

Over the next couple of years, CAE continued to grow and at times the workload threatened to swallow both artists and their apartment. The culmination of this came one November when a series of orders for custom shirts, an enormous button order from PETA, and preparations for selling at the annual School of the Americas Protest in Columbus, Georgia overwhelmed the apartment and its occupants.  Once this storm had been weathered, Angie, Patrick, and Alice (who had moved in a few months earlier) began planning to rent a space which could be run as a community art space as well. 

By June of 2007, a 1500 square foot loft space in an old factory building in the South Bronx had become home to CAE Buttons and what was soon to be known as the Red Roots Community Art Space. For two years, CAE and Red Roots operated from this space. The production of shirts and buttons continued and art classes, a lending library, meeting space, computer lab and classes, and a host of other projects were hosted from the space. In June 2009, CAE and Red Roots made the move to a street-level garage downstairs from where the core group was living. The same projects and work continued from this space for the next year until the economy and interest in other projects resulted in the closing of Red Roots, and CAE moved into a recently vacated room in the apartment (how’s that for full circle)?

This brings us to the present, Fall 2010. At this writing we have stopped accepting custom shirt orders so that we can concentrate on our original purpose- buttons and screen-printing as a form of media. Hopefully this will allow us to create even more designs and products…check back with us often to keep up with what we’re working on and thanks for visiting.

With the launch of this site we hope to keep all of our work/projects linked together in a more fluid way, and to be able to create new shirts, patches, stickers, and buttons with more regularity while also allowing time for our many side projects.