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Tigereye Design in Greenville prospers with promotional materials for Obama, other Democrats.
> Obama is Greenville company's $6M man
> Photos of Tigerseye Design work
> Indiana company bills itself as official supplier for McCain campaign
Sunday, August 10, 2008
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GREENVILLE — It's a company catering to Democrats but located in the heart of what company official Justin Hemminger calls "John Boehner country."
House Minority Leader Boehner, R-West Chester, represents this area, which is known for its conservative politics. But despite its location, Hemminger said Tigereye Designs LLC hasn't had any problems growing.
"We're one of the bigger employers in Greenville," said Hemminger, political program director. "With the economy being what it is, the fact that we're hiring when a lot of places aren't, putting food on the table, you can put politics aside."
Darke County gave the company a $250,000 low-interest loan to locate in the Greenville Industrial Park.
"We're just extremely pleased with the fact that they're out there and the fact that they're growing so much," said Marv Stammen, president of the Community Improvement Corp. of Greenville, which owns the industrial park.
Business is booming for a reason: Tigereye is the primary supplier of promotional materials for Sen. Barack Obama's presidential campaign. The company also runs his online store, operating a 24-hour-a-day Internet order fulfillment center as part of a newly aggressive push into internet business.
The work for Obama goes beyond business, said co-owner Monica Baltes.
"That man just spoke for me," said Baltes, who first noticed Obama when he made the keynote speech at the 2004 Democratic Convention. "He's been in my heart ever since I saw him."
Tigereye has made buttons, posters, T-shirts, hats and other materials for national Democrats since Jimmy Carter was president. The company also supplied the Ted Strickland for Governor and Sherrod Brown for Senate committees, and developed promotional materials for a slew of other Democratic candidates for Congress and governor's offices.
Baltes said the company got its foot in Obama's door early, producing some Draft Obama buttons before he became a candidate. The two top Democratic primary candidates, Hillary Clinton and John Edwards, already had suppliers.
"Obama was the biggest name out there and we did put on the full-court press," said Hemminger. "He really was our favorite candidate from the start."
Hemminger estimated revenue from the Obama campaign contract at about $6 million. And growing.
"We're pleased to support a local Ohio company," said Obama campaign spokesman Isaac Baker. "Obama supporters across America are proudly displaying Tigereye's great work everyday."
Rows after row of bins and boxes inside the Tigereye warehouse here are filled with a huge array of Obama materials: buttons, pens, cups, shirts, embroidered hats, fans, and golf balls. There's a slogan or button for just about everyone: ObamaMama T-shirts, Iceland for Obama buttons, Obama onesies for infants. There's even a black button targeting the hard-rock-loving Obama supporter. It uses the AC/DC font and lightening bolt slash in between the B and A in Obama.
On a recent day three designers were busy on computers, coming up with ideas, some serious and some funny. One designer displays a drawing he's working on that shows a giant potato on a couch with the words: "Couch potatoes for Obama."
"Buttons is the business — we sell them for a buck and everyone gives them out," said designer Russell Baltes, son of founders Monica and Tony Baltes. "That's how my dad started out, a camera and a button machine on the front porch."
The company — originally known as Creative Photocrafts — was started about 30 years ago by the Balteses, working out of their Toledo home. Both had day jobs but Tony, who played football for Versailles High School and the University of Toledo, had a knack for photography. So he started taking pictures of athletes, slapping them onto buttons and selling them. Eventually they picked up business from unions, which led to business with Democratic candidates. In 1994, they moved to Frenchtown, near Tony's hometown, and renamed the company in honor of the Versailles High School Tigers. Baltes, currently on a leave of absence from the company, is a cousin of Earl Baltes, former owner of the Eldora Speedway near Rossburg.
Monica now owns Tigereye along with their son Russell and Steve Swallow, the president.
In addition to working for specific campaigns, the company operates its own Democraticstuff.com web site, carrying an array of items for Democratic candidates and causes along with anti-Bush items. They also have a Web site devoted to the iconic Rosie the Riveter material.
Annual sales are expected to grow to $13 million to $15 million this year, up dramatically from the 2006 total of $2 million, Hemminger said. He said the money is being poured into equipment and improvements: three additions were made to the Greenville building since last year and an offsite warehouse was added.
"We used to have one UPS pick up per day," said Hemminger. "Then we had two. And now they leave us a trailer to fill up, and they still come twice a day."
Tigereye promotes itself as a union shop that buys American. When the company does contract out for work, it tries to use other union shops whenever possible, Hemminger said.
Although Tigereye has mostly been associated with Democrats, the company did once operate Republicanstuff.com, but sold it in 2004.
"It just got to the point where we didn't feel comfortable working both sides anymore," Hemminger said.
Recently the company put a certain famous Republican on a political button, accidently placing an image of Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, on a button with Obama. They'd meant to put U.S. Senate candidate Larry LaRocco, an Idaho Democrat, on the buttons.
Craig, became the subject of "wide stance" jokes after pleading guilty to a misdemeanor after being arrested in a Minneapolis men's room by officers investigating a complaint of lewd conduct.
Tigereye withdrew the buttons, and put out a humorous news release blaming the button designer's "wide pointer arrow" for accidently pulling the wrong photograph off a Google Images web site.
"Let's be clear," Hemminger said in the news release. "We do not stand behind Larry Craig, and never have."
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-7455 or lhulsey@DaytonDailyNews.com.
Tigereye Design LLC
Where: 1000 Progress St., Greenville
Information: (800) 844-3739, www.tigereyedesign.com, www.democraticstuff.com
