Fashion is an ever-evolving part of culture and society and one that’s hard to influence. The talent and capacity needed to affect the fashion industry’s inertia is a rarity, especially in a day where large apparel companies dominate most of the fashion conversation. But rising entrepreneur and designer Rudy Mage has done so much to radically challenge people’s perception of fashion in today’s context.
Rudy is the owner of Inked Pro, a creative agency and garment designing company out of Miami, Florida. In a short time, the design company has grown from a humble startup to a 3,000 square foot facility complete with art exhibit areas, its own apparel shop, and a large printing facility that provides some of the country’s best dye sublimation, t-shirt printing, and embroidery services.
As the Creative Director of one of the most successful t-shirt printing firms, Rudy Mage’s goal is to influence fashion by creating top-level designs against the grain and challenge norms. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Fine Arts and Computer Animation from the University of Art and Design Miami and has over twenty years of experience in fashion. In that amount of time, he has turned Inked Pro into a behemoth that moves the needle of art and design in Miami, the Florida area, and other parts of the country as well.
During the early days of his venture into the design business, Rudy Mage drove around town selling t-shirts out of his car’s trunk. “I drove by local stores, barbershops, tattoo parlors, and conventions and events to sell originally designed shirts to anyone,” remembers the designer. “While difficult at first, the experience would help me build the necessary sales and business skills to thrive in future endeavors.”
After years of persevering and hustling hard, Rudy opened Inked Pro’s first print and design studio. He partnered up with Daniel “Ocean” Rodriguez, who took over as managing director of Inked Pro, leaving Rudy enough headroom to put more effort into the company’s creative aspects. Rudy and Daniel started branching out into other services, including web design, graphic design, and video production, giving companies a one-stop shop to create a customized brand of apparel for any small business or large corporation that wants to stand out.
Inked Pro grew into a service company, creating apparel for some of the biggest brands in South Florida. The company would later receive the honor of being the state’s top screen printing company, a distinction that Rudy Mage, Daniel Rodriguez, and the Inked Pro team have maintained for three years.
Today, Rudy Mage leads the design process for apparel design and creation for organizations like the NFL, NBA, and MMA. He also creates custom merchandise lines for some of the nation’s biggest names and personalities in music and entertainment. This honor has made Rudy one of the most influential merchandise and apparel designers in America for streetwear, casual wear, and many other fashion branches.
With all that he has achieved, Rudy is just getting started. He looks to continue improving the technology aspect of Inked Pro’s operations and expand other new elements of the business, including fulfillment, bagging, and tagging. Rudy Mage maintains that there’s more room to grow and intends to do that.