sept 11 features front.qxd (Page 1)

C
Y
K M
TRulife
Thursday, September 11, 2003
Sport of Strategy
Students hone their mental and
physical skills in fencing class.
See page 11
www.trumanindex.com
9
Rags to Flags
Graduate student Nathan Rueckert’s artistic flags, inspired
by his love of baseball, have turned into a flourishing
business with the help of campus resources.
Maggie Wolcott
T
Staff Reporter
hree tattered baseballs and a
piece of a jersey were all it
took
to
show
Nathan
Rueckert’s love for America’s
favorite pastime.
Rueckert, a graduate student in the
accounting program and a former
Truman baseball player, created his
first baseball flag nearly two years ago.
His artwork created such a powerful image that he decided to start his
own business, the Baseball Seams
Company, in October 2001.
Rueckert’s company has since
taken off, and his artwork is sold at
Busch Stadium in his hometown of St.
Louis.
Baseball fans, from President
George W. Bush to the late Jack Buck,
have received Rueckert’s artwork as
gifts.
“I have no idea where President
Bush has it hanging, but the joke
around my house is we are going to be
watching the president’s Oval Office
speech [on television], and it will be
hanging in the background,” Rueckert
said.
Rueckert said he got the idea to create the baseball flags shortly after Sept.
11 because of the large display of
American flags.
He saw a baseball seam bracelet
and thought of making a wavy flag
from cut up baseballs. He cut up three
baseballs and a baseball jersey, showed
it to his friends and was encouraged to
market the artwork.
“One of the questions I get a lot is,
‘How did I know how to start a business?’” Rueckert said. “I didn’t; it was
stressful at first.”
He went to the Small Business
Development Center in Violette Hall
to find out how to begin.
Glen Giboney, director of the center, said a lot of the students come to
the Center with different ideas but are
not ready to go into business.
“It is not because they don’t have
the knowledge and ability; it is
money,” Giboney said. “Nate was
lucky. He had something there that
Copyright © 2003 Index
didn’t require a big up-front investment, and he could do it on a part-time
basis.”
Giboney said the center helps people solve problems, find the information they need and predict the competitors they might have. He said in
Rueckert’s case, there were no businesses that he knew of that had a similar product.
“I saw that, and I said there has got
to be a market for it,” Giboney said.
The Center was able to help him
with the technical parts of starting a
business, like getting a sales license.
Rueckert then got his artwork copyrighted and created a Web site,
www.baseballseamsco.com, to sell his
work.
“It is a good experience because
I’m actually applying stuff I learn from
the classroom in a real life setting, and
I’m still in school doing it,” Rueckert
said.
Rueckert set goals for himself when
he started his company and already has
met the first. He wanted to get his artwork into the Major League Baseball
Hall of Fame’s gift shop, which happened within the first year. His next
goal is to get his artwork into sporting
goods stores and all the Major League
Baseball stadiums.
Rueckert said he has found a lot of
meaning in a Michael Jordan quote, “I
can accept failure. Everyone fails at
something, but I can’t accept not trying.”
For Rueckert, failure has been
evaded by following his plans through
to the fullest.
“I had a dream of doing this, and I
pursued it,” Rueckert said. “If I didn’t
pursue this, I would never have known
how far it could go.”
When Rueckert first started selling
his artwork, he sold each piece for $25.
The high demand has led to the transformation of more than 1,000 baseballs
to make about 350 flags, which are
now selling for $100 each.
Rueckert said it takes him about an
hour to produce one of his flags.
Rueckert uses only old baseballs
and obtains them from high school
coaches and athletic associations. By
paying them for their used baseballs, it
allows them to buy new ones.
“It is kind of like recycling,”
Rueckert said. “Making a worthwhile
product out of nothing.”
With the success of his artwork,
Rueckert now sells T-shirts and prints
of his artwork.
The T-shirts debuted Flag Day, June
14, 2002, at Busch Stadium. Rueckert
said he attended the game that day to
see how they were selling.
When he walked into the gift shop,
the first thing he saw was the manager
trying to find the extra supplies
because they were selling fast.
“It was really cool walking in and
seeing it was the focal point of everyone’s attention,” Rueckert said.
Currently, Rueckert’s company is
still a one-man operation. He does
everything from cutting up baseballs to
financial statements and taxes.
Rueckert said the only real obstacle
he has encountered is balancing school
and business. He said doing taxes and
studying for finals made for many late
nights last spring.
Rueckert said he has more dreams
he would like to pursue with his company. Opening a store in St. Louis
Union Station to sell his artwork, along
with other baseball artwork, is among
those ideas. He also would like to go to
the College World Series and Major
League Baseball’s All-Star Game to
sell his work.
Senior Aaron Mueller, a friend of
Rueckert’s, said the company has a lot
of potential.
“It has already grown from artwork
to prints to T-shirts,” Mueller said. “It
is creative, and it will probably keep
growing.”
For now, Rueckert said he is focusing on finishing school. Before the end
of the year, he will have to decide
whether to continue with his company
or accept a job offered to him by Ernst
& Young’s St. Louis accounting office.
Rueckert said he is leaning toward
working with his business.
“Most of the country hasn’t even
seen this yet,” Rueckert said. “I would
like to see where it goes and ride it as
far as it will take me.”
www.trumanindex.com
“Most of the country hasn’t even
seen this yet. I would like to see
where it goes and ride it as far
as it will take me.”
Nathan Rueckert
graduate student
Adrian Lorincz/Index
Graduate student Nathan Rueckert pieces together one of his collectible flags
by stripping baseballs (top) and cutting out the seams (bottom).
Volume 95, Issue 3