Crushin It! – Crush Print Custom Printed Apparel

BY: ALYSSA MAHADEO

As an entrepreneur, what’s the first thing that comes to mind when you decide to embark upon a new business venture? Are you going in with a plan of action? Do you plan to let the idea fail or are you going to CRUSH IT?

Cahmal Morrison immigrated from Jamaica at the young age of 7. Growing up in Canada he was fortunate to experience the diversity of North America, and he learned to communicate well with people from all walks of life and cultural backgrounds.

“Being black and being from Jamaica I was able to experience both sides of the coin,” Cahmal explains.” I learned how to ice skate, play hockey and snowboard which allowed me to make friends with people of all different races.”

Cahmal notes that although he was “in the know” there were still many opportunities that were barred from him because of the colour of his skin. He had experienced it as a child and now that he was older he had a better understanding of how he had been treated.

A few years later Cahmal was blessed with the news that he was going to have a child of his own. He was young, still in his early 20s and he knew that with a family on the way his factory job just wasn’t going to cut it.

“I had a passion for computers,” he shares, “I kept thinking about my daughter, and all of the things that I had to go through myself while growing up in this country and I didn’t want her to have the same experience that I did.”

It’s a parent’s natural instinct to want to protect their child against the harsh realities of the world, and sometimes all it takes is a little bit of perspective. “I wanted her to be able to partake in any opportunity that she chooses to pursue,” Cahmal explains. “I wanted her to know that despite the odds being stacked against you, you can still achieve anything that you want to achieve.

Now entrusted with the responsibility of taking care of and raising his baby girl, Cahmal continued working at the factory, while fixing laptops as a side hustle to gain more experience fostering his passion for technology.

“I was looking into getting t-shirts made, but when I visited the place in the mall where I hoped to get them from, I found the price was kind of steep,” Cahmal says. “For me, just starting out my business, and having to take care of my daughter I couldn’t afford to spend $30 on one shirt and I needed a couple.”

Cahmal couldn’t justify the cost, and so he kept at his factory job working nights best he could and instead invested in the equipment that he would need to make his own shirts.

“That summer I was home taking care of my daughter, I started printing a lot of stuff for us to wear,” he shares. “Whenever she went to daycare with her custom printed shirts, she would come back and tell me how her friends liked it and how they wanted one for themselves.”

Chamal explains that his daughter, the ‘Crush Queen’ as he affectionately refers to her is the reason that he started his custom t-shirt business Crush Print. “She was the one that made me start it, she said ‘Dad, you know I like this, why don’t we do that?’ I already had the equipment, so I thought why not?”

Crush Print was born out of the idea to fight the expectations that society places on us.

“Society tells me that I need to be a basketball player, I need to be a rapper and only a few of us can be doctors, lawyers, judges, and a handful can be police,” Cahmal explains. “Then there’s another side of it that tells me I need to look a certain way, I gotta drive a certain car so when I think of crush I say I’m going to use my ambition to destroy all of the expectations that society puts on me.”

At Crush Print Custom Printed Apparel Services empowering the next generation is the core of their business objectives. “We service our community and local businesses, and every weekend we provide free photoshoots to kids in the local area to show them there’s a difference between what we see on TV vs what we naturally are, and we are great people.”

Crush Print is located inside Westwood Mall in Mississauga. They are dedicated to servicing your custom business needs providing custom t-shirts, hoodies, jeans, jackets, hats, bags, business cards, flyers, stickers, banners, and many other customizable products that you might need.

“As we grow we become limitless in what we can do,” Cahmal says. “At this moment we can do everything that other printing companies can do at either the shop or in my workshop at home.”

Cahmal says there isn’t anything that they can’t do, and even if they don’t offer a service they will still work with you to get the job done to ensure your satisfaction.

He doesn’t regret the path he has chosen as it has allowed him to experience so many opportunities and provide opportunities through his business to the community. “I still love computers, but through something as simple as t-shirt printing, we’ve used it to help other kids in the community.”

“I’m very good at what I do, people respect me because of what I can do, how I am with my work,” Cahmal says. “I work on things to make the business better, to help people, show them the differences in the products we use, compared to what they are looking for, so they are informed about the decisions they are making for their company. I never had anyone to help me, to guide me, whatever I can pass along I would pass along.”

Looking toward the future Cahmal says his goals are to immerse himself in community outreach to ensure that young people are being recognized for their hard work and skills as he has been working to do for his daughter. “It’s not fair for me to put a career on her, or for society to put a career on her I believe that everyone was born with a good talent and we just have to nurture them and provide them with the opportunities to learn, grow and experience it for themselves.”

“I believe the moment you consider something within yourself that you believe you enjoy doing and that you want to do that the day you start your business.”