The Voice (and the Apparel) of the Michiganerds

Tee See Tee is home to creative, nerdy NoMi gear...and they’re ready to grow to the next size

By Deb Dent | July 1, 2023

Beau Warren, owner of Tee See Tee in Traverse City, has been designing T-shirts since he was a kid, and he credits his smart and frugal mom for giving him his start.

In the early 1990s, all Warren wanted was to be like the cool kids, wearing the top name-brand T-shirts like Big Johnson, Hot Tuna, and Ocean Pacific. Not having the funds to support his vision at the time, his mom took him instead to Kmart and bought him some plain shirts, then to the craft store to purchase fabric and paint, and told him to get to creating.

Warren started off by painting killer whales, Ninja Turtles, and yin-yangs on the shirts. When he wore them to school, he received lots of attention from the other students.

“People asked me where I got my shirt. When I told them I made them, they asked if I could make one for them. Before you know it, I was collecting lunch money in exchange for custom printed tees,” Warren says. “That is truly where Tee See Tee was born.”

100 Percent, All or Nothing

Leading up to the decision to break out on his own, Warren says that he bounced around within the artistic field in several different industries, doing everything from animation to marketing. His favorite role, however, was designing the stuffed animals that you see in claw machines and in carnival games.

“But always in the background, I would design T-shirts. It was an itch that I had to scratch, and eventually, I took the leap of faith and went all in,” he says. In “true Beau Warren fashion: 100 percent, all or nothing,” as Warren explains it, in 2014, he impulsively quit his job (without even running it by his wife) and launched Tee See Tee.

And despite some bumps in the road early on, he remained focused on his passion for making T-shirts and putting smiles on people’s faces. Warren started off by designing shirts based on what he thought a Michigan-based T-shirt company was supposed to offer, creating six initial designs with four based on lakes and nature. The other two were more personal and truer to his character, the Captain Michigan—which offers a shield design in the style of Captain America—and the Mirate (aka Michigan Pirate). 

To his surprise, the “nerdier designs” outsold the other ones 10 to one. “People can tell when something is authentic,” Warren says, “so the big hit was Mirate, a skull and bones design that was opposite of what you expect from Michigan shirts at the time. It was grittier, edgier, and bolder than anything out there, and it was also the most ‘me’ of any of the designs because I am a huge pirate enthusiast.” 

Warren eventually learned to trust his gut when creating new designs. He says, “Now, nine years later, I have basically become the voice of the Michiganerds, and I couldn’t be more proud of that.”

The Pop-Culture Spark

Warren admits that most of his design ideas hit him at 3am. “No kidding, I will wake up, sketch the idea down in the dark, wake up and have to spend a few minutes deciphering the scribbles.”

To date, he has designed approximately 370 T-shirts, with his five most popular designs being Lord of Michigan (a Tolkien inspired map of Michigan), Mirate, Greatful Lakes (a Grateful Dead-inspired shirt), Captain Michigan, and The Department of Sasquatch Research.

And since most of his designs are based on pop culture, as long as the world keeps making new movies and creating video games, he feels he will never run out of ideas for his designs. He is occasionally inspired by current events, though. “As much as I should not let my personal beliefs and opinions bleed into my business,” Warren says, “I have always felt Tee See Tee and I are one in the same, and it is my honor and my duty to use my business to take a stand for what I believe in.”

One specific example is his now infamous “Shark Week” T-shirt that he created based on the comical hot mic situation with Gov. Whitmer in the middle of the pandemic. (For those who missed it, the governor was about to go live at the 2020 virtual Democratic National Convention—which happened to fall just after Discovery Channel’s Shark Week programming—and was heard saying: “It’s not just Shark Week; it’s Shark Week mother f******.”

“It was such a brilliant and human moment, I had to do something with it,” Warren shares. “I created and posted a shirt literally within an hour of that moment and was printing hundreds of them the next day. It became so huge, I received a thank-you letter from Gretchen herself.”

Warren says he decided to donate a portion of the sale of these shirts to a shark protection organization. Tee See Tee ended up raising thousands of dollars, and when Discovery Channel caught wind of the movement, they ordered a few hundred of the shirts for their staff. A week later, they ordered another 500 more for other employees who wanted the shirt, too.

“It was a beautiful, busy, and mind-blowing moment, because I was shipping thousands of these T-shirts all over the world,” Warren says. “I always speak to the power of T-shirts as a way to unify people behind a shared belief or sentiment, and at a time when so many people were isolated, that tee helped them feel togetherness.”

Expanding the Brand

Tee See Tee has shipped their printed shirts all over the world, including to the Ukraine, Japan, Africa, and Australia. This year, Warren came upon the realization that they didn’t need to continue to solely be a Michigan brand, but could branch out and be more of a pop culture brand.

With that idea in mind, along with a very successful market test at the LexiCon in Kentucky, he started seeking out printers not only in Michigan, but in Kentucky and even Hawai’i that shared the same integrity and attention to detail as he does.

“This allows me to focus on creating new designs, and traveling from comic con to comic con, introducing Tee See Tee to thousands of awesome people,” says Warren.

Now, when you visit the Tee See Tee website, you see the slogan “Where State Pride Meets Pop Culture.” You can select Michigan, Kentucky, Indiana, and the coming-soon Ohio buttons to shop state-themed shirts, sweatshirts, and stickers. 

But never fear—even as Tee See Tee grows, Warren assures us Michigan will always be at the heart of the company, as will his sense of playful creativity.

“We are bigger than ever, but I have found a way to bring everything back to my roots of being a kid who just liked drawing cool T-shirt designs.”

Learn more at teeseetee.com.