Why Bella & Canvas?

Back when I started this whole thing, my plan was pretty simple:
make some fun shirts and see if anyone would buy them.

After a three-hour screen printing class, I grabbed some blank tees from Jo-Ann’s Fabrics and got to work. I sold a couple at a local elementary school winter bazaar—and honestly, I was feeling pretty good about it.

That’s when the question hit:
Could this actually become a real business?

The answer was… not like this.

The shirts I was using were cheap—but they weren’t great quality. And even at those prices, there wasn’t much room for profit. If I wanted this to work long-term, I needed to level up: buy wholesale, get legit, and find a manufacturer that made high-quality shirts at a price that made sense.

Simple enough, right?

Then I came across something that stopped me cold.

In 2014, an eight-story garment factory called Rana Plaza collapsed in Dhaka, Bangladesh, killing more than 1,100 workers. Many of them had seen cracks in the building the day before and were afraid to go inside. They were told if they didn’t return to work, they wouldn’t be paid.

So they went in anyway.

The clothes made there were being produced for major global brands.

And suddenly, my little t-shirt experiment didn’t feel so simple anymore.

Where were my shirts coming from?
Was I unknowingly part of something like that?

That question changed everything.

As a micro business, you rely on a long chain of companies to make your work possible—shirts, inks, paper, equipment. It’s impossible to research everything. But you can choose where to pay attention.

For me, the biggest impact I could make was in the shirts themselves.

That’s where I decided to be intentional.

At first, I landed on American Apparel. They were manufacturing in the U.S., which felt like a safe bet given the level of oversight here.

But I ran into limitations—price, selection, and the reality of ordering small quantities. It started to feel like I might have to compromise if I wanted to grow.

Then I found Bella+Canvas.

And everything clicked.

Bella+Canvas focuses on ethical manufacturing and maintains strict standards across both U.S. and international production. They’re certified by Worldwide Responsible Accredited Production (WRAP), which audits factories for fair labor practices and safe working conditions.

They’re also serious about environmental responsibility—using eco-conscious processes and reducing waste wherever possible.

And just as importantly for a small business like mine:
they made it possible to order at a price that actually worked.

That combination—ethics, quality, and sustainability—was exactly what I’d been looking for.

So that’s what I chose.

And it’s still what I choose.

When you buy a Be Good Monster shirt, it’s not just about the design (although I like to think those are pretty fun too).

It’s about knowing that, somewhere along the line, we made a thoughtful decision. We tried to do right by the people making the product—and by the planet it comes from.

Also… they’re really, really comfortable.

And that doesn’t hurt either.