John is a Fort Wayne raised alumni of Carroll High School, Purdue University (West Lafayette), and Indiana Wesleyan (Fort Wayne). His wife, Kelly is from Huntington- the namesake for First & Wilkerson Designs. They have remained residents of Fort Wayne and have raised both of their kids in the Summit City. They are a family of entrepreneurs and own 3 businesses local here to Fort Wayne.

 

In 2014 John and his son used to sit around and think of shirts with funny sayings. At the time you couldn’t buy the kind of things they wanted so; they would “make” their own.  Fast forward to 2017, when a change of careers presented itself, as a family, they decided to forge ahead with a business in custom apparel. We have our own brand that we sell on the weekends at the YLNI Farmers Market, in our store, and on our website. While the rest of our  focus was to utilize a unique approach and put a manufacturing center in a retail space. What did this mean for FWD and our customers? It meant you could come into our store with a vision, talk with our team and get it put onto your apparel of choice. 

 

So, when you are wondering where to get apparel for your team of employees, or where to have the design you created put on apparel, we are your place!. 

 

We at FWD, a local family-owned business, appreciate you!