Open for Business: Customers stick to Harris Decals
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By RODD CAYTON/Lincoln Journal Star
One fact of automobile racing is that the faster you move, the more likely you are to win.
Race car owners and drivers expect their suppliers, such as Harris Decals Inc. of Lincoln, to keep the pace.
“Customers don’t always know exactly what they want,” company president and owner Nate Harris said, but they want a vendor who can help them flesh out a vague idea. “They want fast and friendly service.”
Harris said he started the business as way of maintaining a presence in motor sports, of which he has been a lifelong fan.
“I never expected it to grow this big,” he said, referring to the 800-plus competition vehicles his company bedecks each year.
The company does business nationally and internationally, designing and making decals for new cars, and putting together replacement sets in a hurry, such as might be needed by a driver who loses a door during a race.
The decals range from numbers to sponsor logos to aesthetic add-ons.
Harris Decals also makes signs for other industries, including real estate, and does screen printing of products, including apparel.
Harris Decals also prints new editions from the customer’s design.
The decals are created on a computer, which then routes instructions for a design to a plotter. The plotter cuts out the design from vinyl, which is backed with a pressure sensitive adhesive The next step is “weeding” — removal of excess vinyl from the decals, followed by the addition of transfer tape.
The company installs decals for some clients within about 50 miles of Lincoln; otherwise, the client does the installation. Harris Decals uses wax pencils and tape to guide the installation, and make sure the decals go where they’re supposed to.
On the Harris Decals drawing board are a line of motocross decals and products for booster clubs. The company has also bought land at about 37th Street and Cornhusker Highway for a new shop, which it hopes to build within two to three years.
Harris’ brother Josh also works for the company; among the jobs he’s proudest of was on a car whose appearance was acclaimed by “FlatOut” magazine, which included Josh in a roundtable interview of the country’s top designers.
Crashes mean new doors and hoods and possibly some business, but Josh Harris said that’s not what he roots for with cars the company works on.
“I’d rather see them in the winners circle than crashed,” he said.
Robert Cassidy owns Hoppy’s Hauling and Bobcat Service and sponsors a sprint car driven by Don Droud Jr. He’s hired Harris Decals to work on both the car and an 80-foot tractor-trailer he uses in his business.
“They do one jam-up good job,” Cassidy said of Harris Decals. “Everybody compliments me on my truck. It’s just a plain-Jane white truck (but) they really tricked it out.”
He’s been working with Harris Decals for about six years, Cassidy said, and has tried other labelers.
“I don’t think no one else could compete with them, when it comes to the quality of work for the dollar value you get,” he said. “I’ve tried several others and they can’t compare.”
Harris Decals, Inc.
Address: 5340 Cornhusker Highway, Lincoln.
Telephone numbers: (402)- 466-0500; (800) 773-2713
Web address: www.harrisdecals.com
Owner, location: Nate Harris, Lincoln.
Chief executive on site, title: Nate Harris, president.
Number of local employees: eight.
Products, services: Signs, vehicle lettering, race car lettering, screen printing of apparel, promotional products.
Company history: Founded by Nate & Stacia Harris in Lincoln in 1997. The business operated from the family basement at first, then moved to the current location in 2002. In late 2004, the company started doing screen printed apparel. Within the last year, the company started making decals for cars racing in Japan, Australia, New Zealand and other countries. Last fall, Harris Decals moved into the promotional product business.
Reach Rodd Cayton at 473-7107 or rcayton@journalstar.com.
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