How We Got Here
It started with a card game.
No, not poker.
Gregg and Mat were both teaching U.S. History, when they kept running into the same problem: getting students to really engage with the content.
So they did what teachers do. They made something.
That something became FRECK!, a fast-paced history card game built around recognizing people, places and events from a series of clues. What started as a game for their own students became a real product through Amped Up Learning (and soon, an app that takes FRECK! from the tabletop to the screen).
And that got them thinking.
If they could create something that made history more fun, what else could they make that teachers and schools would actually use?
Apparel became part of the answer. Instead of another generic “History Teacher” shirt, they started creating designs tied to actual curriculum — shirts teachers could wear during a specific lesson or unit or season, along with designs celebrating teachers, schools and the culture around them.
Then came the glamorous part.
They bought some screen-printing equipment, set it up in a shop in Mat’s backyard, and started printing shirts themselves — in the middle of the hot-ass Texas summer. They printed, stacked and packed those shirts and hauled them to the Texas Council for the Social Studies conference to see if anybody else liked the idea.
People bought them. A LOT of them.
So they made more.
That backyard shop is still there. Most production has evolved considerably since those early days, but every now and then Mat fires up the press and prints a run the old-fashioned way — preferably when Texas isn’t trying to kill him.
One idea led to another, the catalog grew, and somewhere along the way a couple of history teachers with a card game and a backyard shop had built a creative side business.
Today, Gregg and Mat are taking that same approach back to where it started: schools.
The goal is simple: make it easier for campuses, PTAs and school organizations to offer great-looking merchandise, build school spirit and create a fundraising opportunity without having to manage all the headaches that usually come with running a spirit store.
Different products. Bigger ideas.
See a need, then make something good to fill it.
MEET THE GUYS
MAT
Co-Founder | Creative & Product | Maker
📍 Home Base: Midlothian, Texas
🏫 By Day: Middle School Teacher — Coding, Video Game Design, Texas History & Language Exploration
🎓 Alma Mater: Texas Christian University ’98
🎨 Experience: Before becoming an educator, Mat spent 10 years working professionally in graphic design and production, including brand development & advertising (Kearley & Company), commercial offset printing (Swifty Solutions), and screen printing, event merchandising & sales (Southwest Specialty)
⚡ At Blue Bolt: Creative direction, graphic design, branding, product development, game creation and generating an unreasonable number of new ideas
🏈 Teams: TCU Horned Frogs, Texas Tech Red Raiders, Dallas Cowboys, Texas Rangers & Dallas Stars
👕 Favorite Blank: Comfort Colors in Pepper
🎮 Currently Creating: Manifest Vol. 1, FRECK! Digital, school spirit brands and whatever crazy idea shows up over coffee
❤️ Big Fan Of: Coffee, golf and cruise ship ice cream cones
GREGG
Co-Founder | Finance & Operations | Navigator
🏫 By Day: Instructional Coach — History
🎓 Alma Mater: Texas A&M University ’04
⚡ At Blue Bolt: CFO, ordering, mockups, website management, operations and the important responsibility of bringing Mat’s crazy ideas back to Earth
🏈 Teams: Texas A&M Aggies and the hometown teams: Dallas Cowboys, Texas Rangers, Dallas Stars & FC Dallas
👕 Favorite Blank: Next Level Heather Heavy Metal
❤️ Big Fan Of: The beach, soccer and spreadsheets
Yes, spreadsheets
THE BLUE BOLT FORMULA
Mat: “I have an idea.”
Gregg: “Of course you do.”
Mat: “Hear me out…”
Gregg: “How much?”
Mat: “That’s not important yet.”
Gregg: opens spreadsheet
And somehow, it works.
WHAT WE'RE ABOUT
We like good design, craftsmanship, new technology and ideas with personality.
We believe the things people are passionate about matter: their school, their team, their community, their hobbies and their traditions.
After all, we're fans too.