Still Running. Still Profitable. How N The Zone Ink's ROQ YOU Started a Revolution — in 2012.
- ROQ.US
- Jul 10
- 5 min read
Shop: N The Zone Ink www.ntzink.com Location: Bend, OR | Owners: Josh Love & Deanna Smith
Some businesses buy a piece of equipment. Others buy a turning point.
For Josh Love and Deanna Smith of N The Zone Ink in Bend, Oregon, the decision to purchase a ROQ YOU automatic screen printing press in 2012 was both. It was the moment a garage-born print shop — the kind built on manual presses, borrowed water from a Dutch Bros next door, and a floor squeegee standing in for proper facilities — became a real production operation. And more than a decade later, that original ROQ YOU is still on the floor.
N The Zone Ink was one of the first three shops in the United States to purchase a ROQ YOU. What happened next is a story about what automation can do for a business when you commit to it — and what it means to have a press that simply doesn't quit.
From a Garage to a Production Floor: The N The Zone Ink Story
Josh and Deanna didn't set out to build a screen printing company. They set out to make some extra money while their kids were in high school. It started with a couple of used Riley Hopkins presses purchased at auction — one so rough it never even ran — and a dryer that Josh describes charitably as "a plywood box with fluorescent lights."
They printed nights and weekends out of their garage, then moved into a downtown Bend space with no running water, 80 amps of power, and a Burger King across the parking lot serving as their restroom.
Their first year in that space, June through December, they did $49,000 in sales. Josh took a two-week vacation from his day job and never went back.
By 2012, N The Zone Ink had grown to the point where the question was no longer whether to get an automatic press — it was which one.
Josh had been in conversations about an M&R Diamondback when his rep, Mark Berryman, told him to hold on. Something new was coming.
In fall of 2012, Mark invited Josh and Deanna to Printing United in Las Vegas to see it. After learning how quiet and easy it was to learn, they made the commitment and came home with a ROQ YOU — one of the first three sold in the country.
The Automation Decision:
"I Would Get an Auto Three Years Before I Did"
The ROQ YOU didn't just change how N The Zone Ink printed. It changed whether N The Zone Ink continued at all.
Josh had been doing all the manual printing himself. By 2012, the physical toll had become unsustainable. "My shoulders hurt so bad I wasn't sleeping at night," he recalls. "Basically, we either went auto or we were going to not do it anymore because I couldn't print anymore."
The financial case for automation was equally clear — once Josh ran the numbers. The ROQ YOU didn't require hiring another employee to multiply output. It required the same operator, running a machine that could do what no manual press ever could.
"I didn't have to hire another employee to get four times the production. I can print by myself on this machine. I can print 400 shirts an hour, manually, you're not going to come close to that."— Josh Love, N The Zone Ink
Looking back, Josh is direct about the timing: "I would get an auto three years before I did." It was a hard decision — a big payment at a point in the business when every dollar was stretched — but the ROI was undeniable. More production from the same labor. More capacity without more headcount. More business without more of Josh's shoulders.
That year, N The Zone Ink was doing around $250,000 in annual sales. The ROQ YOU was the catalyst that made scaling possible.
Watch video filmed back in 2018, 6 years after running the ROQ YOU:
ROQ as a Growth Partner: From One YOU to a Three-Press Fleet
What makes the N The Zone Ink story particularly compelling for shops evaluating the ROQ YOU M today is not just what happened in 2012 — it's what happened in the years that followed.
N The Zone Ink didn't replace their original ROQ YOU. They built around it. As the business grew, they added a ROQ Sahara Dryer and lager ROQ Next press to complement the original,.
This year they are expanding to another larger ROQ Next creating a three-press operation that still runs the OG ROQ YOU alongside the newer equipment. The platform that started their automation journey became the foundation of a production floor capable of handling serious contract decorating volume.
“ROQ has been exactly what the best equipment partnerships should be: a company that shows up, stays current, and sells presses that keep running. In fact, the entire ROQ team took a field trip to our in 2022 during a company event. ” - Josh Love
The fact that Josh is still talking about, still running, and still upgrading a press he bought in 2012 says everything about what the ROQ YOU platform is built to do.
Reliability That Runs: What the ROQ YOU Means for Your Business
N The Zone Ink's story is a direct answer to the question every shop owner asks before making a major equipment investment: Will it last?
The ROQ YOU has been in continuous production at N The Zone Ink for over a decade. It has run through growth phases, staffing changes, new product lines, and the addition of two more presses. It has been upgraded, adapted, and optimized — and it is still printing.
For Josh, the ROQ EVO Smart Flash was one of the most impactful additions after the initial purchase. The precision registration system changed how the team sets up jobs, enabling consistent screen registration across colors without the guesswork. And the shop's operational discipline — from pallet tape maintenance to screen ganging techniques — has been built around a press that is reliable enough to build systems on top of.
That is what the ROQ YOU M offers shops today: not just a press, but a platform. One that has been refined over 14 years of exactly this kind of real-world production. One that grows with your business rather than limiting it.
"2012, we bought the auto. Made things a lot easier. Able to produce way more."— Josh Love, N The Zone Ink
If you are at the point Josh was in 2012 — where the manual work is unsustainable, the growth is there, and the only question is whether to make the move — the ROQ YOU M is the answer. And if N The Zone Ink's story is any indication, it will still be the answer ten years from now.
Ready to write your own story? Explore the ROQ YOU M and discover what 14 years of proven performance looks like at your new promotional pricing.
.png)
Comments