National Mom & Pop Business Owners Day

Welcome to the first Custom Logo USA blog post of 2024. Did you know that March 29th, is National Mom and Pop Business Owners Day? Here is a little story of our humble beginnings as one of those shops!

As a thanks for stopping by and getting to know us, we would like to extend a 20% off discount on your next order. (discount link provided below)…

Get To Know Us!

o Custom Logo Inc. (dba customlogousa) was established in 1989 and has been in business for 35 years!!

o We are a small family-owned business currently consisting of twelve employees with a third of those being family members.

o We started out in the living room/basement/dining room/garage and spare bedroom of our home in Liverpool, NY.

o We now operate out of a 7,000 sq/ft building located in Syracuse, NY.

o With our facility we can produce about 90% of orders on site, utilizing state-of-the-art screen printing, embroidery, and signage equipment run by experienced employees. We also have an in-house art department and many of our team members have been with us for well over 10 years! This allows us to suggest trending promotional products that enhance our customer’s brands, anticipate any production related issues before they happen, and deliver quality merchandise quickly!

o In screen printing we can print logos with up to 10 colors in them and depending on the design we can do this at a pace of about 500 t-shirts per hour!

o In our embroidery department we can do anywhere between 300-400 pieces a day!

o Our customer base includes all sectors of businesses, schools, sports teams, and much more because everyone has a need for custom apparel and promotional products.

o Custom Logo’s business consists of local customers and out-of-state customers that we ship goods to. We have no problem delivering to you if you are local!

o We offer economical promotional items as well as name brand goods including Nike, Under Armour, Carhartt, The North Face, Stanley and many more. If you have a brand of choice, we can most likely source it.

o We offer a diverse selection of hard goods(chachkies) from pens and drinkware to golf and tech related items.

o We also supply stationary products including notepads, calendars, business cards, fliers, and more. If there is something specific you want to have customized, for whatever reason, we can do it. If for some odd reason we can’t, we’ll point you in the right direction!

o When you call us, you will always be greeted on the phone with respect and enthusiasm by a real person, who's committed to making your project succeed. 

Call us and find out for yourself!   315-638-0084 or 800-254-1151

20% off order click here 

Our Roots

Custom Logo USA was founded in 1989 by Jim Diliberto. Jim was working the graveyard shift at Miller Brewing Company and desperately wanted to start his own business with daytime hours that gave him the freedom and flexibility to be his own boss. Jim is a father of 2 daughters, Deanna and Shauna.
Jim happened to be reading the paper one night and spotted a newspaper clipping looking for someone to sell promotional products. This caught Jim's eye because it involved selling trinkets and stuff. It brought back fond memories of his dad’s barber shop which was always filled with printed pens, mugs and even ash trays! Jim believed he could be successful because of his passion for talking to people. He has a very charismatic and jovial demeanor which makes selling come natural to him. Like that saying goes, "He could sell a ketchup popsicle to a woman in white gloves". That's Jim!

When the business first started it was operating out of the family’s primary residence. The UPS driver was at the house all the time and there were boxes stacked to the ceiling everywhere. We had two phone lines going into the house and the business poured in. Everyone wanted customized pens, pencils, keychains, etc. At the time, Jim did not have a production facility, but utilized local businesses to assist with production until he could get his own place. His sister, MaryEllen Clausen, was his main sales representative. Jim, MaryEllen, and his girls made a pretty great team. The girls would help to run the fax machine, mail flyers and answer the phones. After a few years of running the business out of the home it became too difficult to keep up with the demand, so Jim took a leap and opened his own store front!

1995 – Big and Better Things
The year Custom Logo was no longer a dream but a reality, offering services to the public with much greater capacity. Jim achieved this by purchasing an existing screen printing business which included equipment to embroider apparel and worked his way up to having eight employees working for him. With the extra resources, Jim increased sales to over a million dollars in that very first year! In 1996 Jim was introduced to email and no longer would he have to solely rely on fax machines, pagers, or carrier pigeons to get business done. (Yes, we’re making fun of you Jim!)

2001 – Doing Our Part
One of Jim’s proudest moments as a business owner came after September 11, 2001 when the world trade center was tragically attacked. Custom Logo recognized that there was an immediate need for those who were directly impacted by this tragedy and proactively came up with a plan to help unite a struggling nation. Jim and his team got creative and designed two versions of t-shirts, "In God We Trust" and "United We Stand", where all of the money raised would be donated to the relief effort in NYC. He would never have imagined how successful the idea would be, in the end raising over $100,000! That forever will stand out as a proud moment in Jim's career and his principles of helping others are engrained into our culture today.

2007 – More Growth…
In 2007 Custom Logo expanded again when Jim purchased a much larger facility with more warehouse and office space that could accommodate the larger equipment needed to keep up with demand. This put the business into another growth phase.

2012 – Leadership Transition
In 2012 Jim's son in law, Matthew Cordell, purchased Custom Logo after being an integral part of it for over seven years. Matt is quiet, soft spoken, determined and incredibly focused. Although Jim and Matt have opposite characteristics in how they present themselves and conduct business, their styles complimented each other very well. Working closely together for so many years, Jim taught Matt the ins and outs of how to run a successful business, how to treat your biggest asset(employees) and how to handle difficult situations that may arise being a business owner. Matt carries on those leadership principles today, but also has a strong understanding of technological advancements in the industry, including how to position yourself in a crowded online marketplace and staying up to date on trending promotional products to boost the customer’s visibility. By having such a seasoned and motivated staff behind him, Matt has been able to extend Custom Logo’s reach outside of the local market, taking on rush orders others wouldn’t touch. This is a true testament to Jim’s vision of having a production facility and building a loyal, educated staff that will do whatever it takes to make our customers happy.  This, combined with the embedded ideology to always do what's right for the customer has really set Custom Logo apart from its competitors.

2018 – Deanna’s Back!
In 2018 Deanna (Jim's daughter and Matt's wife) came to work full time for the business. It wasn't her first time though, having been involved since age 9 and stepping away for a bit to raise their children. Deanna’s role in the company varies from day to day, depending on the needs of the staff/customers. Her favorite part of being at Custom Logo is when it's noisy. When she can feel the energy of the machines, connecting with the people, the phone, the music, the door buzzer, the copy machine and everything else. The relationships within staff are the nucleus of the Custom Logo culture. It's comprised of mutual respect, good communication, genuine care for each other and pride in what we put out into the world. We get to make really cool stuff too!

Jim and his wife of 28 years, Kerry Diliberto, are now enjoying their retirement in Cocoa Beach, Florida. They have a very active life, full of non-stop activities. Jim enjoys playing softball and riding his bike, sometimes up to fifteen miles a day! Kerry enjoys her book clubs and games with friends. They each have two children, Deanna, Shauna, Sarah and Joe along with seven grandchildren named Jimmy, Maddy, Marisa, Ro, Val, Luka and Bowie. When they head back north after the winter, they enjoy spending time with their grandchildren, going to their camp on Lake Ontario and stopping by to check up on the Custom Logo team, to lend a hand, make a delivery or just catch up. You always know when Jim is back in the building because you hear him before you see him. He’s either whistling, laughing or causing some sort of trouble before he runs out the door.

Today Custom Logo USA is thriving and successfully fulfilling Jim and Matt's vision, mission, values. Looking towards the future, the goal is to continue to provide great service to our local customers, while also increasing our web presence. Sustainability efforts are high on our to do list, along with creating valuable content that will be useful to all in our industry.

We are committed to working hard, innovating, creating and growing. The future is bright and the sky’s the limit. With this being said, I think it's fitting to end this post with Jim's favorite quote "The harder you work, the luckier you get"... JD

I hope you enjoyed our story!

If you have a small business and would like us to promote you, send us your link here and we’d be happy to feature you on one of our future posts!

How you can you support mom and pop shops?
o Google local eateries, cafe's bookshops, butchers, hardware stores, grocery stores, etc.

o Your local chamber of commerce is a good resource that will have a list of businesses in your area.

o Purchase from a local shop. Nothing makes a business owner happier.

o Offer feedback to the owners, if its negative; talk to them directly so they get the opportunity to make you happy.

o Spread the positive reviews online, word of mouth, sing their praises.

o Buy gift cards from the business and gift them to people.

o Offer to volunteer or work at a small business. They often need the help.

o If you have the means and want to support a small business, consider becoming a angel investor. It's a great way to add to your portfolio.

20% off order click here 

Stay tuned for our April blog post:
Earth Day 2024 Sustainability and Responsibility

-Team Custom Logo USA

Production Location
7152 State Fair Blvd. Syracuse, NY 13209
https://customlogousa.com/