Gill Land Company sold this commercial building on Main Street in Mobridge in August 2021. We checked in with the new owner, Jason Gorsuch, in early 2022 to check out his new business venture.
Where did you come up with the name of Diamond M? It was my grandpa’s cattle and horse brand, registered in South Dakota. My grandpa’s name was Marvin – that’s where the ‘M’ comes from. The brand is an M with a diamond on top. Most people say it looks like an A which is why I use it as an A in the word Diamond, but it’s actually an M.
How long have you been open? Since September 2021 – our first weekend was the Beef N Fun Days with the car show on Main Street.
Are you from this area? My wife is from here. I moved up here from Fairburn, South of the Black Hills. I grew up on a ranch.
So you have several offerings – custom printing, Surprises Inside, ladies design wear and custom wood burned signs. That’s a lot of options! How did you get started?
SUPRISES INSIDE: We started with two ideas – the custom printing and the Surprises Inside. Surprises Inside are all Amazon returns. You can buy them in bulk and then package them to create a fun grab bag kind of experience. Every item is new. My wife got the idea from TikTok. Some people have social media channels where they will buy a whole bin of these and then open them on their channel. Rapid City and Bismarck have stores where this is all they offer.
What kind of products could people expect to find in the bags? Everything from housewares all the way to electronics. Clothing and pet supplies and everything in between. We also have a kid friendly section. A couple businesses came in during the Christmas season to buy several for a white elephant gift exchange. It’s a great idea for that!
CUSTOM PRINTING: For the custom printing side of the business, I use heat transfer vinyl. It can be put on t-shirts and other clothing items like caps and coats, as well as on windows. I’ve made several window decals. I can put heat transfer vinyl on probably 95% of any material you bring in here. Only thing it doesn’t work on is nylon because heat melts nylon.
Do you provide the products and the printing? Or can folks bring in the items they want printed on? Yes to both. I have a couple good suppliers and can likely get most anything someone is looking for. But they can bring in their own items as well for us to print on.
Do you do custom designs? You bet! People can come in and sit down with me at my laptop and we'll go through options. I've got a pretty good clip art source and we can draw new designs too. Most of what I’ve done so far has been custom.
How did you learn to do this? I’ve bought some shirts online, with funny sayings. I liked them and I thought, I could do this. I just started learning everything online. The vinyl was the quickest way to get into the business. With vinyl, each color is its own separate piece. You have to cut it and then you have to pull the excess material off and then you have to press it. You have to handle each color separately.
What's the difference between screen printing and vinyl? Screen printing is liquid application and vinyl is vinyl. It’s basically plastic that’s got adhesive on the back of it. You cut it out reversed and then pull all the excess material off and what you leave is what will go on the shirt. Then you flip it over and put it down.
What has been the evolution of the business? We are phasing out the Surprises Inside part of the business. It didn’t go over quite as well as we had hoped. Instead, I’m spending more time expanding the custom printing side of things into custom wood burning signs.
What made you think to try the Wood Burning concept? I was watching some tiktok videos of people doing this and it looked really neat. You lay a vinyl stencil on the wood and then paint on a special liquid/gel on the uncovered areas. Finally, you use a heat gun and the combination of the liquid/gel and the heat burns the design onto the wood. Since I already have the vinyl printing materials, it seemed like a good extension to the current product offerings.
Can you use any type of wood? The wood has to be smooth and clean. So far I’ve done it mostly on pine and that turns out really nice. I did try it on old rustic barnwood, and that doesn’t work. I have a planer that I can use to smooth out the older wood and then do the wood burning design and that can work depending on the piece. The lighter the wood, the better the design shows up, naturally.
Will you provide the wood product to put the designs on or do folks need to bring their own? Yes to both. I can source various wood pieces for customers to use. Or they can bring in their own piece if it’s a unique size. It’s all 100% custom so we would just have to visit about what they’re looking for and the best way to do it. Like with the screen printing, we can sit down at my computer to create the design they want.
I see you’ve also branched out into Ladies Clothing? Yes, this was my wife’s idea. Since we are phasing out the Surprises Inside concept, she wanted to find something to fill that wall space. She knew the Aztec/Western type print seems to be hot right now and found a line of clothing that she thought the general population would be excited about. We have sizes ranging from Small to 3X and will get in new pieces from time to time as the current inventory sells out. So far it has been quite popular.
Samples of western themed Ladies Clothing offered at Diamond M Designs.
Have you always wanted to own your own business? Not really. It just happened. I was working at the Ford dealership and decided that I wanted to give this a try. I had some money saved up and when I saw this building was for sale, I kind of decided to go for it. It seemed like a good opportunity to branch out on my own and create something for myself.
What is your goal for the business? Hopefully it can grow enough to get into actual screen printing where I can make large runs of my own designs or something. That's kind of the next goal anyway. Our hours are Monday through Friday 11 to 6, and Saturdays 10 to 3. We welcome folks to walk in or give us a call at 605-517-0075. Or check us out on our website at www.diamondmdesigns-sd.com.
Best of luck!
Thanks for the article!