Heroes from the back courtyard
Textile printer Monkeydrive was founded in 2005 in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. Sascha Rippberger and Andreas Bendel, the owners and current managing directors, taught themselves the trade in a Frankfurt courtyard building using a screen printing starter kit they bought in the USA, which consisted of a 6 colour manual press, a small dryer and one flash cure.
That system was completed with a self-constructed light table, along with a lot of trial and error and the belief that the combination of quality, service, expert consulting and hard work would eventually pay off.
“You only live once. We didn’t want to dream. We wanted to live our dreams.”
Andreas Bendel
We print the noize!
After only two weeks, Monkeydrive offered its services for the first European tours of various hardcore and punk bands from the USA. From day one, the company consistently pursued social media customer acquisition strategies and took advantage of Sascha's connections as a former musician to turn music industry contacts into customers. The first few years were a constant learning process: The continual improvement of merchandise, and learning everything about screen printing, dyes, printing processes and the pre-press technology.
After two years, they employed their first professionally trained screen-printer and in 2010, the 7-person team moved into a 500 sqm facility. As part of the move, the company changed its official name to Monkeydrive Printing Factory GmbH.
As a result of ongoing customer acquisition and a growing workload, Monkeydrive moved again in 2016.
Creating Passion
Today, Monkeydrive Printing Factory GmbH can be found in a 1,100 sqm facility in east Frankfurt. Here, production is powered by 3 semi-automatic machines, a manual carousel and many transfer presses. In its tenth year, Monkeydrive Printing Factory GmbH grew into a 20-person team with three trainees. In recent years, the company was successfully positioned as a printer for the music merchandise market. As a printer, Monkeydrive has supported many major tours in cooperation with several great, long-term partners like TMR Merchandise, Bravado, Warner Music, Krasser Stoff, Beatstuff and Cotton Control. We have worked with Herbert Grönemeyer, Beatsteaks, Volbeat, In Flames, Peter Maffay, Udo Lindenberg, Casper, Arcade Fire, Die drei ???, Kraftklub, Kreator, Gossip and many more.
Monkeydrive is also a big name in sportswear and fashion with customers like Eintracht Frankfurt, Reebok, Adidas and Wemoto Clothing.
One Stop Shop
Today, Monkeydrive still offers textile printing, but has moved on to cover all merchandise services, such as: design, embroidery, knitting, custom orders, individual packaging, accessories.
Whether it's T-shirt printing for local customers or the production of a complete range of merchandise for big-name artists – we always offer the same quality and service.
