People We Meet: Alfred Palma of X-Press Prints

X-Press Prints, at 4537 Mission St. in the Excelsior, has a distinctly urban flair with a stylish graffiti-inspired logo on its awning. The interior is an eclectic combination of showroom and print shop, where customers can watch T-shirts, hats and other apparel printed in the area behind the register. Large machines whir and emit steam as the printing process occurs.

Alfred Palma, 35, has run X-Press Print since 2014. My grandfather “taught me everything I know and then some… I actually started off in his shop… on the lowest rung of the ladder,” said Palma, who started working at his grandfather’s shop at the age of 23 before opening X-Press Prints a few years later.

His grandfather operated a silk-screening shop for over 30 years before passing away in 2018, at age 80. His shop handled larger orders than X-Press Prints, which specializes in smaller batches of efficiently made garments. Printing is a family tradition, and he says he is “definitely doing it to keep that going.” In recent years, new technologies have come into play, expanding Palma’s business from just silk-screening, like his grandfather, to more modern methods, such as direct-to-film transfer.

His shop, between a pizza place and a tattoo parlor, is situated in a stretch of Mission Street with many empty stores. Palma said that even before Covid-19 the buildings along his portion of Mission Street have long since struggled with occupancy issues and vandalism. “Many of these places have been vacant since I came here,” he said.

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His store had to pivot to survive the mandated closure during the 2020 quarantine. “We had to close… A brick and mortar store relies on people being outside, walk-ins… I didn’t go online, but I started reaching out to people, cold calling. … Little by little, people [began] calling me.” Palma also had a good relationship with the landlord, who helped with the rent when things got tough in the midst of the pandemic.

“Someone made this on their computer, and then they send it to us and we print it,” he, He said, holding a design that he had just printed up to the light. His turnaround time is usually one to three days, which is almost unheard of in the online markets, which can take as long as a few weeks to arrive at your doorstep. “At X-Press prints, you get your T-shirt just as fast as you can think it up!” Palma said proudly.