Before I moved to Colombia, I visited a couple of times to get the feel of the culture and possible business opportunities. YouTube videos and Facebook groups boasted of the natural beauty of Colombia and the advantage of a lower cost of living.

My intrigue landed me in Medellin when I heard that it was the city of eternal spring. Medellin is a long valley city along a river that flows northward. Barrios extend up the slopes of the mountains to the east and west.

The horrific auto and motorcycle traffic is typical of most cities I’ve been to south of Texas and Africa. But Medellin’s metro rail, cable car, and bus system is something special. For about 70 cents, you can go from one end of its metropolitan footprint to the other. Cable car travel is also included in the fair.

I visited Bogota too. At 8,670 above sea level, it is referred to as a refrigerator, and that’s mostly correct.

Medellin’s economy is heavily impacted by tourism. And Covid depleted it. It’s starting to rebuild again with anticipation that it will be back to normal within two years.

Based on the thriving tourism industry and the low cost of living here, I decided that any business I wanted to try would be in US dollars. In the USA, every tourist destination sells t-shirts. You’ll find more “I Love NY” shirts here than shirts that mention Medellin.

“Paisa” is the designation of the local culture of Medellin and surrounding areas. So I worked on branding the name “Paisa Proud.”

I printed two designs to sample and display with a catalog of several backup designs ready when the market allowed it. A street vendor rented a spot at a popular park in the area of town most populated by tourists. She agreed to sell whatever shirts I provided. Her little sidewalk market is on Google maps if you search for Paisa Proud Medellin.

It’s not a failed project but on hold for better times of abundant tourism. Some initial designs are shown in the gallery, as well as the two printed ones.

Another selling event was in response to a tragic plane crash of a soccer team traveling to Medellin from Chapecoense, Brazil. Upon recommendation of several friends, I contracted to print 120 t-shirts showing solidarity between the two teams.

My friend, David Arismendy, and his father helped to sell. It was a fantastic experience with new connections created, but we did not come anywhere close to our goal of breaking even. We paired up with another vendor at the stadium. We carried their goods around to show and sell, and they displayed and sold our t-shirts. The brother/sister team took our leftover t-shirts to other events to help minimize the losses.