Morning Sun History

Morning Sun was founded by Ferdie Kollar and Marv Pasquan in Tacoma, Washington in 1986. The two men, who spent many years in the apparel business as retailers and sales representatives, had developed a business plan. Spurred on by their wives’ challenges to act on their dream, the enterprise began humbly in a garage.

Despite a wide product offering spanning virtually every market utilizing screenprint (corporate, tourism, custom, contract, wildlife, sports licensing), the company quickly focused on the women’s market and became the dominant provider of decorated fleece. Morning Sun was early in creating illustrative “wearable art,” and was the first company to dress up a sweatshirt by attaching a collar. Within a few years the two entrepreneurs had built a large diversified company with a national presence. Almost twenty years later, we are located in the same 150,000 square foot facility in Tacoma that Marv and Ferdie moved into after outgrowing their garages.

Today Morning Sun produces virtually identical numbers of screenprinted and embroidered tops. Our facility houses seven automatic presses and close to 300 embroidery heads. Primary products are screenprinted and embroidered knit tops and sweatshirts for the misses market. Customers include the nation’s leading department stores, catalogs and specialty retailers. Our labels are Morning Sun, Top Stitch, and Trilllogy.