Our mission is to provide quality alternative and conventional fabric apparel to the environmentally and socially conscious business community, helping these businesses to reinforce their business philosophy by 'Walking the Talk'.

Our goal is to set an example for businesses, by implementing sustainable business practices that not only reduce the consumption of natural resources, but also helps rebuild the state of our planets agriculture. As a result, making the case that a business can survive and be profitable without contributing to the current global economic and environmental crisis.

Goza Gear (pronounced go-zah) is a "Green" screen printing and embroidery company located in the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California.

"Green" means we conduct our day to day business using principles, policies,and practices that contribute to solving, rather than contributing to the environmental and social problems of our world. We care about our future generations and the current state of our planet.

We offer quality custom screen printed and embroidered apparel in alternative and conventional fabrics and materials. The fabrics we offer include 100% certified organically grown cotton, hemp cotton and recycled fabric, spun and woven using recycled soda bottles and cotton. Our organic cotton products are USA grown, then spun and sewn in sweatshop-free manufacturing facilities where the employees are paid a fair living wage and work under the best of conditions.

Our clients and customers include local, regional and national businesses. A variety of non-profit and for-profit groups and organizations. We help our clients promote their business, their brands, products, events or services. Our focus is complete customer satisfaction with the quality of the products we provide and the workmanship that goes into every item leaving our shop.

Goza Gear is a family-owned business, owned and operated by Bonnie and Steve Melgoza. Residents of the Livermore community since 1988.

The name Goza Gear was adopted in 1990, after years of friends shortening the family name from Melgoza to 'Goza, when we custom airbrushed a few sweatshirts for Christmas gifts for friends and family. That was when it all began ...

Shortly after, a good friend introduced us to a friend who solicited our services to design and print t-shirts for promoting a local volleyball league that included a series of volleyball tournaments. This facilitated our introduction to the world of wholesale volume screen printing. Our initial orders were sub-contracted with screen printing shops owned by more friends of friends. This went on for a period of time until 1995 when we attended an entrepreneur franchise business expo. It was there that we found the answer to our challenge of working with contract screen printers, starting up our own screen printing operations, in-house -- literally --with a single-station, multi-color, all-in-one screen press. Woo Hoo!

We took out a business license and then got started. This would supplement the income from our full-time occupations in the high-tech industry of California's Silicone Valley. We began printing in one of the spare bedrooms of our home. We did that until our order quantities started to increase. A 100-piece order would take every bit of a week. So much for a profit! This went on for a short period until several stock options from our day jobs had vested. We decided it was time to purchase some "real equipment" -- a six-color, six-station, manual press and a quartz conveyor dryer. This would substantially increase our output. Big time.

Little did we know at the time that the first wave of an economic slowdown and layoffs in the high-tech industry were just around the corner. By late 1997 into 1998, the company where Steve had been employed for 14 years was sliding and sliding fast, taking with it the once high-valued stocks. With operations going offshore, the value of the stocks continued to plummet.

Layoff finally came for Steve. By the late summer of 1998, the decision to bring Goza Gear to a full-time operation was made. This was much sooner than originally planned. The decision was made to go for it. Sink or swim.

Without a net!

In 2000, two years into fulltime operations, our first digital embroidery machine was ordered and delivered. This brought Bonnie home fulltime to run the embroidery side of the business. No more commutes for either of us. We still face the day-to-day challenges much like any other business, large or small. We wouldn't trade it for anything. We're both having a great time and loving what we do.

We support sustainable farming and recycled materials manufacturing.

We support our community by donating approximately 300 t-shirts to the Domestic Violence Shelter's annual running, walking, and bike-riding event, and supporting fundraising efforts by other local non-profit organizations.

We stay connected with the "green" business community as members of Co-Op America and the National Green Pages.

We are members of our local Sustainable Business Alliance and Chamber of Commerce.