The Rhode Island-based startup Teespring, which lets customers design and print their own T-shirts, announced on Wednesday that it was restructuring its Providence offices and moving a swath of its staff to Kentucky and San Francisco.
Employees learned Tuesday about the restructuring, and 70 employees were laid off of the 120 currently in the city. Kentucky is home the company’s new manufacturing plant, and San Francisco will now host its sales division.
“Restructuring our Providence office was a difficult decision,” spokeswoman Stephanie Hesse told the Providence Journal in an email statement. “However, we believe that our new team structure — reflecting expansion in our San Francisco and Kentucky locations — enables us to better serve our customers and organize Teespring for our next phase of growth.”
Teespring is widely known as one of the most successful startups to come out of Rhode Island in recent years. In 2010, it participated in the startup accelerator Betaspring, and in 2013, it was accepted into the Silicon Valley accelerator Y-Combinator. Since 2011, it has raised $55 million in seed funding. The restructuring move comes a month after Teespring hired eBay Inc. executive Robert Chatwani to be its chief revenue and marketing officer.