We make great signs, and we give a damn about business.
Josh and I have sold signs on Etsy for almost eight years. At first, we made signs in the basement of my bookstore while our son played in the kids' section. Then, we moved to our apartment kitchen, next my dad's garage, and finally our own workshop
Even with a presence only on Etsy, we have been found by some of the biggest and some of the smallest brands worldwide. We've grown from a family of three making it happen to a family of four, operating a growing business with fantastic employees.
Business owners will know that the platform fees and gatekeeping around data from a third party platform are hard to swallow. In 2025, we finally shifted to our own standalone brand and website: Sidewalk Monkey.
Production Kitchen
Our first workshop
In a lot of ways, the shift has meant rebuilding the business from the ground up. We’re back to door knocking to get the word out about who we are.
But, in other ways, we’re the most smoothly run that we’ve ever been. We have a website that lets us handle design conversations and feedback. We have eight years of logistical experience in designing, manufacturing, and shipping our products.
We’ve got a real soft spot for entrepreneurs, and we don’t take their businesses lightly. Sidewalk Monkey is where we get to share, for a moment, the responsibility of helping a brand show up well. Our favorite projects are the ones with stories, not just the "print it and box it" orders.
Our production experience, the machinery we've invested in, and the processes we have built, combined with our love of communication done well is what sets us apart. We know that signs can be the difference between a business that looks like it’s making fly-by-night, uncoordinated decisions and one that points to the dedication and care put into it.
Our workshop makes these signs from start to finish. Every one starts from a single sheet in our metal shop and goes through plasma cutting, prepping, powder coating, design and graphics. That process carries your sign across our four employees and 2,000 square feet before we ship it out from Colorado.
We also know, firsthand, how hard it is to coordinate the thousands of pieces that go into running a business. We’re well aware that you can be the most passionate and dedicated business, an anchor in your community and industry, and still find that your first impression - your brand appearance - is just a transaction to another business.
Not only is it frustrating to deal with no design support and aesthetically lacking (ugly) signs, it’s insulting that your work and passion would be turned into profit for big, opportunistic companies.
Forget that nonsense. We give a damn about business, and we count ourselves lucky to get to work with other hardworking crazies every day. We’re never bored around here, and we really wouldn’t want it any other way.
- Jess, co-founder
