From the Internet Archive, the The Velvet Touch Story from Roy's family:

Our Grandpa Roy had been in the dry cleaning business since the early 60’s. He moved out to San Diego in the late 80’s and asked our Dad if he wanted to go into business with him. They took a dumpy little laundromat and turned it into one of the most iconic dry cleaners in the state, if not the country and so Velvet Touch Cleaners was born.

They started off by putting a caricature of Roy from 1972 with the slogan “THIS MAN WANTS TO CLEAN YOUR CLOTHES” on the side of their building. That expanded to bus stop benches and eventually t-shirts.

By the mid 90’s, “the face” as it was referred to, was everywhere. The San Diego rock group, “Rocket From The Crypt” wrote a song about Velvet Touch Cleaners. Roy appeared on the Jeff and Jer radio show a couple of times. T-shirts were spotted all over the world.

By 2001, Grandpa and our Dad sold Velvet Touch Cleaners and the “THIS MAN WANTS TO CLEAN YOUR CLOTHES” t-shirt was no more, until now that is. We’ve decided to bring back the classic Pacific Beach icon.

— Jordan & Eric Rosenwald

Roy's face was ubiquitous in San Diego in the 1990s, and still when I have worn a t-shirt I made with that face, people would smile and make comments to me—fond remembrances. Some images are so distinct, somehow iconic, they leave an impression. Velvet Touch Dry Cleaners & Laundry was at 1609 Garnet Ave, in San Diego. Now it's called Garnet Laundry & Cleaning. Still a laundry, but it lacks that amazing caricature.

That The Rocket from the Crypt song is Velvet Touch. It first appeared on Paint as a Fragrance (1991) (discogs) (musicbrainz):

The family used to run a web page and sold t-shirts. If they do now, I can't find it. Off and on there are accounts selling t-shirts on etsy and redbubble and the usual print-on-demand places—but it's not the same. And the old website had a trademark on that very specific caricature. I share the images on this page with love. I recreated the illustrations and typography to the best of my ability.

This web page was made by Joe in San Diego in 2025.
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