Archive for Apparel/Accessories – Page 11

Lauren Bush: FEEDing Millions

Posted by Char-leigh Bates

· Monday, September 16th, 2019

· 1 Comment

Lauren Bush, granddaughter of former President George W. Bush, was born in Denver, Colorado but was raised in Houston, Texas. She grew up in the spotlight, earning an internship with the NBC sitcom, Friends, and modeling. After graduating from Princeton University with a B.A. in anthropology and a certificate in photography, she signed with Elite Model Management. Although she loves modeling and fashion, her heart was pulling her in a different direction.

At the age of 26, Lauren Bush launched FEED Projects, which is a social enterprise. Emerging after Lauren traveled the world with World Food Programme, FEED believes what people choose to buy has the power to change the world. FEED offers everything from accessories to home goods, while working directly with artisans to provide sustainable lives for the partnership and families.

As of October of 2017, FEED Projects has donated over 100 million meals through their sales and fundraisers. Through her work with FEED, Lauren Bush was the first National Lady Godiva Honoree and in 2013, she accepted the Advocacy Award from the World of Children Awards. She was also named Fortune‘s 2009 Most Powerful Women Entrepreneurs, the 2010 Accessories Council Humanitarian Award, 2011 Stevie Award for Best Non-Profit Executive, and named Forbes’ 30 Under 30 Social Entrepreneurs.

Lauren Bush has impacted lives worldwide; she understood not only how to directly help feed hungry children worldwide, but how to create jobs for artisan individuals to provide an income for them and their families. She took two causes that she felt passionate about and figured out how to provide for both of them within one business.

Many young women looking to make a difference in this world can look to Lauren Bush. While incorporating her passion for fashion and feeding the hungry, she has helped to change the lives of many while being an inspiration for young, loving entrepreneurs everywhere.

1 Comment

Categories : Apparel/Accessories, Beauty, Blog, Business, Charity, Fashion, Food, Social Entrepreneur, Social Impact, Women Entrepreneurs, Youngest Entrepreneurs

Tags : fashion, hunger, Innovation, Inspirational, social entrepreneur, women, young entrepreneur

4Ocean – Andrew Cooper & Alex Schulze

Posted by Laura Mosley

· Sunday, September 15th, 2019

· 1 Comment

(L to R) Alex Schulze and Andrew Cooper owners of 4Ocean, a company that actively removes trash from the ocean. Photo by Tim Stepien.

I’m sure we’ve all seen ads from time to time about 4Ocean – the company that sells bracelets and puts money towards cleaning up our oceans. In the last few months, I’ve seen an increase in these ads before Youtube videos and I’ve wondered who it is that’s behind this endeavor.

As it turns out, there are two people: Andrew Cooper and Alex Schulze. Recently, these two made it to the 2019 edition of the Forbes 30 Under 30 for their efforts. So how did it all start?

In 2015, Cooper and Schulze went on a surfing trip to Bali and were appalled by the amount of plastic they found in the ocean. As we are learning in class, they found trouble and sought to fix it. By 2017, they were selling the bracelets we all know of today as a way to fund the cleanup effort. According to the organization, the bracelets are made of recycled materials and each represents a pound of trash that will be removed. 4Ocean has since created more products to help fund the effort, but the bracelets remain the most widely known. According to an article in PR Newswire, “By creating jobs, utilizing the latest technology and raising awareness about the impact of trash in the ocean, the company is building the first economy for ocean plastic and creating a cleaner, more sustainable future for the ocean.”

Cooper and Schulze are excellent examples of entrepreneurs who used their passion to change how the world sees a problem. They are both surfers, fishermen, and divers. They spend much of their time around the water and were perfectly suited to see and frame the problem of plastic in the ocean in a way that many people around the world have not known. They did not just say that there was a problem, but they showed pictures and gave people a simple way that they could help – all with the easy purchase of a recycled bracelet. Every time a customer would look at the bracelet, they would be reminded of the ongoing problem and the fight to clean the world’s oceans. By presenting the problem in a way that gave people something easy to do and inspiring them with the need, they made the daunting task of cleaning up the oceans seem very possible and even exciting.

Sources:

https://4ocean.com/about/

https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/4ocean-co-founders-andrew-cooper-and-alex-schulze-named-forbes-30-under-30-social-entrepreneurs-300750165.html

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/09/07/4oceans-cleaned-up-1-million-pounds-of-ocean-garbage.html

1 Comment

Categories : Apparel/Accessories, Business, Clean water, Enviornmental, Great Ideas, Millennial Entrepreneurs, Ocean, Outdoors, Recycling

Stitch Fix’s Katrina Lake: Reinventing the Fashion Industry

Posted by Emma O'Toole

· Saturday, September 14th, 2019

· 3 Comments

Like most entrepreneurs, Katrina Lake never saw herself as an entrepreneur or starting her own company. Katrina Lake is the founder and CEO of Stitch Fix, and is now one of the wealthiest female entrepreneurs in the country.

After graduating from Stanford University studying economics and pre-med, Katrina worked at a consulting firm, focusing on retail and hospitality, which had yet to reach the digital revolution era. She realized that consumers found buying clothes online difficult because they had to go through millions of options available and pinpoint exactly which item they liked and would work for them. Katrina took this to heart and really thought how she could ease online shopping for consumers. Consumers are mainly concerned about style and fit of their clothes. After consulting and working as a venture capitalist, Katrina wanted to work for a company that would be the future for retail, but she realized that it did not exist anywhere as no one successfully merged fashion with data usage. So in 2009, she attended Harvard Business School to pursue a master’s degree in entrepreneurship.

For a class project at Harvard Business School, she used her findings from her consulting job with the troubles consumers had buying clothes online. Katrina desired to bring a better shopping experience into homes of women who did not have time to shop around or have access to a wide range of fashion options. She felt that shopping was broken, and at the time, e-commerce was not an ideal way to shop. So she asked herself what consumers really wanted out of retail, and came up with a personalized shopping service that uses algorithms and recommendations from stylists to curate boxes of clothing and accessories that matches a customer’s style and fit preferences.

For a small fee, customers would receive semi regular shipments based on their size, tastes, and information pulled from social media accounts like Instagram and Pinterest. What they want to keep, they are charged for, and what they do not like, they could return. This would combine the personal shopping tips she got from her sister and a Netflix style e-commerce model. This is when Stitch Fix was created.

Stitch Fix officially launched in 2011, and has experienced significant growth with 2.7 million customers and more than $1 billion in revenue. Katrina Lake was named number 55 on Forbes list of America’s Richest Self-Made Women. Today, Stitch Fix employs around 85 data scientists and more than 3,700 stylists. They have expanded their collection lines to not only women’s clothing, but men’s, kids, maternity, petite, plus size, and basics.

Through hard-work and innovation, Katrina Lake revolutionized the fashion industry through Stitch Fix. She was able to find a gap in online shopping and provide consumers with an easier and more convenient way to shop. Katrina introduced the market to personalized styling to the average customer, not just to the rich. Stitch Fix is reinventing the apparel industry and the way customers buy their clothes.

Find out how Stitch Fix started

3 Comments

Categories : Apparel/Accessories, eCommerce, Fashion, Millennial Enrepreneuers, Uncategorized, Women Entrepreneurs

Nine Line Apparel – Tyler Merritt

Posted by Olivia Whiteman

· Thursday, September 12th, 2019

· 3 Comments

Nine Line Apparel is a patriotic clothing company based out of Savannah, Georgia. It was created by now military vet, Tyler Merritt and his wife in 2012. They started as a small t-shirt company based out of their garage while Tyler was still on active duty, deployed overseas. His wife successfully managed the company for a little over a year and over that period of time, they expanded into a small house, and then purchased a storefront in 2014. The company started gaining a lot of traction and over the next several years they made the decision to expand yet again. In 2017, Nine Line Apparel opened the doors of their 60,000 sq. ft. facility outside of Savannah, Georgia, where they operate today.

Nine Line Apparel is dedicated to uniting Americans. They are committed to their values which are stated on their website as: 1. Respect the flag and what it stands for. 2. Support the military, police, fire departments, and any other public service who have and continue to serve the United States honorably. 3. Being patriotic is not something to be ashamed of.

Nine Line Apparel, under the guidance and leadership of Tyler Merritt, is continually innovating to ensure they can stay profitable while still manufacturing their items in the U.S. While it may not always maximize profits, they are committed to upholding their values and serving the American people. They now carry numerous t-shirt designs and styles, sweatshirts, hats, jackets, accessories for dogs, a new women’s line featuring athletic wear, and many more patriotic apparel related items. Tyler Merritt has built this company from the ground up and is now seeing incredible success with numerous interviews and bits being aired on Fox News, the brand being carried at large stores such as Cabela’s and Field and Stream, and countless online orders being placed every day.

Many of Nine Line Apparel’s employees are current and retired military, and they specifically seek to give jobs to former military members who are searching for jobs. Tyler Merritt also created the Nine Line Foundation, which is a non-profit organization, partially funded by the profits of Nine Line Apparel, that is dedicated to meeting the special and financial needs of severely injured soldiers and their families. Their latest project is building a Veterans Village, which will provide housing and training needed for homeless veterans to get back on their feet. Tyler Merritt with his businesses has found a way to be both profitable and make a social impact without compromising his morals and values. It is inspiring to see a company take a stand, stick to it, and even with a considerable amount of backlash, still be successful.

https://www.ninelineapparel.com/pages/about-us

https://ninelinefoundation.org/about-us/

3 Comments

Categories : Apparel/Accessories, Clothing, Fashion, Military, USA

Melonnial Entreprenuers

Posted by Meredith Basham

· Wednesday, September 11th, 2019

· 4 Comments

Brian Keller (left) and Zachary Quinn (right)

Seeing beyond the facade of grades and GPA’s, Brian Keller and Zachary Quinn took their college entrepreneurship project as more than just an academic endeavor. An assignment given on the second day of class was transformed by these two men into tangible hope, love, and support for pediatric cancer patients nationwide in less than two years. Love Your Melon is a social enterprise which personally delivers knit beanies to children fighting cancer upon each sale. The company’s immense success forced them to evolve from donating the hats on a buy-one, give-one basis, to donating half their profits to other nonprofit organizations fighting pediatric cancer and working alongside afflicted families because sales exceeded patients to donate to.

Heavily involved in serving the homeless with his parents as a child, and inspired by the philosophy of Toms Shoes, Quinn conceived the idea of Love Your Melon. To begin $3,500 was raised in loans from friends and family, the first round of beanies were bought, patches chartered from a local embroiderer, and only one weekend with a booth outside a restaurant later 200 beanies had been sold and 200 more distributed to oncology patients. Spreading like wildfire, sales grew exponentially and supply was quickly trampled by demand. To go beyond financial participation in the cause, Keller and Quinn expanded their enterprise to incorporate customers directly through a college ambassador program. It began with a bus tour across the nation stopping at college campuses to sell, and then transport the students to local hospitals to deliver the gifts first hand. On top of this, product offerings have broadened to blankets, apparel, accessories, even bling for pets, and beyond.

Overwhelmed by the realization that health is not a guarantee, but a blessing, Keller and Quinn desired to come alongside their afflicted peers- aware that they could just as easily be in the opposite position. The co-owners continue to be inspired by the fighting spirits they meet every day. With over 170,000 hats and 6.2 million dollars donated since just October of 2012, it is evident that these mere students identified a clear need that others are eager to support. Working within the simple means and limitations of college students, Keller and Quinn were able to see past themselves, refusing to take a class assignment for granted. Now thousands of children are surrounded by an entire community of beanie-wearing supporters. Hair or no hair-no matter-fashionable head wear is a uniting force.

4 Comments

Categories : Apparel/Accessories, Bootstrap Business, Clothing, Education, Social Entrepreneur

Tati Westbrook & James Charles

Posted by colfleshdj17

· Monday, May 20th, 2019

· 1 Comment

Recently on the internet, there has been some conflict going on between two very close friends. Tati Westbrook and James Charles were super close friends and business partners, until James decided to release his own type of product. Tati had her own gummy vitamin line, and it was doing fairly well. In the past few weeks, James had released his own vitamin line that was essentially going against Tati’s product line. This caused the two friends to drift apart, and the whole internet knows about it. This may seem like some “beef” between two friends, but Tati figured out how to make it into MILLIONS of dollars. After James had released his vitamin line, Tati combated her friend James by releasing a YouTube video talking about how bad of a friend he was and how she basically viewed him as a traitor. Here is how Tati had flipped the whole situation into a profit for herself: she basically twisted the whole situation, made James sound like an awful human, and created EMPATHY for herself. People felt extremely bad for Tati, and what better way to support her than to go out and buy her product? Tati’s vitamins costs $40, and she got to advertise them even more in her video about talking down to James. When she did this, many people unsubscribed from James’ YouTube channel and joined Tati’s side. The video that was released obtained nearly 50 million views in a short period of time. If Tati had convinced nearly 1% (a very normal conversion rate, which is about 500,000 customers in this case) of those viewers to buy her product at $40 a pop, it averages out to over $19 million. I agree, this is not the best way to go about this situation, but Tati clearly knew what she was doing to James as well as collecting an insane amount of profit. This could have been handled in a much better, moral way, but people will do a lot of crazy things to make money. Hopefully the situation will be resolved soon so that everything can go back to being somewhat normal. This is an example of how somebody can take conflict between two friends and turn it into a huge sum of money.

1 Comment

Categories : Apparel/Accessories, Online Companies, Social Entrepreneur, YouTube

Kids Helping Kids

Posted by FilbyGC1

· Sunday, December 16th, 2018

· 4 Comments

Brandon and Sebastian Martinez are two incredible young boys. They are the founders a colorful sock company that sells to kids and adults. They are passionate about designing socks that stand out from the crowd, but they also care about making a difference at the same time. Sebastian, who is 10 years-old, is the C.E.O. and head designer for their company, “Are You Kidding.” Brandon, who is 12 years-old, is the Director of Sales, or as he likes to refer to himself as the “D.O.S.”

The Martinez brothers have always wanted to share their love of cool and unique socks with the world. Their love for socks was the inspiration to start a small business where they sell their fun designs with others. They use some of the profits from their socks to raise awareness for local and national charities around the country. They have partnered with organizations like Autism Speaks, American Cancer Society, Special Olympics Florida, Big Brothers Big Sisters of Miami, and The Live Like Bella Foundation.

Their story is inspirational because the Martinez boys show us that it is never too early to start a business or follow our passion.

4 Comments

Categories : Apparel/Accessories, Millennial Enrepreneuers, Uncategorized

Hoaka Swimwear

Posted by cummingsld17

· Sunday, December 16th, 2018

· 2 Comments

Instagram is being taken by storm by the young entrepreneur, Elisabeth Rioux. She now has 1.7 million followers and that number is still growing.

She was only 18 when she started her bathing suit company, Hoaka Swimwear. Her goal for this company is to inspire body positivity. She made it her mission to create an atmosphere for all women to feel good in their own skin and in her swimsuits. One way she does this is by having girls model her swimwear, who all have different body types. This breaks the mold of the typical swimsuit model, showing girls that anyone can be beautiful in their own skin. This is how Elisabeth has branded her company, which has most certainly paid off.

What differentiates her swimsuits from others on the market is the material they are made from. They are made with neoprene. This is the same material that wet-suits are made out of, meaning that they will last a long time and are also very flattering on many body types.

Elisabeth Rioux just launched a new branch of her company, which sells underwear. This company is called Bamboo Underwear. She is branding this company by saying that it is the most comfortable underwear out there. Just like her other company, her products are designed with a very different kind of fabric. Her products are made from bamboo fabric, which has unique properties such as a cooling effect, is softer than cotton, and is allergen free.

Although Elisabeth Rioux is still a very young entrepreneur, she has built an empire for herself by promoting body positivity and making sure her products stand out from anything you’ve seen before.

2 Comments

Categories : Apparel/Accessories, Millennial Enrepreneuers

Burning Hats for Profit

Posted by FilbyGC1

· Sunday, December 16th, 2018

· 4 Comments

In Venice, California, Nick Fouquet builds custom hats from raw materials. He crafts each piece by hand. His client roster that includes celebrities like Pharrell Williams and Anne Hathaway. No two hats are the same, but each hat is made with the absolute best materials and the very best techniques, which have been perfected through the centuries.

Born in New York and raised in Florida and Southern France, Fouquet did not grow up with a strong passion for hats. He was only inspired to enter the world of hat designing after having a conversation with a cowboy he met after moving to California. He saw an opportunity in the market. “Hat-making is a dying art — there are only about 30 artisans in America, and 300 in the world,” says Fouquet.

After an initial meeting with the client, Fouquet gathers the raw material, typically beaver, rabbit, or straw. He uses a combination of twine, steam, and classic California sunshine to dry and shape each hat. Next, he will sand the exterior of the hat until it is smooth enough to wear. Because he is famous for his destressed hats, he often also lights his hats on fire for a few seconds to age them.

His straw hats start around $550, but some felts hats cost over $1,000. Fouquet’s strong personality and aesthetic drives his business forward. His attention to detail helped revitalize the dying market of high-end hat making.

4 Comments

Categories : Apparel/Accessories, Millennial Enrepreneuers

Kickz

Posted by ReynoldsAL17

· Wednesday, December 12th, 2018

· 3 Comments

Benjamin Kapelushnik

Kapelushnik has been called Ben “kickz” Kapelushnik, the “Sneaker Don”, the sneaker plug, and a teen entrepreneur who is changing the world. His customers include D.J. Khalid and other high profile celebrities. Kapelushnik works with brands including Yeezy and Air Jordans before they are open to the public market. He is able to glean a 40 percent profit margin from each sale.

Sneakerdon.com Beginning

Kapelushnik began selling sneakers when he was in fourth grade. He said his parents did not want to fund his hobby of collecting sneakers. After he realized all the kids at school wanted his shoes he began reselling shoes already on market to his classmates in order to make a small profit. It took Kapelushnik years before he was able to build sneakerdon.com to the one million dollar profit it reached this year. He said his father had a hard time wrapping his mind around the concept of buying shoes for eight hundred dollars, wearing them for a small period of time, and being able to resell them for more. His mom on the other hand has encouraged him to chase his dreams, even if she did not quite understand the process.

Benjamin Kapelushnik’s Future Plans

Kapelushnik wants to open stores and chains to go along with the website business he already manages. He wants to become bigger and better at his job. Kapelushnik plans on furthering his education at a college institution, even though he already runs a successful business as a sixteen year old.

My Thoughts

Although I may share more of Benjamin’s father’s attitude towards the idea, I think the sneaker business is growing. If Kapelushnik continues to make connections and improvements I believe there will be almost no limit to the success he will have in his industry. I wish him well in his future endeavors, and I will keep my eyes peeled for his guest appearances on celebrity snap chats.

3 Comments

Categories : Apparel/Accessories, Fashion