This young entrepreneur began with a passion and a love for crocheting. Katie Knight began crocheting in 8th grade. She did not start creating scarfs until her junior year of high school. She began by making scarfs to give to her friends, and eventually ran out of people to give scarfs to. In the spring of 2014, she began thinking of starting a business with these scarfs. Katie started up her Etsy store in July of 2014, and called it, Janella’s Accessories Store. Her scarfs are classified as Infinity Scarfs, and each one has its own unique personality and pattern. Katie is also my roommate, and she made me one of these scarfs last year. It is warm and comfortable and cute. I personally believe that the scarf making business is a big one, and people are very interested in purchasing products that are hand crafted and that are made with good material. I believe that with time and dedication, Janella’s Accessories store could become a thriving business. 
Archive for Apparel/Accessories – Page 18
Oculus, a company run by the energetic Palmer Luckey, has raised 90 million in venture funding and is currently employing half a hundred people to bring this tech to you. How do they intend to do this though? Recently the team has been partnering with Samsung in an attempt to develop a headset that is compatible with the Galaxy Note, which would make this a very reachable piece of technology.
What to say of the pioneer of gadgets, this John Smith of technology? He has the creativity for this calling. When he was eighteen he assembled his first proto-type out of his discontentment for the current headsets on the market. During his journey he developed a widened range of vision and even make this young model wireless.
What could a pair of nifty virtual reality goggles do for someone though? Let’s consider the possibilities. It has the capacity to be a private movie player for someone who’s constantly traveling, add a spicy touch for those hardcore gamers out there, or even showcase an area before someone goes on vacation; the possibilities are virtually endless.
T.J. Mousetis wanted to go to Russia. But travel was expensive and fundraising a trying task. So in lieu of sending letters, Mousetis bought one hundred blue t-shirts and had the phrase “walk in love” printed on the front. His plan: sell the shirts and use the profits toward the trip. Not only did he garner unexpected positive interest, but his passion for design and entrepreneurship sparked.
Soon walk in love., a Lancaster, PA based clothing store “dedicated to selling well-designed, high quality products with a positive and inspiring message,” was born. Mousetis took a simple idea, graphic t-shirts, and developed a business that empowered the individual through their positive messages.
Mousetis’ wife, Brooke Courtney, partnered her natural light photography company with the store to promote their merchandise through photographing local models and friends for the company’s campaigns and look books. Soon posters, advertisements, and marketing pieces featured everyday Lancastrian people in well-crafted walk in love. clothing.
The millennial generation is often characterized by its deep need for identification. Walk in love. has offered not only clothing that spreads a positive, Christian based message, but has also contributed to the furthering of Lancaster’s community through creating a company of which the people can be a part.
Walk in love. continues to grow and flex as they expand their store base and variety of products sold. Their fresh, slightly hipster, and all together fun outlook on design sets them apart from other stores. Each member of the executive team integrates his or her various talents within the business (photography, videography, design, entrepreneurial minds, etc.) Walk in love. also remains a great example of the redemptive use of social media as it has sprung up rapidly, promoting through their website, instagram, and twitter.
What started with a simple mission trip fundraiser has become a great entrepreneurial success story. But please do not take only my word for it, visit their website at http://shopwalkinlove.com/ to learn more!
This is a story about a young Entrepreneur who has impacted my life personally. Samuel Bernhardt, a friend I went to high school with and the founder and designer of More than Conquerors Clothing, always had a passion and a talent for Digital Design. Growing up he was involved in yearbook and was greatly interested in photography and editing photos. He also designed the advertisement posters for our high school’s musicals. Back in the spring of 2013, my father was diagnosed with stage four pancreatic cancer. Another parent of a girl I went to high school with was also diagnosed with cancer. Samuel designed four different styles of T-shirts that were inspired by the “More than Conquerors” passage in Romans 8:31-39. Along with two other of his close friends, they began to sell T-shirts to fundraise money for my family and the other girl’s family. Now, a year and 3 months later, More than Conquerors has turned into a Non-Profit Organization that has partnered with Urban Hope, a Christian Organization dedicated to providing believers with cross-cultural training and experience in urban ministry. More than Conquerors now has an official website and face book page. Along with selling T-shirts they also now sell hats and sweatshirts. This story has inspired me not only because this organization directly impacted my family during a time of need but it has also warmed my heart to watch how Samuel has grown up and is beginning to use his talents in the business world and most importantly is impacting many people through the gifts that God has obviously given him.
Back in high school, my cousin Brandon, and my friends Brady and Grant Forney and I would spend countless weekends outdoors. We were always thinking about fishing and gunning trips, chasing a variety of different species of game and fish, as well as perusing a variety of outdoor sport activities. Our fathers and grandfathers owned many diverse and beautiful properties across Pennsylvania which facilitated our desire for exploration and sport.
Brady’s younger brother Grant was a little young to come along on all our our adventures as a participator, but in order to stay in on the fun he asked if he would be allowed to take his parents Sony HandyCam and film our expeditions. Immediately, he started a YouTube channel and posted the film. Grant was really the innovator for this idea. Without him, we probably would have never put in the effort to film and capture our experiences. The rest of us jumped on board with his idea and we came up with the name Pennsylvania Outdoors Unlimited, a state specific outdoors channel. Since then, we have become oudtoorsmen with a focus on photography and videography. Three years and 100 videos later, the page boasts over 600,000 views and 2,100 subscribers.
With these numbers, the dividends from YouTube have been starting to slowly accrue. More recently, we have teamed with Pennsylvania Whitetail Pursuit to create a marketable outdoors DVD for the 2014 season, and this past May, our organization won a Gopro Hero 3 camera in a video entry contest from Hunteos.com. Even though we are all college age now, we are still excited to spend time outdoors in any facet we can find or experience. This adventure filming idea is really just fun for us, and if it never pays off, we would have no regrets. However, as time goes on, we see more and more potential to find some sort of niche market for our brand and put together a sustainable business model.
In the meantime, check it out!
Instagram: paoutdoorsunlimited on Instagram
Facebook: Pennsylvania Outdoors Unlimited
Youtube: Pennsylvania Outdoors Unlimited – YouTube
– Herschel Miller
If I know anything about my best friend Katie Schallick it is that she is a hipster. Before skinny jeans came into style, she would safety pin her regular jeans so they would be tight around her legs. After other girls saw what she had done, a majority of girls in our grade followed her example and started to wear “skinny jeans” as well. Another thing she did was bring back the style of having bangs because she was simply “bored of being like everyone else”. This then lead to being different by drawing on her shoes. It all started back in sixth grade when Katie was bored in science class and decided she would draw on her brand new Converse. Even though she knew she her parents would yell at her later, all she wanted to do was express herself by drawing on her shoes. Soon after that, people were stopping her in the hallways, calling her home phone, messaging her on AIM, and asking her about drawing on their shoes. This was the beginning of One White Shoe.
What makes Katie Schallick’s idea unique is the fact that she took something as simple as drawing on her shoes and turned it into a business at the age of 12 years old. This makes it creative because I do not know of another business that involves a person drawing or painting on shoes for profit. She took something that was boring, or without life you could say, and gave it color; she made plain white shoes fun.
Katie is an inspiration to me because it blows my mind that she was only 12 years old and she started a business. She showed me that anyone can start a business at any age and you can be very successful. All you need is an idea, some creativity, and your future business possibilities are endless.
If you desire to get your own pair of shoes done by Katie Schallick, you can best reach her at her Facebook page and email her from there. Happy Blogging!
Meet Moziah Bridges.
Moziah, Mo for short, is a young entrepreneur who started Mo’s Bows, a one-man bow tie business, at the age of ten in Memphis Tennessee. Mo has always loved looking good and fashion, but became frustrated when he could not find the fashionable ties he hoped to. Mo started making his own ties when his grandmother taught him when he was nine. Since then, Moziah has earned over $30,000 selling Mo’s Bows on Etsy and from his website. The bow ties are also found in boutiques in Tennessee, Alabama, Texas, Louisiana, South Carolina and Arkansas. Moziah has high hopes to expand his business to include neck ties, pocket squares, and other accessories for men.
Moziah is an inspirational young entrepreneur. His innovation and energy to develop this business at such a young age is really astonishing. Mo found a problem in the bow tie industry and has definitely succeeded in his solution of the problem with Mo’s Bows. His positive attitude and plans to enhance his company and expand also shows great promise for Mo’s future.
The Texan
Sure, we might know what TOMS are, but who here knows about Blake Mycoskie?
In 2006 Blake Mycoskie traveled to Argentina and realized an urgent need: children were forced to grow up without shoes. For Blake, Entrepreneurship came naturally. While in college, he started a successful campus laundry service which he later sold. And so, having the passion that he did for problem solving, he came up with a solution: to create a for-profit business that was sustainable and not reliant on donations. This is how the TOMS business was born.
One for One
The TOMS business plan is simple, really. For every pair of shoes you purchase, a pair is given to someone in need. Not only then do people buy the shoes because they look good, but also to help someone. Over the first five years, the business was successful enough, but Blake realized another need–so he developed the idea for TOMS Eyewear. Just as with shoes, for every pair of TOMS Eyewear purchased, eyewear is given to someone in need.
The Revolution
Blake saw the need, and he developed a solution. Now TOMS even has a day on which they raise awareness–they call it One Day Without Shoes. The movement has become a revolution.
Road ID Saves Life and Defines Lifestyles
Edward Wimmer’s father had always told him to make sure he had some form of ID on him whenever he went for a run. When Edward was in college, a near accident caused him to think twice about 
his father’s advice when an oncoming truck forced Wimmer to jump into a ditch to avoid being hit during a training run. After graduating, Wimmer and his father, an entrepreneur, holed up in their basement, and using credit cards to back their endeavors, began producing athlete-friendly ID tags, modeled after military dog tags. The two of them called their upstart Erlanger, Kentucky based company Road ID. Now, thirteen years later, the company continues to make these athletic ID tags and will engrave them with anything the customer chooses, but still recommends including “vital statistics and inspirational mantras to help lift spirits mid-workout.” An interactive version of these tags also gives responders access to your medical information including allergies and health insurance in the case of an emergency. However safety’nuts are not the only people who have taken an interest in these ID bands. What started out as a practical way to protect athletes has now evolved into a status symbol- a fashion statement that says: “I’m an athlete.” 
Runners, cyclists, and many other athletes are now wearing their Road ID’s even when they are not working out. In 2011 the previously online retailer decided to broaden its horizons by using kiosks to market and sell their bands in sporting goods shops. In addition to this, the company deals heavily in social media and email advertising as well as word of mouth. When a customer buys any Road ID product, they receive a special discount code that they can use and share for 30 days to get deals on other Road ID goods. In this way Road ID makes its customers its prime salesmen. Although Wimmer refuses to divulge the company’s current worth, he claims that the company has growth by about 50% every year since 2002 and expects that its growth will continue as more and more athletes become acquainted with their product and want the image that it provides.
So, I know this person . . .
Last year I had the wonderful opportunity of being involved in Grove City College’s Children’s Theatre production of Seussical. The show was a blast, and I met some fantastic people; one of whom was Hannah List. Anyways, to get to the point, one day after the end of the school year–around graduation and May intersession–I saw Hannah sewing something as she was sitting on a bench with a friend, just outside of Beans on Broad. I asked her what she was working on and so she showed me: it was a neat, vintage, hand-made bowtie, and with that she shared a story . . .
Micah List
She told me she was making it for her brother’s business. Micah, her brother, had spent the fall semester of his junior year in Bangkok, Thailand. Near the end of his time there, Micah went out with some friends for a fun night of Karaoke at a local bar. When they arrived they found that the bar was not offering Karaoke as an entertainment option. Instead they were approached by twelve young Thai women with deadening looks of despair in their eyes. These were trafficked women, and they were selling sex. Micah was horrified, but in this moment of pain he was overcome with hope and resolution.
The word “Tok” in Acholi means “Hat.” Micah’s huge idea was to take his connections and resources to make everything from hats to bowties, and sell them to raise money to help these women. The goal is to help these women get to safe houses, to remove them from the brothels. Micah hopes to also provide these women with jobs making his products. Not only would he pay them fairly, but it would provide the women a way out. A way to make money without selling themselves.
#DYP
Micah’s motto for the business is “Do your part.” He wants people to understand the problem and to contribute to a solution. For each product he sells, 25% is given to help these women. All you have to do is buy a hat, tie, or shirt. For such a new business, their website is surprisingly intuitive and slick. You really should check it out. They also have some of their products for sale on a rack at Beans on Broad. Come by sometime, you may even see Micah hanging out there–he spends a lot of time at Beans these days. Pull him aside, ask him about The Tok Project, and learn how you too can do your part.
