Most stories of a company starts with a conversation of a certain passion or mission. For Jeff and Ryan, they met on a semester at sea study abroad program. During this time, the collected different fabrics from the different countries they visited. They wanted to make a positive change in the world while using the fabric they collected. This is what ignited Serengetee.
Beginning the company, they were absolutely clueless with anything involved in sewing, BUT they knew they wanted to improve the lives of the communities they interacted with. So that ignited their perseverance and passion in creating these tshirts. This illustrates how if used in the redemptive way two people can come together to ignite a fire of change in this world, just through something as simple as fabric pockets onto a shirt. Since then, they have grown in enormous ways. They now have several different lines of clothing and items. They also have tons of different pocket tshirts all surrounding the idea and passion for travel and discovering new cultures.
It is quite a hot commodity, especially because the “wanderlust” persona is very in right now. They discovered a very prominent market and pinpointed an easy, quick, and relatively cheap way to enter it. (AND did it successfully). Now a days having a story and purpose behind your company is necessary to succeed. If people know they are supporting something positive while spending money to benefit themselves, they are much more likely to purchase it. Knowing that, they can feel less guilt/ buyers remorse because they helped out something that is good and “selfless.” It is always nice to feel like you impacted people even in purchasing a hat. It feels great to feel like a good person.
Not only do they give 10% of their profit to help benefit these communities, but they want to help spread the story of the communities as well. Who knew that a travel abroad experience could grow to a huge business that is impacting the world.
I think this story is a prime example of how you don’t have to be original to be successful. Obviously creating t shirts was not an original idea, but Jeff and Ryan added their own twist on an already mundane product. They suddenly made buying t shirts impactful and even philanthropic. This is such a fantastic story of how two men came together to make a good product even better.
I think the story behind these products are an amazing way to catch the customers eye. It is also a prime example of how you can create a product out of just a small idea. Learning more about your product along the way is part of the journey and is what makes the company unique. Great post!