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Author: Gameday Social-Updated: 11 hours ago
BROOKINGS-A startup company based in the Brookings Institution is gaining national momentum in the field of college and lifestyle apparel.
Gameday Social is a business-to-business apparel company that focuses on licensed college apparel-from regional pillars such as South Dakota State University, University of South Dakota and North Dakota State University all the way to the Nebraska Husk and Iowa Hawks Eye team.
Entrepreneur Jael Thorpe and her husband Brian saw a lack of trend-driven college apparel opportunities in 2019 after offering a handful of SDSU exclusive products at their boutique (previously called j.ella) every fall.
"I'm starting to see that the time is ripe for industry disruption. The university clothing industry is completely lacking in fashion-forward non-universal clothing," Jael Thorpe said.
Obtaining licenses in Iowa and Nebraska this year was a highly competitive process that achieved expansion almost overnight.
"We went from making a few clever SDSU T-shirts every fall to developing a complete clothing line with overseas manufacturing capabilities, a warehouse in Sioux Falls, and shipping thousands of items to stores across the country in basically 18 months ," she added.
Tiara Ugofsky, Director of Operations at Gameday Social and SDSU apparel marketing graduate Tiara Ugofsky attributed this year's tremendous growth mainly to the pent-up excitement of college football after 2020, but also to the uniqueness of their design.
"You can find hundreds of videos of female college students on TikTok. These videos combine the high value of trailing and games, but most of them are DIY, because stylish authorized clothing doesn't really exist," Ugofsky Say.
Despite the pressure and uncertainties brought about by the COVID economy, Thorpe said it forced them to innovate in ways that promote growth.
"Seeing what is about to happen in the supply chain, we know that we need vertical integration to keep up with demand. We also added the resort lifestyle series when the university movement stopped in 2020, and both of these initiatives have become an important part of our business. Part," Thorpe said.
Ethical manufacturing and "love local" are the core of the Gameday Social brand. The clothing is made responsibly overseas, then decorated in Sioux Falls, and then shipped across the country.
"With our current university as the focus, most of our goods are shipped to retailers in the upper Midwest, but we also regularly ship our products to Florida, Texas and other regions," warehouse manager Alex Ferrer Lamond said.
Thorpe said that they plan to eventually expand to more online consumer businesses and 10 more universities, but for now, they are focused on meeting the needs of existing customers, including small locally-owned boutiques and university bookstores. National sporting goods retailer.
Keep in touch with Gameday Social on Instagram and Facebook: @gamedaysocial.
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