The Syracuse University Entrepreneurship Club has launched a new venture called Orange Outfitters to create affordable, designer T-shirts for SU’s schools and clubs.

Orange Outfitters differs from the SU Bookstore and other apparel stores because it sells shirts for SU academics rather than its athletics. It also focuses more on what students want in a T-shirt, said Justin Hirschhaut, a freshman entrepreneurship and emerging enterprises major and president of Orange Outfitters.

‘We’re trying to actually get the student’s perspective about what looks cool, how a shirt should feel and things like that,’ he said. ‘That’s unique to us.’

Orange Outfitters is a dress wear company and sells shirts students would want to wear daily rather then just to SU games, said David Ehrlich, a sophomore entrepreneurship and emerging enterprises and accounting major. He is also the vice president of ventures for the Entrepreneurship Club.

The company will also be creating a website for placing online orders. Besides designing shirts for SU’s schools, colleges and clubs, Orange Outfitters will make shirts for individual majors and special events such as parties.

Club T-shirts will be available at the online store for individual purchase, which could be used to effectively promote clubs, Ehrlich said.

‘It could be a cool marketing idea for the clubs ‘cause you could have someone that’s not even involved in the club wearing your shirt and that might pull them into the club,’ he said.

Orange Outfitters is one of two ventures the Entrepreneurship Club is launching this semester. The other venture, a café in DellPlain Hall, is in the planning stages, Ehrlich said.

The Entrepreneurship Club, which has one of the largest active memberships of any student organization on campus, remodeled itself this year to get more ventures and more people involved. This is the first year the club is launching two ventures in one semester, Ehrlich said.

‘It’s a way for students to get more entrepreneurship experience,’ he said. ‘We have a large team working on this and a lot of students involved in this company.’

Orange Outfitters includes members from five different SU colleges, Ehrlich said. Students from the College of Visual and Performing Arts helped design the shirts.

The organization holds regular meetings and is divided into different subdivisions. Students are encouraged to suggest ideas and work in areas other than their own subdivision, Hirschhaut said.

‘We want the company to operate horizontally. We want everybody, if they have an idea about another part of the company, to go ahead and voice it,’ he said. ‘Marketing can work on licensing, and licensing can work on finance. The sky’s the limit.’

jliannet@syr.edu

 

Published on March 5, 2012 at 12:00 pm

Contact Jessica: jliannet@syr.edu | @JessicaIannetta