From Panther to Designer

December 10, 2015

For many of us, finding jobs that we like and pay well can be a bit of a challenge after college. I didn’t find one job after graduating, I found three. I was working over 70 hours a week and wasn’t going anywhere with my career. It wasn’t until nine months ago that I decided to chase my dreams and start a fashion brand: one that will help bring back the values that have been long lost over the years and bring back ‘American Made’ clothing.

Being an entrepreneur in the fashion world is not an easy task, but I have loved every single moment of it. I moved to Los Angeles four months ago from San Diego to grow the company, taking all the necessary risks. While in L.A., I discovered Kickstarter and thought it would be a great platform to share my vision of my clothing brand, LEOPARDET. I brought on board our summer intern Alana Eastling (B.A. communications ’16) and fellow panther Justin Rypma (BFA film production ’18) to help make this campaign a reality. Justin brought on board his crew and together we worked on putting together the Kickstarter campaign LEOPARDET: Bringing Back ‘American Made’ Fashion.

We worked very hard to make the campaign a success. It was my first time working in production and we didn’t have a lot of resources. But we were able to come together as a team and put all of our heart and efforts in the project. The campaign has been running since November 4 and today marks the 36^th day. We are 24 hours away from the finish line and $2,000 shy. With Kickstarter being an all or nothing kind of thing, we have to keep pushing till the last second to meet the goal and keep the brand alive. I believe in LEOPARDET and know that we can make an impact in the clothing industry. This is our first jab at it.

Check out our Kickstarter to see the campaign and watch our video »