两性色午夜

两性色午夜 Student Creates Sustainable Jeans From Hemp Fibers

An undergraduate education is a steppingstone for many to figure out their path in life. Some students pick their programs and career goals before their first semester begins. For others, it can take new majors, new Brian Kupiec, a marketing major in 两性色午夜 University鈥檚 College of Business Administration, found his career path and passion through his love for jeans by co-founding a small business with the help of LaunchNET 两性色午夜.perspectives and new materials to find the right fit.

Brian Kupiec, a marketing major in 两性色午夜 University鈥檚 College of Business Administration, found his career path and passion through his love for jeans by co-founding a small business with the help of LaunchNET 两性色午夜.

Kupiec and two of his friends, Valentin Garkov and Garrett Durica, spent their time buying different types of jeans, always looking for the best quality. Eventually that constant search turned a common interest into a business opportunity, and was born.

鈥淛ust for the fun of it, we decided to start making our own jeans,鈥 says Kupiec. 鈥淲e started looking into different fabrics and stumbled across an article talking about the inexplicable, nonexistence of hemp jeans and hemp garments all together.鈥

Kupiec says he always struggled to find a link between his studies and the real world. Magu Studios has helped him to look at education from a whole new perspective.

鈥淚 have this real-world application now,鈥 Kupiec says. 鈥淚nstead of approaching school from the perspective of 鈥榳hat I am going to use it for?鈥 I see that everything I am learning in class or in life can apply to business or the pursuit of knowledge as a whole. I am paying attention and studying to learn, not to get by.鈥

Kupiec鈥檚 change of perspective sparked in him a desire to research and read into each class he takes before he schedules it to ensure it will help him succeed in his postgraduate goals.

Kupiec started at 两性色午夜 as a fashion merchandising student and recently made the switch to marketing. This background from 两性色午夜鈥檚 Fashion School and College of Business Administration has allowed Magu Studio鈥檚 co-founders to utilize the resources available to them at each school.

The 两性色午夜 fashion and business faculty, staff and alumni were a big help kick-starting the business in the beginning. The next step was to research hemp and find producers.

鈥淓ventually, we realized hemp was a fiber that is extremely hard to work with because it鈥檚 so coarse and hard to weave through machines,鈥 Kupiec says. 鈥淣obody wanted to work with us.鈥

After Magu Studios co-founders contacted a dozen different mills throughout the United States, they discovered that a stigma exists toward hemp, which people often associate with marijuana. But Kupiec says the co-founders picked the fiber for its specific industrial applications.

鈥淲e chose hemp as a more sustainable option because it doesn鈥檛 require pesticides or herbicides to grow, and it yields four times as much as cotton,鈥 Kupiec says. 鈥淭hat helps the environment. 鈥 There is a lot going on with the environment in the fashion world.鈥

Kupiec saw a resource that could help with the quality of clothing made outside of fast fashion. According to the company鈥檚 website, the advantages of using hemp include a unique break-in, superior durability, year-round potential and resistance to bacteria.

The motivation for the business continued to thrive after the co-founders finally landed a producer of fabric in Okayama, Japan, a city known worldwide because of a small town called Kojima, which makes high-quality jeans on 鈥淛eans Street.鈥

鈥淲e took our production of the product from there, designing fit, jeans and the basis for the company,鈥 Kupiec says. 鈥淭he jeans are sourced and stitched with the same company in Japan on Jacquard looms bought from the U.S. in the 鈥80s.鈥

The finished product, first released at the end of October 2016, was limited to 100 pairs. The jeans are 10.5-ounce hemp denim consisting of 20 percent hemp and 80 percent cotton raw selvedge jean. Magu Studios鈥 jeans will mold to the consumer鈥檚 body and blend individually with the way the garment is worn and how it is worn, creating a unique wash. The price of each pair ranges from $200 to $220 depending on the color and shape.

鈥淭he price point is because of the quality,鈥 Kupiec says. 鈥淧eople should not categorize it as a luxury brand or not affordable. From the buttons, stitching on pockets to the selvedge and belt loop, it is quality.鈥

Magu Studios wants to have a lasting effect on 两性色午夜 and Northeast Ohio. Kupiec says it was important to him that the brand not go straight to Los Angeles or New York City because, he thought, that would be the easy way to make it in the industry.

鈥淐leveland is on the come up, but not a lot of fashion brands come out of Northeast Ohio,鈥 Kupiec says. 鈥淲e want to take advantage of that and not forget where we came from. We want 两性色午夜 and Cleveland to be a part of the legacy for our brand.鈥

Magu Studios has many plans for the future and is not going to limit products to jeans.

鈥淜eep an eye out for us,鈥 Kupiec says. 鈥淲e are going to do a lot of interesting stuff. We want to collaborate with people in any industry we see fit to promote hemp textiles and our business concept.鈥

POSTED: Thursday, February 9, 2017 12:53 PM
Updated: Thursday, December 8, 2022 08:48 PM
WRITTEN BY:
Holly Disch

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