Students Create Clothing Brand that Shows Passion For Ohio
By: Reagan McCurley
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ATHENS, Ohio —Outline Ohio is the new clothing brand on campus that has students buzzing. It’s simply an outline of the state of Ohio printed on hoodies, t-shirts, hats and sweatpants. Christopher Scott, Ohio University senior and CEO of Outline Ohio, is one of the students who runs the brand. He said the goal of Outline Ohio is to unite people together with the love they share for the state.
“You might be an outsider, you might be an athlete, you might study a lot, you might go out a lot,” Scott said. “But, this is a company that can bring people together – so that’s kind of why I started it.”
The idea for Outline Ohio originally came from his close friend, Adam Stephens, during last school year. Stephens sold the company to Scott this September, who then launched Outline Ohio on the web, Instagram, and Twitter. Scott says word of the brand got out quickly, and students were eager to see what the hype was about.
“You have to focus in on brand identity, there’s so many key components to it, and one of the biggest is word of mouth,” Scott said. “The first day we launched our website, we hit a thousand in sales. We were like, okay we have something special here.”
Outline Ohio is operates solely in Athens, Ohio. However, purchases have been made throughout the state, and even a few out of state. Except the actual printing, Scott and his crew are in charge of the design, packaging, and shipping, which is all done outside of Scott’s apartment. Scott is also in charge of pricing the clothing to make it affordable for college students.
“College students are so happy, we’re so young, so motivated. A twenty -ive, thirty-dollar hoodie is not going to affect us as if we’re like 22 or 23, life is starting to hit us, we’ve got bills and stuff like that,” he said.
He eventually wants to expand Outline Ohio to other schools in the state. He’d like to have a few ambassadors at each school, and eventually open up a store.
“As far as successes, it’s all about the people because if I could just impact somebody, impact another person’s life in a positive way, I think that’s the most important,” Scott said.
His experience with running the company has been positive for the most part, but he still deals with obstacles – a few weeks ago, the printing company sent him 140 of the wrong sweatshirts.
“When something goes wrong, I just realize you might as well communicate and just hit it head first,” he said. “A lot of people will be patient with me since we’re just starting off.”
Scott plans on running Outline Ohio after he graduates, even with a job at a bank. He said he would eventually like to make running the company his full-time job.
“If there are people that’re successful and on top, they once did the dirty work, too,” Scott said. “I can go to work for eight hours a day and then come home and put at least two hours into Outline Ohio everyday.”
