MU students run online, eco-friendly clothing store

Most college seniors take it easy in their final semester, but University of Missouri students Jack Short and Daniel Lyons are running an online, eco-friendly clothing business while maintaining nearly perfect grades and preparing for medical school.

Short and Lyons, from Kansas City, have been best friends since childhood. Although the two have always been interested in protecting the environment, the idea for FactoryGreen.com arose when the two studied abroad in Europe separately in 2007 and noticed the genuine commitment there to a green lifestyle.

Upon returning to the states, their ideas percolated. In July 2007, FactoryGreen.com was born during a 1 a.m. phone call. Short and Lyons began brainstorming and soon had created a business plan, pitched their idea to Kansas City-based investors and secured start-up capital.

“So much of starting this business was sweat equity,” Lyons said. “We went to the library and hit the books on business, marketing and economics. And then we found the right people, took a great idea and a solid business plan and sold the hell out of ourselves.”

FactoryGreen.com, which officially launched in April 2008, focuses on eco-friendly clothing, accessories and apartment wares. Short and Lyons wanted to tap into the college market, creating products that had widespread appeal.

“We partner with wind- and solar-powered factories in India that operate under fair-trade agreements,” Short explained. “We strive to offer carbon-neutral products, which have 90 percent less emission than the average T-shirt. The only carbon emissions involved in our products are transport related.”

To round out the FactoryGreen.com team, Short and Lyons sought out the creative talents of several MU students in schools throughout the campus. From Web design to photography, modeling, writing and public relations, the day-to-day operations of the business are run by students.

“We look for students who are superbly talented and exceptional,” Lyons said. “They work as independent contractors and help the business to continually grow. Everyone who works for FactoryGreen.com is under 23-except our lawyers.”

Jake Hammel, a junior textile and apparel management major, is the creative director and oversees activities like T-shirt design, Web site layout and photography.

With the company since the beginning, he sings the praises of its products. “These aren’t just clothes,” he said. “They are clothes with a message that advocate a social cause.”

In addition to promoting a positive message of green living, Short and Lyons have worked hard to establish a global Web presence. The company brings in about 100 orders a week, many of which come from outside the U.S. Canada, the Netherlands and even some African countries are on the list.

The young entrepreneurs have employed a targeted marketing scheme that uses resources such as Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn and environmentally conscious Web sites and blogs such as TreeHugger.com. In February, the two plan to travel to Las Vegas to promote their products as part of the Magic Tradeshow, the largest convention for wholesale and retail clothing in the country.

For the Web site, Short and Lyons wanted to find a balance between artistic and practical functions, creating a visually pleasing product with flash elements, bright colors, easy navigation and interactivity.

“This is really people’s first look at our company and our products,” Short said. “We want them to be interested and be able to successfully sell our cause.”

To take the site from concept to reality, Jonathan Harrison, a business major at MU, works as the company’s webmaster and lead designer. With six years of commercial Web design experience, Harrison provides practical and technical expertise along with creative elements.

“I strive to involve myself with not-for-profit organizations and eco-friendly endeavors like this one,” Harrison said. “Projects that have a real social consciousness.”

FactoryGreen.com’s T-shirts are its biggest seller. MU art and design students have created more than 30 designs, and the company also offers custom printing. Offline, the shirts are sold at the University of Missouri Bookstore and the University of Ottawa. They bear slogans such as “Solar is sexy” and “Go organic.”

Although $20 to $26 per shirt might seem steep, the pricing helps the company compete with mass produced, traditional T-shirts in foreign factories.

Similar eco-friendly products can sell for between $60 to $100 at trendy boutiques and national, luxury department store chains, so the partners don’t think their prices are that much of a leap.

“You can buy a regular shirt for around $18 at the Gap or an outrageously expensive eco-friendly version at a high-end store for upwards of $60,” Short said. “Or you can have the best of both worlds and wear eco-friendly for a fraction of the cost.”

A percentage of each sale is also donated to “Water for Life,” a global United Nations foundation dedicated to bringing clean water to the more than one billion people in the world without potable water.

In the future, Short and Lyons hope to expand their company. But more than anything, they want to see people make environmentally conscious changes in their lives.

“Because of how this sort of product has been marketed in the past, many people have felt excluded in the younger demographic,” Lyons said. “Now we want to see our product promote a change in lifestyle and help people to realize that changes, even if they are small, are valuable and worthwhile. Ride a bike, recycle, use fluorescent lighting – there are so many things.”