“If you look close to downtown, you can see Apple and lululemon. They’re each large and thriving firms, so there’s a thing there with fruit names,” joked Athena Wang, a UCSB college student and the founder/designer of Watermelon Clothing, when I asked how she arrived up with the name for her model. “Watermelons are also a fruit, and I’m pretty superstitious, so I hope there is some truth there.”
Watermelon Clothing is Wang’s apparel brand name, which options sweet and cozy clothing like oversized T-shirts and crewneck sweatshirts. Final spring, Wang was taking care of her possess online shop when inspiration struck as her thoughts wandered throughout an accounting class. “We were being speaking about small business,” she said, “and I just assumed, ‘Well I have a small business. It would be awesome if I could do it in particular person.’”
Wang has a strong entrepreneurial spirit which she characteristics to her father, who is the inspiration powering the title of the brand. Her father, who now operates his possess know-how incubator, grew up in rural China and worked as a watermelon salesman. His family was quite very poor and typically had issues getting adequate food to eat. He would increase ahead of the sunlight each day for yrs to promote watermelons at the industry.
“I named it Watermelon Attire to be a constant reminder of the function it took for my relatives to move from the rural side of China to the funds city of China, and then from China to The us and California, which is awesome,” Wang told me. She seems up to her father and admires his achievement and dedication and tries to emulate that for herself and her local community.
Correct right after that accounting class, Wang commenced wanting into momentary leases for commercial areas. She contacted a handful of actual estate agents, selected areas to check out, and then set out to locate the fantastic pop-up place.
Just after touring her alternatives and signing a deal at the conclude of June, her next task was making ready the shop for its July 17 opening. Wang hired a small team of females to help her, a person of whom convinced her to start posting TikToks as a type of internet marketing for her brand name.
The thought worked. I truly found Watermelon Clothing on TikTok when a put up that has since amassed 1.6 million sights with virtually 200k likes confirmed up on my “For You” site. The description in the online video claims, “when 5 higher education learners are authorized to open and run an total apparel retail store,” and exhibits Wang and crew painting the walls, assembling mannequins, and preparing the 3,000-sq.-foot location for its initially consumers.
Supposed to be sizing and body inclusive, Watermelon Apparel has taken to submitting films of how their outfits fits on types of various heights and overall body designs. Wang also has programs to develop the sorts of outfits they supply with their subsequent fall.
Watermelon Attire is only open up until September 17, so make positive to quit by and test it out at Paseo Nuevo ahead of it is gone.
Visit watermelon-apparel.com.