Small businesses can start anywhere and sell just about anything, even sweatshirts. Two University alumni did just that in an apartment on Brightside Drive.
Mason Dupré and Natalie John were visiting Nantucket, Massachusetts, last summer when they happened upon a popular fabric in the area, sparking the idea for their clothing company, Woolly Threads.
John fell in love with the traditional Nantucket fleece and said she could see women in sororities wearing the garment around campus. Dupré wasted no time putting the idea into action and set out to adapt the thicker northern fleece to a more southern climate.
“We knew that if we were going to sell to LSU, people don’t own trench coats, they don’t own big coats or anything too thick,” Dupré said. “We kind of had to dial down the fabric somewhat and create something that could please the masses and be practical across the South.”
Dupré and John started their business close to home with John’s sorority, Kappa Delta, and a couple of other Greek connections within Chi Omega and Delta Delta Delta.
Dupré said John sometimes didn’t take his idea seriously, but he didn’t give up searching for a way to bring the American-made sweatshirt to life. It took several months and more than 150 emails to track down fabric and clothing manufacturers. All the duo needed was a monetary investment to bring the company to life.
“I always knew that I wanted to go into some type of entrepreneurial business, but never in my wildest imagination did I think it would be sorority sweatshirts,” Dupré said.
Dupré and John chose not to mention their business venture to anyone for the first 3 1/2 months because they weren’t sure what to expect and wanted to avoid unnecessary negativity.
Fortunately, Woolly Threads was an overnight success. The company made its first delivery during the first week of December. Dupré and John haven’t looked back since.
“I’ve tripled my initial investment in the company from sales,” Dupré said. “We went from a three-sorority business at LSU to now, I would say, probably over 20 to 25 schools in 12 to 15 states.”
However, the company didn’t reach that many campuses without marketing. Dupré invested $100 in Facebook’s boost program, which allows users to promote a specific post to a target audience, in an effort to engage approximately 3,000 to 5,000 users.
John said she was out shopping when she began receiving an abundance of form request emails from sorority T-shirt chairpersons looking to open an order.
“I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, what did I just do?’” Dupré said. “At this point, we’re still working out of my apartment. There’s many nights where my feet would hit the floor at 6 a.m., and I wouldn’t go to bed until 2:30 a.m. because I’d be printing sweatshirts.”
Because Woolly Threads is a relatively new business, Dupré took on the physical task of printing a majority of the sweatshirts. The company is bringing on a few extra hands to keep all aspects of the business running smoothly, including timely delivery.
John, who was used to waiting for sorority T-shirts orders in college, said a lot of other companies don’t focus on efficiency.
“You don’t even remember what you ordered or what you didn’t order,” John said. “We try to get [the shirts] in within a week or two of closing, so you actually know what you ordered.”
Dupré and John have managed to stay on top of their business, even fulfilling an order for Mississippi State in just five days, while also focusing on jobs and school.
They consider Woolly Threads a side job because Dupré works at a lobbying firm while John is a graduate student in psychology at Southeastern Louisiana University.
Dupré said they plan to switch their business to wholesale and let different shops handle the retail aspect of Woolly Threads, while it focuses on inventory and distribution.
“It’s way less hassle on us,” Dupré said. “There’s so many companies out there that are good at what they do. They’ve been doing the retail side and have roots on campuses, and they’ve been doing that for years. Essentially, we’ll be able to sell blanks to them, and it’ll be on every campus in the country.”
Dupré and John are in the process of moving their business into a warehouse on Siegen Lane and are looking to add more variety to their products with new colors and different styles of outerwear. They said they have some ideas for a summer collection.
“We felt for so long that Greek products are just traditional,” Dupré said. “And we think it’s possible to be both traditional and trendy at the same time. I feel like that resonates really well with the Greek community.”
You can reach Greta Jines on Twitter @TheGretaJines.

Gallery • 5 Photos

Ronni Bourgeois

LSU alumni Mason Dupre and Natalie John on Feb. 13, 2014, hold sweatshirts from their newly started sweatshirt company, Wooly Threads, which makes clothing for the Greek community.