Self expression is a basic human need and desire. All of us want to be recognized in our own way. We show it through how we talk, how we look, and what we create. This was the truth recognized by Mic Yu and Sharraine Murayama when they created FEF clothing. Fresh outtacollege with bright ideas, these two and a team of others brought to life their dream of starting their own fashion line. They possessed a passion for music festivals and apparel, which is what anyone who wanted to start a rave clothing brand needed. However, they learned the hard way that it wasn’t ALL they needed. They had a the followers and the support of their friends and family but upon launch, there was an immediate struggle in pushing sales and making quota. Eventually, their other partners left the business and FEF, just like the musical festival scene in the country, died out. With that failure, Yu and Murayama gave up on their dream forever.
That’s what happened in an alternate universe. In this universe, however, they mourned their first endeavour but their grit would not let the dream lay to rest.
They both knew that setbacks were part of the process but only if you learned from them. Starting from scratch is always a heavy blow to anyone and they were no exception. It would be a lie to say that they didn’t consider following the corporate road but that would mean killing what they knew they were at heart - entrepreneurs. From their first venture they learned a multitude of lessons that we are more than willing to share with you.
Lesson number one: Be an active dreamer. To do this, you gotta get people to believe in your goal as much as you do. That means being your own biggest hype man. The first real test of any entrepreneur is acquiring capital and investors can tell how confident you are with THEIR money.
Everyone thinks that owning a company is all about taking vacations and barking orders. For the second lesson you need to know that when you run a business it’s the needs of your investors, your employees, and your customers that come first. When your job is to steer everyone in the right direction, every mistake becomes your fault. So know your objective and don’t half-a**the process because everyone is riding on you.
The third lesson you should know is that if you want to start a clothing line, do NOT do it with money as the goal. Not to say that you ain’tgonna get that bread in this industry but making clothes just for the cash is a young man’s game. Like reselling shoes, you won’t be making an impact or finding any fulfilment. If all you want to do is get rich, there are easier ways to earn that require much less capital and struggle.
That leads us to lesson four. The biggest struggle of a clothing line, or any business for that matter, is finding an edge. The local fashion industry is indeed growing but we are still miles behind the rest of the world. We need to do more than play copycat with the established names but all local clothing lines know that we are limited by the supply of fabrics. Yu knew this and he found an opportunity for innovation. By contacting and partnering with a knitting mill, they created a fabric blend exclusive to Skoop. But that’s not enough to stand out among the hundreds of competitors. Every brand needs to stand for something..
Skoop was founded on the idea of creating the Kommunity and telling a stories through design. The protagonist of each story is you, the wearer. You’re more than who you are today but you need to Skoopout the part of you that’s meant for greatness and work on it. Murayama and Yu are who they are now because they failed and they learned. Skoop has taken many steps back and even more steps forward. But it’s not yet where it needs to be and that goes the same for each and every one of our patrons. Remember, no matter how much you struggle, failure is only the end when you decide to give up.
-Team Skoop
