Repping your school colors just got a bit cheaper, thanks to an innovative FIU undergrad.
Patricia Garcia is on track to become the university’s first graduate of the interdisciplinary engineering program. Her focus on engineering manufacturing coupled with a minor in business management serve as her foundation for creating a solution to an age-old campus challenge plaguing students on a budget.
College Thrifts, Garcia’s entrepreneurial venture, bridges the gap between costly campus apparel and enthusiastic individuals wishing to rep their higher education institutions without breaking the bank. Campus bookstores are notorious for their high prices.
“When you walk into any college bookstore no matter where in the nation, you’ll be sure to spot the $60 crewneck beside the $50 sweatpants and $35 tee,” Garcia says. “With rising costs of tuition, room and board, the average college student cannot afford to pay these high prices in hopes of simply sporting their school's name.”
How it came to be
Garcia says she first recognized the need for affordable college apparel between her internships, conference travels and hackathon trips to notable universities around the country. She wanted to purchase college-branded merchandise of the universities she visited, but steep price tags made it financially impossible.
Garcia soon realized it is a problem for many students. She also noted a general interest among students in upcycling and purchasing gently used apparel. She began looking for a marketplace facilitating the resale of bookstore items, but couldn’t find one. So she made her own.
In 2018, Garcia launched an Instagram page to sell her personal university gear to other students, which quickly took off. Customers soon began requesting inventory options from other universities, too.
Catering to her customers’ interest, Garcia in May relaunched the page to allow others to submit bookstore items for sale. Inventory has since grown to include pieces from Cornell University, George Washington University, Stanford University and Georgetown University, among others. Items range from hoodies and t-shirts to branded sneakers, hats and jeans.
Since the relaunch, Garcia has brokered more than 275 transactions, on each of which she earns a small fee. On some items, purchasers can realize savings of up to $30 while the average discount is around 15 percent of the item’s original price.
Notable validation
Garcia has earned national recognition and, since just the start of the pandemic earlier this year, has won seven competitions for businesses focused on social development with a sustainability capability. Garcia’s titles range from first place pitch winner to national finalist and entrepreneurship fellow.
She explains that being unable to travel for engineering conferences during the pandemic devastated her at first. With her newfound free time, she was forced to turn the situation into a positive and decided to develop her business idea.
“I entered competitions to see if other people also saw the potential to make this idea something big,” Garcia says. “All the awards made me think that if other people saw the potential, then maybe it could become something bigger than myself.”
More than just a sale
Garcia says that a college graduate recently sold a sweatshirt through the College Thrifts platform and put a handwritten note to the purchaser, an incoming freshman, within the package. Garcia says that the seller expressed how monumental her college experience had been and wished the same to the freshman purchaser. This scenario proved to Garcia that her business is centered around more than just exchanges of clothing.
“Feedback from students has shown me the marketplace is going beyond just buying and selling apparel,” Garcia says. “My customers are forming connections over pieces of clothing. The purchaser could have found an ally, a mentor or even a friend through buying with College Thrifts.”
Evolution of the business
Next on the horizon, Garcia wants to transition her business from Instagram to her own independent e-commerce app.
She has been relying on engineering and design-thinking skills taught in her classes at the FIU to create the new platform. With the help of senior design professor Alexandra Strong, Garcia has been learning about user interface design to execute the vision she has for the app and get it to the beta testing phase.
“My end goal for the business is for it to be an app connecting individuals to more inclusive and individualized experiences,” Garcia says. “I’m passionate about creating an inclusive campus experience because not everyone can afford a $60 sweatshirt. In the process, I hope to further the reach of and exposure to my business.”
To students interested in pursuing a business venture, Garcia shares her encouragement and also advice she wishes she heard when she started the process.
“I spent a lot of time trying to become a software engineer and code the app myself,” Garcia says. “I got so frustrated trying to go from zero to 100 in one day and wasted so much time trying to build something I didn’t have the expertise to do. Instead, I should have been fleshing out the idea, determining the purpose of the business and features I’d like it to have. The technical skills and detailed development plans come along in the future, but my advice to students is to create your foundation first.”
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August 01, 2020 at 03:00AM
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Expensive college apparel got you down? An FIU student can fix that - FIU News
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