Student venture guest post
By Heather Holm ’25 and Dylan Shi ’24
Freshman Thirteen is a venture designing trendy and youthful apparel that is specific to the Colgate and Hamilton village experience.
After attending last year’s Thought Into Action showcase, we were intrigued by the TIA program and started considering what idea we might be interested in developing into a business through the program. When reflecting on our shared passion for clothing and finding new places to shop, we realized that neither of us wore much school-branded merchandise since it doesn’t match our personal styles. We decided to create a business that would offer Colgate-specific attire that we would actually want to wear.
Straying From the Norm
We wanted to create a line of products that are specific to Colgate but more subtle and nuanced than standard branded merchandise. The name “Freshman Thirteen” represents the ironic flair of our brand. Our design process begins with us using our sense of humor to think of a slogan that would ring true to any member of the Colgate community, turning this into a graphic, then printing it on an item of clothing.
Confronting Challenges
Though ideas came to us very quickly, the execution proved more complicated. Many vendors producing custom apparel had minimum order requirements far beyond what we were hoping to purchase in the early stages of our venture. The first few months involved a lot of research and negotiation to find the perfect balance between quality and affordability within our seed grant funding.
Eventually, we began working with a company based in Los Angeles — Heather’s hometown — that was able to supply us with high-quality, American-made garments by Los Angeles Apparel (formerly American Apparel).
A Promising Beginning
After receiving the first batch of our inaugural women’s tees over winter break, we officially launched in February 2023 by creating a website and doing outreach on Instagram.
Through a combination of e-commerce, word of mouth, and a physical presence at the Hami-Down sale, we were able to sell 16 shirts within one month, grossing $560.
Even though the tees were designed with a female audience in mind, the warm reception we’ve received from peers and TIA mentors has emphasized the importance of expanding the range of our products in order to accommodate all customers interested in our brand. Currently, we are working on marketing for our newly produced hats, reading “Where in the world is Hamilton, New York?”
Developing Our Initiative
Moving forward, we hope to finalize more graphics, expand into more types of clothing, and increase awareness of our brand within Colgate’s campus, village, and alumni communities. We are extremely grateful to the mentors who volunteer their time to TIA, the program staff, and the benefactors that provided access to the capital needed to achieve our vision. We would love for you to follow @freshmanthirteen on Instagram to keep up with our journey, and visit FreshmanThirteen.com to browse our current products.
Contact Information:
Heather Holm ’25 – Director of Order Fulfillment – hholm@colgate.edu
Dylan Shi ’24 – Director of Finances – dshi@colgate.edu
Freshman Thirteen is a participating venture in the TIA Incubator.