Four of Kent State’s entrepreneurship

students are giving makeovers

to people on campus with a new personalized,

professional style, starting

with President Lester Lefton and

Robert “Yank” Heisler, dean of the

College of Business Administration.

“It star ts with the customer

because it truly is a customized

process,” said Shannon Gallagher,

a business partner for Get-In-Vestments,

a new customized clothing

business. “We are offering a one-ofa-

kind customized product made just

for you at an affordable price.”

Get-In-Vestments, which started

last semester in partnership with a

manufacturing firm in China, customizes

professional attire like suits,

pants, shirts and blazers.

“Alex and I came up with the business

idea because his father has his own

manufacturing firm in Shanghai, China,”

said Nathan Rango, co-founder of

Get-In-Vestments. “It just started out as

an idea in our intro to entrepreneurship

class, but we were getting such great

feedback from our professors that we

decided to turn it into our student-run

business for the major.”

The Get-In-Vestments team is

made up of co-founders Rango and

Alex Neal, fashion expert Shannon

Gallagher and overall operations

manager Kyle Hughes.

“Everyone has really stepped

into their own and we work so well

together,” Rango said. “If there is a

problem we communicate it and that

is one of the big things about running

a business, is the partnership.”

The team plans to premiere one of

the first orders they have received, a

classic blue blazer with Kent State’s

logo and embroidery of the College

of Business Administration, to Lefton

and Heisler this week.

“We had just finished up measuring

the dean for his blazer when we

found out we had 10 minutes to meet

with President Lefton,” Gallagher

said. “We were in our suits and ties

and we literally sprinted to the second

floor of the library to measure

him up.”

The students described their experience

talking to Lefton and sitting in

his office around a huge conference

table right next to his picture with

President Obama.

“I think the biggest thing to us is

not measuring President Lefton, but

being a student here at Kent State,

you always feel that you are just a

number or you will never get the

time of day,” Gallagher said. “But

the president and the dean support

us and took the time to meet and talk

with us about our business and what

direction we are going to take it in

the future.”

The students were excited to find

that both Heisler and Lefton took an

interest in their business and wanted

to help.

“There really is no other way

you can support a business like this

except buying a blazer,” Hughes

said. “We were actually going to try

to give the dean and president a discount,

but they wanted us to charge

a price where we could make a profit

off of them to help get our business

off the ground.”

Get-In-Vestments charges $135 for

a standard customized blazer and $35

for a shirt. The pricing is an advantage

for the business, even though the team

is finding that people are willing to

pay more for a customized product.

“When I go to Express, I can maybe

find a couple things I can fit into and

I’m paying $200 for a blazer and $50

for a shirt that’s not even fitted,” Rango

said. “We are offering a customized

product as we are beating the standardized

product through pricing.”

The business originally started

because the students saw a need for

clothing that fits people the right way.

Get-In-Vestments is not a clothing store

and they are different from a retailer

because they are making a product specifically

for each of their clients.

“There are so many different body

types out there, for example, you

have two similar-looking guys who

both wear mediums, but are completely

different.” Gallagher said.

“This is an opportunity to address

all the different people that haven’t

purchased clothing that they like or

are comfortable in.”

Their target market is not only

deans and presidents, but they want

to appeal to the students at Kent

State. Get-In-Vestments gets most of

its orders from alumni, students and

fraternities.

“Alex and I are in Sigma Nu, and

other fraternities notice our blazers,

they want them. And from a business

standpoint, we want to give them the

option to buy our product,” Rango

said. “The Greek community gives

us an entire network of options.”

After the blazers come in, the team

hopes to get more orders from other

deans, professors and students.

“Right now, we need to make sure

these orders are exactly how we specified

them and that we get them here

as quick as we can, but we also need

to have confidence in our process

and in our business,” Hughes said.

“We are going to be really proud and

excited when we see people like the

dean and the president wearing one

of our blazers.”

The students feel they have come

a long way from being students with

an idea to actually running their own

business that will hopefully grow

over time.

“We are just getting started and we

are going to keep doing this,” Hughes

said. “We have really good leads with

President Lefton and Dean Heisler,

and we just want to keep feeding off

of each of our successes.”

Contact College of Business

Administration reporter Kelly Maile

at [email protected].