With over 40,000 followers on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook, Josh Yazdian, a student at Indiana University-Bloomington, has made a name for himself. His clothing company, Yaz Apparel, was developed out of his freshman dorm room while cutting shirts for fun. Now, with an official website and a manufacturer, Yazdian has successfully transformed his hobby into a business.
Josh Yazdian is currently a sophomore studying apparel merchandising at Indiana University-Bloomington and is a brother of the Alpha Epsilon Pi Fraternity. His hobby in designing and cutting shirts began while stumbling upon a pile of old, unwanted clothes. “I had an idea of cutting the sleeves off of one shirt and replacing it with another,” Yazdian stated. After hours of cutting, measuring, and sewing, Yazdian finally created his first t-shirt, and unbeknownst to him, took the first step for Yaz Apparel.
“The way in which I promote myself, my products, and my brand has definitely helped my hobby flourish into a business,” Yazdian stated. He has created eight Instagram accounts, one company website, two Twitter accounts, and one Facebook fan page for Yaz Apparel. The accounts are used to advertise Yaz Apparel and consist of posts with pictures of models wearing the clothing, sale offers, discounts, and upcoming products. The Yaz Apparel accounts constantly gain numerous followers everyday and rapidly earn more and more recognition. “I found out that Instagram was the best way to communicate with my costumers and reach my target audience,” Yazdian said. He also promotes Yaz Apparel by wearing the company’s clothes and selling t-shirts on Kirkwood Avenue in Bloomington, Indiana, every weekend. “It is probably one of the biggest apparel brands on campus,” stated Michael Usdan, a fraternity brother and friend of Josh Yazdian.
“Taking initiative was the major aspect of Yaz Apparel’s current success,” Yazdian stated. The company now has a manufacturer, located in Los Angeles, California, that produces it’s clothing, such as, hoodies, t-shirts, tank tops, hats, shorts, and pants. The spontaneous trip to California that Josh Yazdian and Dong Kim, Yazdian’s business partner and COO of Yaz Apparel, went on this past summer is what made Yaz Apparel what it is today. “By traveling to California, we were able to expand the brand to the west coast, develop the #givingback campaign, find a manufacturer, and make new products,” Kim said. The #givingback campaign states that for every item sold, Yaz Apparel will donate to the homeless in the local Bloomington community. “The fact that my clothing is able to help other people and improve the lives of others was what inspired me to make my hobby into a business,” Yazdian said.
The inspiration behind the brand name and logo came from Yazdian’s friends and family. “Everyone has called me Yaz since I could remember,” he chuckled. So, he developed the name “Yaz Apparel” for the brand and created “ZZ” as the company’s logo. By having his nickname in the brand name, people automatically knew who to associate the clothing with. “Creating the company’s name and logo was the first step I took to transform my hobby into a business,” Yazdian said.
The second step he took to develop his hobby into a business was finding a business partner. “I had a friend, Dong Kim, in my Spanish class last year and I asked him if he would be interested in being my business partner,” Yazdian said. A few days later, Dong was on board and had already developed numerous ideas on how to expand the brand. “I wore one of Josh’s shirts to the bars and received a lot of compliments, which made me realize how much value and success there could be in the company,” Kim stated. Thereby, Kim has become the COO of Yaz Apparel and has been working with Josh Yazdian since 2014. “Josh is the artistic side of the company and deals with updating the website and social media accounts as well as organizing photo shoots, while I am the business side of the company and deal with everything that has to do with numbers,” Kim said.
The process of cutting shirts and transforming them into new pieces of clothing can be easy, yet tedious. “First, you need to measure all the fabric and make sure that there is enough material to work with,” Yazdian said as he measured both t-shirts with a silver measuring stick. “After that, you have to decide what to mix and match from the two shirts, and once decided, identically cut them,” he said while cutting the collars off of the t-shirts. When the measurements and cuttings are made, the sewing process then begins, and once completed, produces a brand new, custom made shirt.
“It is crazy to think that they are just two average college students who had a dream that they wanted and pursued it, and now they are actually getting big,” Usdan said. Yaz Apparel is sold online, in person, and in twelve stories around the nation. When asked about the cost of production and revenue made, both Josh Yazdian and Dong Kim would not answer. But, Kim stated, “The higher quality of product, the more expensive, and the less fabric we have to use, the less expensive.” The hoodies are the most expensive, ranging around thirty dollars, while the t-shirts come second at twenty dollars, and tank tops last at fifteen dollars. The most popular product sold is the American flag tank tops. The least popular product sold is the frocket t-shirt, which is a t-shirt with a front pocket on the chest. Future products that Yaz Apparel will make are undergarments, leggings, and socks, as well as possible collaboration designs with local musicians and Kilroy’s on Kirkwood, a bar located in Bloomington.
Go check it out! http://yazapparel.com
