Class Year: 2016
Major: Markets, Innovation & Design
Hometown: Trabuco Canyon, CA
Emily Nowlin is a senior Markets, Innovation and Deign major with a focus on Graphic Design. On campus, she is involved with Young Life, and is a member of Delta Gamma Sorority. When she is not working or meeting with a group project, Emily enjoys exploring the outdoors, drinking lots of coffee, and the Terrace Room.
1. Tell us a little bit about Uscape Apparel.Uscape Apparel is a collegiate apparel company that aims to evoke the pride that students, alumni and fans feel for their school by showcasing iconic school buildings against a sky of cascading school colors. My brother Alex (Class of 2014) co-founded Uscape while at Bucknell in 2013. Our products are currently sold in over 70 college bookstores across the country.
2. What inspired Uscape Apparel?Alex was the CEO of his Management 101 company, when his company’s Bucknell skyline design sold out in a record two hours. After repping his MGMT 101 product, Alex received multiple inquiries from students at other universities who wanted to see a similar design come to their school. With his entrepreneurial mindset, Alex saw this as an opportunity, and came to me about helping him with the designs and branding of the company. Uscape launched in the fall of 2013, and the rest has been history. We are proving that design and fashion matter for college apparel, and are challenging the industry standards, which don’t agree with us.
3. What is the most rewarding part of co-owning a business? The most challenging?It has been rewarding to see our hard work manifest itself in a business, and I can’t believe how far we’ve come since we’ve started. It has been awesome working along side of my brother, as we both bring different strengths to the business and have gotten so much closer through the process. We are able to lean on each other to be the best that we can be, and our strong partnership has been crucial to the success of Uscape. Sometimes, it’s challenging to see the bigger picture. I think when we first started, we had no idea where we would be today. In the beginning stages of our business, it was easy to ask ourselves, “Why are we doing this?” It was hard in the beginning, and it still is, however for me, the reward will always outweigh any obstacles.
4. What is your favorite Uscape design?I feel like I need to say the Bucknell design because that’s the original, and the original is always the best! But, I will always remember when we got an order from Miami of Ohio. That’s when I got really excited about Uscape being a real business, and I think it was a huge turning point for us.
5. Where will Uscape be in five years? In ten?
We hope to be sold in Barnes and Nobel, Follett, and independent bookstores across the country in 5 years. It would be awesome to see people Repping Their Skylines all over! In ten years we hope to be known as one of the top fashion collegiate apparel companies and employ dozens of other ambitious people like ourselves who share a passion for the college experience and college marketplace.
Fast Facts:
1. #1 Thing on your Bucknell bucket list: Get onto the Academic West roof
2. Favorite spot on campus: The booths at Seventh Street
3. Little known fact: I used to cry when my mom parked in the 15 minute-or-less zone if I thought she would be there longer than 15 minutes.