If only we all could experience life-changing inspiration after eating at the Pit… For Wake Forest juniors Tim Collis and Tom Worcester, this is how it all started – a business coalition rooted in friendship, the courage to stray from the typical path of success, and the inception of the sorority shoelace.
*Photo courtesy of Tom Worcester
Adorning one’s already-decorated sorority Chucks with yet another element of customization is just another example of Wake’s drive to go above and beyond the practical in order to achieve the highest standards of self. The best part about it all is the company’s own Wake Forest roots: As a product of Wake’s entrepreneurial culture, extensive support network, and forward-thinking student body, Loopey Laces launched itself as a business on January 8, 2016. In only the first two weeks, hundreds of laces were sold, with bulk orders in high demand that will eventually increase their sales into the thousands.
It all began two semesters ago, when Collis had the idea of making socks that could be worn with Sperry Topsiders. He teamed up with Worcester and a handful of their fraternity brothers, with the aim of starting their own sock company. However, due to there being too many eyes on the project, and perhaps the lackluster of socks themselves, the initial idea failed, leading Collis and Worcester to break away from the team and form a smaller, two-man partnership. They stayed within the footwear realm, but decided to expand their focus to include the sorority market, drawing inspiration from an Australian entrepreneur who had launched a successful startup selling shoelaces specifically for Nike apparel.
“You wouldn’t think it, but it actually kind of is a revolutionary idea in that the blank canvas of the shoelace, which many people overlook, is something that we set out to fill. And so, as a result, we’re literally bringing the ultimate level of customization to the final frontier – the shoelace,” said Worcester, who’s role within the partnership largely shifts between charismatic spokesperson and creative designer.
Their biggest inspiration, however, comes from a subset of Wake culture: a Greek-heavy social scene saturated with the high self-expectations of upper-middle class affluence. Every Wake Forest sorority girl owns at least one pair of Chuck Taylors, decorated in her sorority letters and worn with pride as a literal representation of her affiliation and identity. If customizable shoelaces were to be popularized anywhere, it would be Wake Forest, where students strive for perfection, down to the very last aglet.
“We looked around and saw how sorority girls would wear Chuck Taylors, all decorated, as literally the physical representation of their identity. Whether it was the colors, whether it was the styling or the unique look of it all put together, it was something that represented the identity of the sorority, and we thought that was a captivating element. So we applied shoelaces to that, put lettered patterns on the actual laces, and that was the inception of the idea – on September 1, on a walk back from a routine Pit dinner,” explained Worcester.
For the next five months, Collis and Worcester spent countless hours turning their idea into a self-functioning and profitable business. From attaining rights acquisitions and paying licensing fees to finding manufacturers that were up to their quality standards, they were determined to succeed. Together, they made the ultimate duo, both professional beyond their years and passionate in their work, but each posing a striking contrast to the other: Collis, with a rugged thoughtfulness about him, and Worcester, with his magnetizing presence.
“We wanted a higher-quality product, so we decided to do all our manufacturing in Hickory, North Carolina, which is conveniently located a little over an hour from the Wake Forest University campus. The laces are all American-made, so it’s instantly higher quality,” explained Collis, who is heavily involved in the business side of the company. He also noted how the licensing process was not one to be taken lightly, as it involved serious matters of legality. Loopey Laces not only had to acquire permission from the University to sell the shoelaces on campus, but they had to obtain national approval from Wake’s social sororities in order to include the Greek letters on their merchandise. “We had to send all our shoelaces out to sorority organizations, and they had to approve them, because they knew we were putting their letters on them,” stated Collis.
Worcester, in addition to helping Collis manage the company’s business affairs, is in charge of designing the shoelaces. He pointed out that the artistic process is far more complicated than simply knowing the ins-and-outs of graphic design. In order to turn a two-dimensional image into a three-dimensional product, designers must understand the process of vectoring. “Vectoring is essentially a preliminary art proof that allows the manufacturer to move different parts of the design around without compromising what the design looks like,” Worcester detailed. He provided an analogy for the vector process: “Imagine we have a normal sheet of paper, right? I draw a circle on it, give you the sheet of paper, and I say, ‘Take the circle.’ You’ve got a sheet of paper in your hands. You can’t take that circle unless you have scissors. Whereas, vectoring is something that literally allows you to take that circle off [the page].” In the end, the guys decided to employ Wake Forest senior and student artist Ryann Oakley to assist them in this complicated process.
While their own hard work and determination was essential in launching Loopey Laces, Collis and Worcester both agree it wouldn’t have been possible without the incredible efforts and outside help of many individual people. Aside from senior Ryann Oakley, Loopey Laces also has Wake’s extensive alumni network, faculty, and, of course, University sponsored funding to thank for its success. The company received its initial funding from the Farr Fund Grant, which is given out by the Wake Forest University Entrepreneurial Program. Additionally, both Collis and Worcester fund the business out-of-pocket.
They also give much credit to their faculty advisor, Michelle Steward, who teaches as a marketing professor in the Wake Forest School of Business. Steward acted as a great resource for the team when it came to creating pitches on products and manufacturing. Polly Black, who serves as the head of Wake Forest’s Entrepreneurship Department, was also instrumental in helping the company lay its groundwork. At Wake, Black runs an individual study program for students looking to learn the ins-and-outs of launching and managing a start-up business. Many student entrepreneurs have Black’s program to thank for their success, including Swizzler. “She outlines what needs to be done weekly with this business, how we’re going to scale the business, [and] how we’re going to legally protect it. She helps us do the best in our current situation and grow our company in the fastest way possible,” Collis remarked.
Furthermore, the opportunity to network with Wake Forest alumni was another invaluable resource for the young entrepreneurs. “We’ve met an extensive network of people through the Center for Innovation; we got to sit down with CEOs, entrepreneurs, and heads of marketing firms, who all gave us amazing, amazing ideas,” Worcester said.
The guys also cited the support of family and friends as a critical component to their success. Collis’s own father, a self-styled entrepreneur, serves as a trusted source of guidance for his son’s company. In addition, the team appointed Worcester’s lifelong family friend, Gabby Greig, also a Kappa at SMU, as the brand’s Social Media Director.
*Photo courtesy of the Loopey Laces Facebook page
With the company currently revolving around Greek life and the sorority market, the guys are frequently asked whether they ever plan on saturating other markets. The good news is – they definitely do. Loopey Laces has plans to expand its line to include a Game Day collection, as well as an everyday Walkaround collection consisting of different patterned laces. “We have a lot of different customers come up and give us advice,” explained Collis. “One kid had bought a pair with the girl he was with, walks away from the booth, goes 100 feet, turns back around, walks back to the booth, and says, ‘Hey, you guys should really do fraternity-lettered croakies.’ Whether or not fraternity guys wear shoelaces, who knows? But croakies are definitely a more viable fashion accessory [for the fraternity market].”
Moreover, with Chuck Taylors being exclusive to the Wake Forest culture, one could wonder the level of success Loopey Laces would achieve outside of the Wake bubble. Worcester addressed this issue without worry, stating, “A lot of people have the concern that other schools don’t have the exact same Wake Forest culture – with the Chuck Taylors and the decorating. But at the same time, we’re getting orders from all over the country, and that’s the result of an interesting product. It doesn’t matter if you have running shoes. It doesn’t matter if you have normal Converse low tops. It’s still an element of customization that wasn’t there before, and that’s the draw. That’s the true appeal.”
As a plan to further expand their network and product reach, Collis and Worcester have also organized a brand ambassador program that extends to different colleges nationwide. The program currently has ambassadors at SMU, Maryland, UVA, WVU, and the University of Richmond, with the hopes of expanding to the University of Southern California, UCLA, Alabama, Oregon, and a dance marathon at Penn State known as THON. In addition, the guys will be attending the Kappa Kappa Gamma convention in San Diego this coming summer.
*Photo courtesy of the Loopey Laces Facebook page
It is truly amazing what you can do with a bit of creativity, a lot of hard work, and enough willpower. As Worcester stressed, “There was no class that said how to start a shoelace company. There was no class that said how to run an LLC from start to finish. The internet is an amazing resource nowadays…and the take-away here is – resourcefulness trumps all. So if you have a goal, and you’re fastidious in that approach, then more likely than not you’re going to be able to overcome the challenges along the way.”
Worcester, who wishes students could see that you don’t always have to follow a linear path to achieve success, also recognized the constant battle between risk and regret, asserting, “If you truly want something, and you don’t take the risk to go after it, you will regret that decision for the rest of your life. And that’s not something that anyone should ever want to carry around. So, pursue your dreams, because at the end of the day, there’s going to be something that teaches you more than a job or class ever could.”
In the end, it is that feeling of accomplishment that gives us purpose as human beings, more than a hefty profit ever could. Collis described how just seeing all their hard work pay off was the greatest reward of all: “The most rewarding part is how much time we put into this in the first semesters – the first five months of the company – and then that day, January 8, cutting open our boxes and finally seeing the product in front of us, seeing the banners Tom designed in front of us, seeing everything accumulate and come to fruition. Just being able to see and sell our products was definitely a reward, in my opinion,” he proclaimed
While it is easy to believe that being in the Business School or choosing a major you might hate is the only way to land a good job after graduation, this simply isn’t true. “Being an entrepreneur doesn’t require you to be in the business school,” Worcester affirmed. “It requires you to have an idea and the wherewithal to follow up on it.” If you have that creativity and determination, there’s really only one other skill you need: problem solving. As finance majors, Collis and Worcester both agree that it is not so much the class material that has prepared them for careers as entrepreneurs, but more so the thought process. “Our teachings and our classes basically give us a very open-ended problem and say, ‘Solve it any way you know how.’ So classes didn’t necessarily teach us how to start a company, but the thought process did, because we learned how to take a challenge and overcome it from a lot of different angles,” Worcester said.
Starting a business, especially during such a trial-and-error time of your life, may seem daunting; however, Collis and Worcester prove that college can be a great time to pursue even your greatest of goals. Plus, while Wake’s competitive environment can feel threatening at times, it doesn’t have to be. You can either choose to let such an environment overwhelm you, or you can allow it to invigorate and inspire you. As Collis pointed out, “Having seen Swizzler and other big companies launch here is definitely always inspiration.”
In fact, the guys like to reference a powerful analogy they learned from Michelle Steward regarding Wake Forest’s competitive culture, especially as it relates to student entrepreneurship: The story begins with a guy chopping logs in the woods. It’s a dark forest, and he needs firewood for the winter. After an hour or two, he’s starting to get very, very tired. His arms are weary, the ax head is about to fall off, and he doesn’t know what he’s going to do. And just as he’s about to hit the breaking point, he hears somebody else, somebody else chopping wood in the forest, and that energizes him to keep going.
“It’s great to use that analogy for student entrepreneurs on campus, because we push each other to be better,” Worcester upheld. “For example, Kurt Walker and Spool pushes us to be better. Lauren Miller with UpDog Kombucha – unbelievable influence – pushes us to be better. It’s that mentality of that work community and how we’re all going for each other’s success that really keeps us going and motivated.”
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*Photo courtesy of the Loopey Laces Facebook page
Loopey Laces are available at the retail value of $10, but are exclusively offered to Wake Forest students at a steep discount, with prices ranging from $6 to $8. To purchase your own pair of Loopey Laces, look for the Loopey Laces table on campus. You can also contact Tim Collis or Tom Worcester via text or at the email addresses below:
In addition, the Loopey Laces e-commerce site will be launching soon.
Also, be sure to follow Loopey Laces on social media: