Let’s be honest here for a minute… the apparel at the Bookstore is not so cute. The designs are boring, the fit is unflattering, and it’s overpriced. Luckily Noah Berman and Ethan Levy realized that the lack of cool Deis apparel was problem and found a solution. Behold FreshMan Apparel. You know those funny tanks that you have probably spotted them and others wearing that say “Judges Get Hammered?” They created them! Wondering where they got the inspiration for the tank and how you can score a special deal on one? Read on!
What is “FreshMan Apparel?”
FreshMan Apparel is a clothing line started by Noah Berman and Ethan Levy. Our goal for starting the company was to bring clothing with fun designs to Brandeis.
Why did you decide to create the t-shirt business and how did you choose your company name?
Ethan: Aside from the dated Brandeis Football shirt you can buy at the bookstore, there really is not any cool apparel for Brandeis students to purchase and wear. We decided that this was a big problem that needed to be fixed, which is why FreshMan apparel was born. Our company is called FreshMan Apparel (no disrespect to the ladies). The name is yet another fun play on words. Originally, we didn’t really have plans to make this a business. We came up with the fun design and got a group of 10 friends together because we all agreed it would be a fun tank top to own. Once everyone started wearing them around campus, there was a lot of buzz and people started asking where they could buy them. Noah and I then did our first tank top order at the end of the fall semester in 2012.
How did you come up with the idea for the first shirt?
Noah: I got the idea for Judges get Hammered from a shirt that Stanford University makes that says Party with Trees (One of Stanford’s mascots is a tree, and, well, feel free to make the other connection on your own). I told my friend Ethan about it and we started brainstorming ideas for a fun shirt/tank top that students could wear in order to bring more of a party atmosphere to Brandeis. We wanted a shirt that had the same fun wording as Party with Trees but made specifically for Brandeis. From that stemmed the slogan Judges get Hammered, which we started last year. Its a well known fact that Brandeis doesn’t really have a party scene, and obviously a tank top won’t change that, but when people go out they wear their fun tank top it kind of spices things up in a way. Whenever we are out and about on campus and we see people wearing our tank tops it’s a pretty satisfying feeling. We see them all over the place: at parties, in the library, or just on a random passerby. People really seem to like them and that’s what makes it all worth it.
Where can people buy the tanks and how much do they cost?
Noah: People can contact either me or Ethan Levy through Facebook to order either the Judges get Hammered or the Vanilla Deis design. The tanks come in sizes small to XXL and cost $25 for one, $45 for two (either two of one design, or one of each design) and $20 per shirt for orders of 5 or more. However for one week starting today if you like Judges Get Hammered and Her Campus Brandeis on Facebook, you can get a tank for $23, which is an awesome deal that won’t last long so make sure to take advantage of it now!
What other “slogans” have you come up with to put on t-shirts?
We just released our second design called Vanilla Deis and have some other ideas in the pipeline. To stay up to date with all of our new designs, deals, and deadlines, make sure to like our Facebook page.
Have a Deis day,
Noah and Ethan