Indie Clothing Blog

I recently had the chance to interview Rohan Gandhi about his new start-up clothing company Academy Thread. Most of the designs are pretty simple with a solid color and a crest on them, but although simple it works. The shirts look good and I hope to receive a shirt soon too see first hand the quality of the shirts. You can check out the site here and take a look at the shirts in the online store. Check out the interview with Academy Thread below…

When did you start Academy Thread?

I started conceptualizing the idea in December of 07, towards the new year. My band had been in the mid-west recording our debut album for a small indie label, but we had a falling out with them. I was working at an Internet marketing firm, and had to leave that job due to the time off needed to do the album. When I came back, I decided to make good on my ambition of starting a fashionable clothing company.

How many people did it take to start your company? Was the work split evenly or did each person have their own defined role?

It took a whole group! My Father has been an entrepreneur himself, so he helped me with everything financial - how to treat your seed money, how to price, etc. But aside from support from my family, my core group consists of Dawn Calvert, who has been an important part of the whole process, from branding to design, and my friends and bandmates Bob Bates and Dan Teixeira. Each person has tasks and roles they handle, from graphics/web to marketing/branding, to sales and networking.

How much time did it take from the first idea for Academy Thread to putting out your first piece of clothing?

From formulating the idea to actually having the clothing come to fruition, it took about 4 months.

Your designs appear to draw from School and University designs; is this where you got your inspiration from?

Yes, definitely! I’m a New England boarding school kid myself, and I’ve always liked all things prep school - stripes, crests, anything like that.

If so how do you plan to make your designs stand out from what university students wear?

We stand out by combining that kind of regal and classy aesthetic with the kinds of garments and styles we ourselves wear - v-necks, boat-necks, and track jackets are all types of garments we have in our wardrobes.

Everyone hits roadblocks when getting their company off the ground. If there was one thing you could do differently what would it be and how would you do it differently?

I’d watch how I built my marketing plan - the web is a great place to connect with customers, and a great place to sell and promote but you need to do MORE! We’re just now coming up with ways to make inroads on building the brand besides on the Internet. There has to be balance - you have to have GREAT web presence but you need figure out how to build the brand on a street level as well.

You mentioned that Indie Clothing Blog helped you out when getting off the ground, could you explain how?

Indie Clothing Blog basically gave me my starting point! I had no clue about anything, except that I wanted to make clothes. Indie Clothing Blog helped me understand what it takes and what needs to be done - from marketing to selling to retail, all of which we’re working on now as we’re still a really young company.

Where do you plan on taking Academy Thread in the next year? New clothing? New markets? Events?

We’ve got some great stuff going on - we’ve just taken on The Human Abstract for sponsorship. They’re an amazing band from California, signed to Hopeless Records and people may recognize them from the Take Action tour. They have a new release coming out in the Fall, and you can be sure we will be coordinating some contests and such with them. We should have some new pieces coming out in a couple of months, and you should be seeing Academy Thread clothing in online shops and boutique brick and mortar stores too fairly soon. As for events, we’re currently determining what festivals and public events we’ll be attending in the near future.

Thank you for taking the time to talk with me, I think you’ve given others a good insight into some of the complexities of starting and owning a clothing line. I look forward to receiving my shirt soon as for everyone else head over to the site now and get one for yourself.