How Their Story Began

BC: Tell us a little about your business, and your role in the business? 

WE: My name is Irvin Womack and I am the co-founder of Working Everyday, a lifestyle brand using BELLA+CANVAS products since 2017. I run the design, printing, marketing, and e-comm store. My business partner, friend and other co-founder, William Coleman manages the athletic branch of the brand which consists of training athletes for our health and fitness side of the business. 

BC: What motivated you to start an apparel business in particular? 

WE: I think it was that we desired ownership over the clothes we wore. Naturally, we were inspired by big name sports brands like Nike and Adidas and realized we wanted our own brand so we could start our own movement to inspire others. The philosophy that Working Everyday stands for isn’t just for the athletic types, we want it to run into all areas of people’s lives like pushing for that lifelong dream to become a doctor, being a better version of yourself every day, being a great parent; something that people are “working at every day.”  

BC: Tell us the story of starting your business: 

WE: In 2017, William and I were in college training 3x a day to go play professional basketball oversees. After a workout, William and I were discussing our dream to have an apparel line and began bouncing brand names off each other then landed on “Working Everyday,” inspired by the determination and dedication we had to work out and train every day. The following day we started the process of making t- shirts. 

At that time, we were both driving for Uber and that day after we picked a name , I picked up a passenger, his name was Wedge, who had his own apparel brand and I happened to be dropping him off to pick up his first batch of T-shirts. Wedge and I got to talking and after telling him our dream to start Working Everyday, he connected us with his printer and it all took off from there.

After our first batch of printed shirts were made, I saw the potential in the brand and decided to learn myself. I went to the custom print shop every day and watched how it was done, which motivated me to learn how to do it myself. That’s when William and I invested our own money from driving Uber to purchase the equipment we needed like a heat press and vinyl cutter. 

Then as our business started to grow and our heat press eventually gave out, we invested in screen printing and soon after, took the jump to invest in a DTG machine.

Eventually, more and more people started buying our brand and we went from getting 10-20 orders a month to 50 – 100 orders. 

How BELLA+CANVAS Helped Two Young Entrepreneurs 

BC: How has BELLA+CANVAS been a part of your story?

WE: It’s been huge; we wanted to work with BELLA+CANVAS so bad when we started off that we would drive from Arizona to California to try to meet and talk with people about getting an account. During that process, BELLA+CANVAS as a whole was very welcoming; we believe they are the best and will continue to stay loyal to them. William and I appreciate the acknowledgement to be featured in this blog. We have watched countless YouTube videos and we took the Fashion Apparel Masterclass online to better educate ourselves about the industry. 

Lessons Learned in Hardship

BC: Did you ever think this could fail? If so, what encouraged you to keep going?

WE: We had nothing to lose so we weren’t afraid to fail; even if we failed, we knew we were going to learn along the way and become better people.

BC: Did you have to overcome any adversity? Explain: 

WE: In many ways, yes. We started this brand with our own money and only had each other. From the beginning, it was a challenge to break through and convince people to believe in our product but we kept persevering. Then the pandemic hit which brought all new struggles taking care of the day-to-day by ourselves without help. 

Supporting Black-Owned Business in This Industry 

BC: As a black-owned business, do you feel represented and/or supported in this industry? How do you think you and your business has inspired other BIPOC businesses in your community? 

WE: Working Everyday inspired a lot of people in Arizona that always wanted a brand but never knew where to start. We gave a lot of people we grew up with hope and we do feel represented because of that but had to gain our respect along the way and we are still gaining respect as we plan to grow our brand beyond Arizona. 

Being BIPOC we have to work harder to get our voices heard when it comes to talking to others about our brand since we are so new and just getting started. We are thankful for the opportunity to have this interview and appreciate the time being put into it for us. 

BC: How can others help amplify your voice and support you? 

WE: Our families and friends show unconditional support. We were fortunate enough to have some Instagram influencers and athletes believe in the brand as well which helped out. It helps big time when people shout us out while wearing Working Everyday so we get more traffic to share our dream. (Looking to follow Working Everyday and show some love? Follow them at @workingeveryday_collection)

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Want to learn more about Working Everyday?

Follow them on Instagram here.

Check out their website here.

More from the BELLA+CANVAS?

Read about another black-owned business here and here.

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Check out our site for more products HERE.

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Summary

Article Name

Working Everyday: Turning a Lifestyle Motto Into An Apparel Brand

Description

We interviewed co-owner Irvin Womack to hear how they got started creating their own brand and what their hopes are for the future.

Author

BELLA+CANVAS

Publisher Name

BELLA+CANVAS

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