STARKVILLE — One day last spring, Brad Wall and Blake Sears were just passing time in their dorm room doing what most college students do: wishing they had more money. A few ideas were tossed around, very few in serious nature, until a t-shirt design struck the both of them.
The operation is much larger than a t-shirt design now.
Wall, a walk-on on the Mississippi State football team, and Sears took the t-shirt design and built it into their budding company, Avidly Coastal. Now they sell hats and t-shirts to a budding following, proven by an Instagram account with more than 750 followers.
“I figured I could do — if not make any money, at least learn something,” Wall said.
Wall far from entered the situation blind: the family business he grew up in prompted him to label himself as, “blessed with a great business background which has in turn been a wonderful resource for us.” That hasn’t made the process of it all easy, by any stretch.
In the beginning, when Wall wasn’t balancing the business with football obligations, he told The Dispatch he was spending roughly three to four hours per day on it, on top of his academic workload. During football season, that time has been cut down to two or three hours per day — still a significant amount of time for a student-athlete.
He’s found there is no best way to juggle it all.
“You make it up as you go. There’s no set time and a lot of times you’re tired at night and have to do stuff you don’t really want to do, looking at web sites for products,” he said. “It’s hard work, but it’s like anything: if you want it to go good, you have to work hard for it.”
When he is working on the business, there is nearly nothing out of his reach: he said he does a lot with Avidly Coastal’s social media pages in addition to talking with both providers and potential stores to carry product. Everything from balancing who can make what product, at what price and what speed and then managing price of sale is all under his and Sears’ list of duties.
So far, so good. Wall said he’s had conversations with providers that, “seem excited and enthusiastic,” about getting the product.
“It helps out being a college student,” Wall said, “they definitely want to help you out.”
Online sales help, too, and Wall said there are some upcoming festivals that he hopes further advertise the product, thanks to some help from his sister and brother-in-law.
Wall was a business major at the time of all the initial work. He’s since changed his field of study to civil engineering, but he maintains interest in keeping the business alive after college.
“I got big plans,” Wall said. “I don’t take stuff lightly.”
For example, over the summer, Wall is planning a trip through the southeast. One of Avidly Coastal’s logos draws an outline of the coastline of the states of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and Florida. Wall hopes to drive through the area in hopes of expanding the business into out-of-state markets while he takes online classes.
Plus, working out, for the next football season.
Follow Dispatch sports writer Brett Hudson on Twitter @Brett_Hudson
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Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 33 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
