"Can these two Yale students reinvent the collegiate clothing market with their company Crew Dog?"
NEW HAVEN, CT / ACCESSWIRE / November 27, 2024 / If you ask any college student about the composition of their wardrobe, you are guaranteed to find a plethora of college gear for their future alma mater. No matter the university, students and alumni feel pride in their chosen academic institution. However, while a desire to show off unique school garments increases, few options exist beyond traditional logo centric gear. Two current Yale students, Constantine Polychronopoulos and Coby Wagonfeld were ready for a change and decided to take matters into their own hands, starting a design and clothing brand, Crew Dog, in late 2023.
Originally, Crew Dog wasn't a company but a small project for the Yale crew team, where Polychronopoulos competed during his time at Yale. He wanted to "create something that would still show an affiliation to the team but was different and more subtle than the traditional monogram ‘Yale Crew.'" Instead of relying on text and logos, he focused on the mascot and the sport, crafting a hand-drawn anthropomorphized Yale bulldog dressed in rowing attire, sporting a scarf, and regally holding an oar like a staff. Every detail in the design was intentionally chosen to connect students with their identity as Yale rowers, celebrating the team's deep history and tradition.
The first design was an immediate hit, and Constantine quickly realized there was untapped demand beyond his team. "I placed one order, then another, and another," he recalls. "It occurred to me that this idea could transcend my team." Within a few months, having collaborated with 37 different campus groups to help them make apparel they could admire, they also began working with different rowing teams in the USA, UK and even Australia.
As Crew Dog expanded, so did the team. In February of 2024, Polychronopoulos was introduced to his co-founder by a mutual friend, Coby Wagonfeld, a now-junior who is very involved in the entrepreneurial and business scene at Yale. The two make a great team, complementing each other's strengths. Constantine is a natural creative with a knack to push the brand forward, running the marketing and design development, and Coby running the operations and finances with a keen business acumen developed from his teenage years of building businesses from sneaker reselling to merchandising commercial goods on Amazon.
As word of the business spread, the partnerships continued to increase significantly. More than 400 groups have worked with the Crew, selling over 8000 items within the last year.
"In an age where we're hyper-fixated on the future, it seems college students want a connection to past tradition, particularly through how they dress. The minimalism of today's apparel lacks the personality and character of iconic collegiate style in previous generations," Wagonfeld said. "But today, we've found people are ready for a new style of collegiate apparel, one that pays homage to the past while also catering to the current student and modern style."
Crew Dog's original brand ethos focused on designing and producing personalized clothing for student groups-pieces that members would take pride in wearing, connecting them closer with their organizations. While much has evolved since their initial collaborations with other student organizations, the core mission remains the same: to craft a fresh alternative style of collegiate apparel by prioritizing mascots and symbols that resonate with students and alumni to capture the spirit of each university in a meaningful way.
Expectedly, Crew Dog tackles obstacles on a daily basis. There are many highs and lows while building a college-based startup. While balancing schoolwork, social lives, and sports the team notes one of its most challenging moments. After a new embroidery line launched in September, some issues arose while transitioning to a higher-quality production process with custom packaging. This transformation proved to be more time-consuming than they previously anticipated. Due to the delays, some groups and individuals couldn't receive their orders within the originally outlined timeframe. Rather than dwelling on the experience, the Crew team treated it as a valuable lesson and traveled out to meet the manufacturing partner in person.
Now, Crew Dog is the only collegiate brand selling top-tier embroidered pieces, boasting designs with over 50,000 stitches, the team proactively adjusts its campaigns and supply chain in advance to avoid predicaments with promptness in the future.
As Crew Dog looks ahead, Constantine and Coby have started expanding their team to help them scale. The brand now has 5 full time employees and has been building out licensing partnerships with universities including Brown, Georgetown, and Yale, with many more in process. They have signed up over 50 students as campus partners at schools around the country and started expanding from e-commerce to retail. Crew Dog's collaborations with other student founded brands like Banofi Leather and Duke and Winston further cement the company's triumphs as they work on their future collections and campaigns.
Crew Dog hopes to keep their designs as a foundation of their brand, eventually collaborating with other brands to increase their product offerings and appeal to new customers. So far they've done pretty well, if you want to follow their journey in flipping the collegiate market on its head follow them on social media - @crewdog.apparel.
About Crew Dog
Crew Dog is a collegiate clothing and design brand developed by undergraduate students Constantine Polychronopoulos and Coby Wagonfeld at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. With embroidered collections at Yale, Brown, Georgetown, and dozens of other schools, the company is becoming a staple for student organizations across the United States.
Media Contact
Website: crew-dog.com
Instagram: @crewdog.apparel
Tiktok: @crewdog.apparel
Things to add:
Campus partners
Scaling strategy
Unicef and charity
Rowing world
Photos:
crew-dog.com
Crew Dog LLC
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SOURCE: Crew Dog