Meet Flynn Sheehan: a first-year from Oak Park, Illinois, member of DePauw University’s men’s soccer team, and a budding entrepreneur.
Sheehan, along with a friend from his hometown, run a clothing apparel company called BrainWave Apparel. The two started the company over the summer and continue to co-operate the brand even while attending separate universities.
BrainWave Apparel sells graphic t-shirts featuring unique designs. The shirts sell for around $20, making them an ideal fashion choice for the always broke college student. The shirts are sold in “waves” meaning that once a design sells out, it’s gone for good. So far the company has only released the first wave, but Sheehan hopes to release a second wave soon.
The DePauw sat down with Sheehan and talked with him about him about his budding business.
The DePauw (TDP): How did you get the idea to start this brand?
Flynn Sheehan (FS): It had always been a goal of mine to make something like that, but I’d never really put it into action, so I wanted to make it external.
TDP: How did you turn this dream into a reality, especially from a financial standpoint?
FS: First we both put down $200, which was a lot, but then we were able to make it back and make twice that. Then, we recycled all the profit and put it back into the shirts. We’re just going to keep recycling until we can get to a stage where we can pull out profit for ourselves.
TDP: What has been the biggest challenge you have encountered so far?
FS: It’s really hard to work out the finances and balance price of the shirts and quality of the shirts.
TDP: How do you promote and market your products?
FS: I just made a website, but a lot of it goes through Instagram. I feel like social media is a really good tool to use for marketing that is really underused in a lot of industries.
TDP: As a full-time student, as well as an athlete, how do you balance running this business?
FS: It’s hard. I have to take a lot of breaks in between (releasing new designs), which is really annoying. Now that soccer season is over, I have a pocket of time that I can put into it now.
TDP: What is the meaning behind the name BrainWave?
FS: Me and my friend would always think the same way, in a really weird way. It came to a stage where every time we would say the same thing at the same time, we’d just say “Brainwave,” because we were on the same wave. We wanted to use it because we felt like there were a lot of different outlets for designs that could go into it.
TDP: Who designs all of the graphics you put on the shirts?
FS: I make all the designs. I love graphic design, so I took a bunch of classes in high school. I was really fascinated by shirt designs, so I have probably like 40 designs on my computer that I want to use at some point.
Check out BrainWave Apparel on Instagram (@brainwaveapprl)