Uncovering Opportunities: A New Collection for the College Apparel Industry
Founded in 2013, USCAPE is a lifestyle apparel brand that focuses on representing the places you love, the things you do and the individual you are. What began as a class project at Bucknell University has grown into the leading hyper-local brand in the industry. USCAPE blurs the line between spirit and lifestyle, because we believe you should never have to choose. Whether that's your college, favorite ski resort, the hometown you grew up in, or your favorite thing to do, we’re here to help you tell your story.
The Problem.
To recommend a new project, graphic or category to Uscape Apparel based on research about the current market channels, traditional retail, and the end user of Uscape Products.
The Process.
Define
Define
In order to first define our launching pad, we needed to seek out answers to questions like:
Who are the humans that are wearing their products?
Who are the humans purchasing their products?
What are the current industry trends?
What are other brands doing?
To answer some of these questions, we dug deep into secondary research as well as using Southern Methodist University as a case study.
Understand
Understand
This phase is where we continued to define terms within our guiding questions and deploy customized design research methods in order to answer our guiding questions, understand the problem we are designing for, and accurately account for the audience we are designing for.
Research Methods
Survey
60 responses across 10 colleges
Interviews
5 Interviews
-
Hype & Vice
-
Barnes and Noble Corporate Office
-
SMU Bookstore
-
Rally House
-
Emily Nowlin; VP of Business Development
Observation
invested 12+ hours
SMU bookstore, UNT bookstore, SMU Campus, Rally House, Barns and Noble, SMU Tailgate;
Market Research
Product Placement, Competitive analysis, SWOT analysis, Pricing Study, Material Analysis
Scrapping
Used Tik Tok, Instagram, and Pinterest to find trends and common themes across the college apparel industry and college campuses.
Over multiple days, we spent more than 10 hours visiting each district; Fair Park, Deep Ellum and the Arts District. We spent the bulk of our time walking the proposed trail route per the Deep Ellum Foundation's strategic plan.
Refine
Refine
This stage is where we refined our guiding questions by synthesizing all of the qualitative data we had gathered through our research methods. This is what we learned:
College Students want;
-
Simple, timeless pieces that can be worn for years
-
Versatile clothing that can be worn to the gym or around town
-
Designs that show school spirit through logos or school colors
Currents Trends indicated;
-
Western wear is making a major comeback
-
60% of Gen Z shop across gender sections
-
Street style now includes matching sets as well as oversized sweatshirts
Imagine
Imagine
This stage houses a specific space and time for brainstorming about what could take shape to help the project that accounts for all previously gathered information and evidence. This is where our team started to think about potential solutions that are rooted in evidence and supported by our context gathering.
During this stage our team went through three brainstorming sessions, sketching activities as well as mood board creations in order to bring our themes to life.
We combed through the SMU archives which included old year books, posters, and even student magazines to connect back to the timeless theme. As we sifted through the history of SMU, even all the way back to the 40s, we realized the juxtaposition between a preppy and western aesthetic.
Because of our research and our historical audit, our team wondered what a unisex western vintage collection that fits into the street style of the target audience. We wanted to provide a new take on college apparel that combines current fashion trends and customer preferences while maintaining a fresh aesthetic.
Make
Make
Test
Test
&
Our team pursued our design direction by choosing three different schools, in different locations to prove that our aesthetic could work across the board.
Southern Methodist University Collection
Notre Dame Collection
California State University, Fullerton Collection
Click below to view our client presentation