Gameday Fashion: A Look Into the Past, Present & Future
In every college student’s closet, there are at least a couple clothing pieces to represent their university during the sporting seasons. Campus bookstores often supply students with these staples; however, these game day looks are evolving as we speak, and it takes a college student to truly attest to the trends of the college football season.
Introducing: Recess Apparel. A female-student founded clothing company that offers trendy game day gear as well as a fashionable boutique line. Recess Apparel allows “customers to express their school spirit without ever sacrificing their individual style”. CEO & Founder Alex Lutz attended the University of Wisconsin, Madison where she herself began developing, designing, and operating Recess Apparel in 2017. Recess first launched with exclusively UW apparel, but has since expanded to offer school spirit for 30 different universities nationwide, focusing on their collection of 17 schools. Today, Lutz curates the expanding clothing line, oversees the growing team, and develops engaging marketing campaigns to expand market reach and rapidly increase sales.
We connected with Lutz and gained insight into the backbone of Recess. It all started in her sorority house, where she took her creative side and designed a game day shirt for herself. All of her roommates fell in love with it, asking her to borrow it for themselves and prompting her to hand-make similar pieces. Lutz also had previously noticed the whitespace for “unique, fashion-forward aspects of game-day apparel,” noting that the prevalent game day culture offered “no room for individuality—and everything was solely catered to men”. This inspired Lutz to expand her side hustle into a business. She invited her friend Daniel to assist with financial operations, and after the first year the business began to implement embroidery in order to improve the “time to profit ratio” and sustainability efforts. Today, all products are mass produced and the business is rapidly growing.
Lutz spoke of the goal of her brand, “to put fashion at the forefront of the college apparel industry and provide products for all genders that allow customers to express their individuality and creativity.” Recess strives to create pieces that people can wear on any occasion and to serve as a lifestyle brand by offering athleisure, trendy cuts, silhouettes and more. Lutz shared how as a UW alumni, she wears her school’s spirit running errands in NYC today. She believes school spirit provides an avenue for expressing your commitment to your university. College fans are loyal, she says, and this loyalty never fades. “Whenever I see someone as an alumni wearing my school spirit, I feel a sense of pride… school spirit never dies, it just continues to strengthen relationships between alumni and young students.”
Lutz touched on how school spirit creates community, and Recess fosters this sense of community among college campuses. The Recess campus rep and ambassador program offers students across the nation professional development opportunities that compliment their student workload. This program “revolves around Recess, but simultaneously creates a community of students, among both the Recess staff and customers,” Lutz reiterated. Recess reps and ambassadors’ responsibilities include hosting trunk shows to sell apparel, but also to spread brand awareness and spark employment interest in other students.
We also spoke all things Recess to Anna Greisch, fellow high school classmate of Lutz and Campus Rep here at The U. She not only shared her responsibilities of fulfilling orders and hosting trunk shows, but also a peek into the UMN gameday hits of fall ‘22. “Trucker hats, baby tees, rhinestone pieces, and bra top/skirt sets were some of the best sellers at the U this season for sure.” Greisch loves seeing these items and more being worn on game day, noting how everyone styles the pieces in their own unique, creative, and fun way.
Recess Apparel will continue to expand their presence to other universities and employ even more students in the process. Currently, Recess is working to receive licenses from universities to create more products with specific school logos, gain greater affiliation with schools, and cater the apparel more closely to individual colleges. Recess encourages students to apply for not only their sales focused Campus Rep position, but also a content oriented Brand Ambassador opportunity. Check them out here.
Stay tuned for the game day styles to hit the Recess racks next Fall! (Hint hint: Greisch claims baby tees, matching sets, and tracksuits will be in the mix.) And be sure to browse shoprecessapparel.com for all your school spirit needs.
