Ohio State student sells clothing line from dorm room

Adam Robbins
Tue, 31 Jan 2017 03:33:38 +0000
Arts & Life, Fashion, atlantica, atlantica apparel, clothing, fashion, featured, marc rice, vineyard vines

Ohio State student Marc Rice creates Atlantica Apparel from his dorm room. Credit: Courtesy of Marc Rice

A dorm room in Nosker House houses Marc Rice, his roommate and his clothing line.

Marc Rice, a second-year in finance, started Atlantica Apparel as part of an assignment for his ?innovation, creativity and entrepreneurship scholar group in 2015. He said his mission is to produce a clothing brand that inspires people to appreciate the East Coast.

Rice sells a variety of unisex clothing items including $15 T-shirts and $18 hats from his dorm room. They all feature either the company logo or a depiction of a lighthouse from Rice’s hometown of Westport, Massachusetts.

After watching a YouTube video, Rice built a screen printing press with the help of his father, which he now uses to make his T-shirts in his room. In the past year, he has sold more than 200 shirts. Once business began to pick up, Rice decided to expand his line from just shirts to include windbreakers, hats, stickers and flags. His said his passion for his East Coast home influenced the line.

“I love the East Coast, and I don’t think Vineyard Vines does the East Coast enough justice,” Rice said. “I feel that this is a better brand image for all that the East Coast has to offer. The East Coast has fantastic people and fantastic views, and I really wanted to capture all of that.”

Justin Hill, one of Rice’s recent customers, said he feels Rice did a great job capturing what college students enjoy wearing.

“I really like the color and style Marc chose,” Hill said. “I bought one of the shirts because I feel like this style is in right now, so his stuff is really good.”

Hill also said he feels his clothes would fit in at any university.

“I could definitely see kids from the West, Southwest, Southeast — really anywhere — wearing these clothes,” he said. “Marc has a really cool design, and while it does have an East Coast vibe, it could fit in anywhere.”

The line is are split into two different categories, a winter collection and a summer collection. The winter collection features darker colors such as black and red, while the summer section features more vibrant colors such as teal and coral.

Rice isn’t sure what he wants to do in the future, but right now he’s focusing on his company.

“I think this has a shot to take off and hopefully become a major brand name on college campuses,” Rice said. “If our brand gets out there, who knows where this could go.”

Atlantica Apparel is available online on the company’s website.