Photo provided by Route One Apparel
Ali von Paris, founder and CEO of Route One Apparel, talks to us about starting her own apparel brand, persevering during the pandemic, seeing Coach Harbaugh of the Baltimore Ravens modeling her face masks and reflecting on what the past year has taught her.
Why did you decide to start Route One Apparel?
I went to the University of Maryland and was working at a bar called the Thirsty Turtle my junior year. It got shut down, and I was devastated because I was a first-generation college student and paying my through school. It was the only non-minimum-wage job on campus so I was freaking out about working.
I started seeing all of these memories of the bar being shared on social media, and I thought about this idea for a support jersey with a tipsy turtle that could say “barely remembered, never forgotten, turtle survivor.” I used to make T-shirts in high school when I was in student government, so I was familiar with the process.
I posted it on my social media and got inundated with messages. It went viral with thousands of shares. I had to figure it out as I went, so I launched a Facebook event and went around campus collecting orders. I launched a website and woke up to about $12,000 in orders, which was the most money I had ever seen in my life.
I didn’t have any experience with building a business, so I used to deliver orders myself, hand-write labels and go into the post office. I was studying finance and information systems, and I decided to drop the IS major and study supply chain. What’s crazy is that I took only one marketing and one design class at school. I had a knack for that stuff, so I decided to take classes that hurt my brain a little more.
What did you do when the pandemic hit?
The year 2020 was the year that definitely didn’t go as planned for us. I had been optimistic because it was Route One’s 10th year—we celebrated our anniversary in November—but, of course, the pandemic happened and we had a two-week window where we had to change our model or shut down.
Initially I didn’t want to make masks because I didn’t want it to be like I was profiting off of someone else’s plight. I decided that if I was going to do it, they needed to be affordable, good quality and have some sort of give-back aspect to them.
We launched the face masks two weeks before they became mandatory, and then Gov. Larry Hogan wore one of our masks to a press conference. He plugged our business and the masks went viral.
Fast forward and we’ve become a reliable source for quality face masks with more than 300 designs. At the end of the day, we’re a fashion company, and it’s so much fun for us to make things that are conversation starters. We’re making masks that aren’t plain and boring, although we do have those if you want them.
How has business been going now?
The masks definitely brought a whole layer of extra attention to our brand. We have over 70 different product categories on our website featuring themes like Baltimore, Old Bay, Maryland, University of Maryland and Utz, and we have so many products from head wear down to tennis shoes.
It’s really cool to see how much extra development we’ve been able to accomplish because of that added exposure. We have more traffic on our site and we’re doing more custom hoodies, sneakers, knit sweaters and other big items.
Tell us about the masks.
We have some that are fully cotton and others that are a cotton and polyester blend, which are much better for vibrant colors. They have a nose wire at the top, adjustable side straps and a built-in pocket on the front in case someone wants to add an extra filter to it.
We’ve definitely improved the quality of them with each batch that we make because, as you can imagine, when we initially launched them, there wasn’t much on the market to sample and we had never made them before.
I think they’re great. I work out in mine, and we’ve gotten a lot of feedback saying that they’re really comfortable.
What was your reaction to seeing Coach Harbaugh wearing your masks?
I wasn’t watching the initial game where he wore our green camo mask, but I was notified by my friends and family. I started digging because I wanted to know how he got it. I found out that his wife is a frequent shopper of ours and apparently he likes them because they’re comfortable.
As soon as I knew he liked them, I started making different designs to give him some more variety. I did some purple-themed ones and a Maryland flag, and I noticed he wears neck gaiters, so I made some of those. He has some of our extra stock, but I can see on our website that his wife is still placing orders, so they’re definitely here to support us.
It’s been really fun and now he’s wearing them at every game, which I think solidifies what this year should represent for our nation: supporting each other and small businesses.
We’re actively pursuing licensing with the Ravens now, which is exciting, especially because we weren’t soliciting them. They saw that Harbaugh was wearing our gear and are interested in us becoming a local licensing partner. It’s amazing and humbling, especially since they’re such a large business entity here in Maryland and they understand the importance of working with local businesses.
Are you giving back to the community in any way?
We’ve been donating masks to hospitals and for every mask order that we have we donate one to healthcare workers. We’ve had a really great response and so far we’ve donated over 200,000 masks. We also researched all area hospitals and urgent care facilities to make sure that we’re catering to as many as we can.
We’re also doing a $10,000 commitment to Baltimore restaurants. We’re going to buy $1,000 worth of gift cards to 10 local restaurants in Baltimore city and give them away to our followers. We’re starting with $10,000, but we’re going to try to encourage the other business partners that we have that are doing well right now to sponsor future ones. Hopefully, it’s a domino effect.
Are you planning to do any expansion?
I’ve always had a goal to expand. I made the name Route One because that was the road the Thirsty Turtle was on. I didn’t realize that Route One traveled all the way up to Maine and all the way down to Key West, Florida, so I’d love to expand to an East Coast level at least.
I want the products to encapsulate that state pride feeling that people have wherever they live, but I wanted to do it organically so there was never a right time to launch products from other states.
But we tested that out recently with our road trip collection. We called it that because people aren’t able to travel by plane right now. We focused on cities, towns and states that are on Route One and designed different products that represent those states. Initially, we did face masks because they’re an affordable way to launch new patterns and designs and they sold out in a couple of days. That definitely build up our confidence to continue to pursue that.
We’re working on a bunch of Pennsylvania stuff right now, and one of our most recent licensing deals is with Utz, which is helping us expand our Pennsylvania market.
For an update on Route One Apparel and its collaboration with Maryland 5 Star, click here.
What has this past year taught you?
This past year started out rough. My grandparents had this 50-acre farm in Kingsville with a house that was over 150 years old. My dad grew up there; I spent all of my holidays there. On Jan. 15, 2020, it burned down in a fire.
This fire was a huge tragedy for my family, and only a few months later, my business was shutting down. Now, my business is still running and we started building the foundation of the new house. I think, looking back, it’s the resiliency that defines 2020 for me.
I realized how incredible my team is. We went through this pandemic, and there were no complaints. We had to work some crazy hours, and people stepped up. Our business was going down in the dumps, and if I didn’t have these great people working for me, and we didn’t change our business model in that two-week time frame, we would be in a completely different spot.
Our plan now is to not have a plan; we learned that lesson in 2020. In 2021, our goal is to focus more on building deeper relationships and collaborating more with businesses: 2020 has taught us that that’s what’s sustainable. It’s shown us how strong our community and partnerships are.
*For the month of February, Route One Apparel will be donating 30% of all proceeds from their Maryland Love Mask to the American Heart Association.
Browse Route One Apparel’s products at routeoneapparel.com or find a retailer here.
Match with Coach Harbaugh:
