Positive thinking fitting Ayers’ business to a T

BOULDER – Choose happiness. Stay balanced. Be courageous. Stay strong

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Boulder’s Andreea Ayers, president of Tees for Change, believes these messages can encourage women to change their lives for the better, as they did for her.

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While pregnant, Ayers was in a “positive place” until friends became negative about her choice of having a home birth.

“Everyone was afraid something bad would happen,” Ayers said. But when she went to prenatal yoga class she was showered with a strong and positive energy. “I felt good about my decision. I thought other women may be going through the same thing; I wanted to inspire them to think positively.”

 In January, Ayers decided to start a business selling T-shirts with the yoga-inspired messages.

With a degree in marketing from NewYork-based Cornell University and experience with various environmental companies Ayers was ready. She held focus groups, researched the online retail market, designed the shirts, bought materials, found a sweat-shop-free manufacturer in Honduras through Georgia-based Alternative Apparel and launched her Web site – www.TeesforChange.com – in April, the same month her son Nathan was born.

Her initial $702 outlay on a personal credit card yielded 96 shirts comprising four designs. By May, Ayers was selling the shirts online and through four yoga studios in Illinois, Ohio and Florida. The shirts sold out at $28 each. The profit was used for a second run of 160 shirts, which are selling briskly, according to Ayers.

Alternative Apparel manufacturing costs $4 to $5 depending on how many are purchased, and printing costs are about $2 each, she said. Ayers uses 100 percent cotton shirts but is seeking a material that is strictly organic.

Additionally, Ayers donates a dollar per shirt to Washington D.C.-based Global ReLeaf, an American Forest education and action program that plants a tree for every dollar donated.

“It’s a way to communicate to customers that the company is proactive in the ecosystem ideals,´ said Gregory Meyer, Global ReLeaf’s director of corporate relations. Ayers said the trees her donations support will be planted locally.

Ayers is targeting yoga studios in Colorado. Yoga Oasis, a studio in Littleton, recently ordered 24 shirts. It had never sold clothing before.

“I comparison-shopped with other lines and found these shirts to say what I teach,´ said Jeanne Thornton, owner of Yoga Oasis. “The messages express yoga ‘off-the-mat’ and appeal to our students. They want to integrate spirituality with finding balance. It’s a choice as to what we focus on.”

The only thing Thornton would change is the sizing. Even with the small, medium and large offerings, “the shirts are all itsy-bitsy – some of my students are larger, so she may want to make bigger shirts.”

According to a recent Yoga Journal survey, the yoga industry is $3 billion strong, with 16.5 million people practicing yoga, going on retreats and buying yoga accessories. More than half the population has at least a casual interest in yoga. Ayers wants to capitalize on that.

Natasha Leger, president of Denver’s ITF Advisors, said if Ayers can market effectively to communities and affinity groups that she has a strong chance of doing well. “She has all the right pieces in place,” Leger said.

“The Yoga Journal study gives a sense of market potential for growth within that affinity group.”

Leger said Ayers must be able to compete in the textile products market from an operations standpoint.

Overseas online textile companies are gaining strength, “but her ability to integrate into eco-products may mitigate this issue,” Leger said.

Oddly enough, not all of Ayers’ customers are yoga fans.

“I hate yoga,” Christina Deal of Detroit said. When she was searching for online shirts, “It was the slogan that caught my eye. I bought Choose Happiness. When I’m having a bad time, I can choose to be happy.”

Although Forrester Research projected that online apparel sales are expected to slow, Leger said the statistics are “across the board and may not reflect a niche market.”

Ayers said there is room for growth considering that the online retail is only 5 percent of the total retail market.

“Online retailers will have to get more creative in terms of attracting and keeping customers. What this means for TeesForChange.com is that I’m going to add a blog and maybe even a message board forum and offer incentives for shopping online, such as free shipping or 10 percent discounts,” Ayers said.

By the end of September Ayers plans on having organic shirts and a baby-toddler line ready. She projected sales of $5,000 a month.

“I will be spending any profits from shirts sold until then to launch these two new lines,” she said. Ayers said she wants to open a storefront “to help promote positive thinking.”