Simpler Saturdays

The season of fall would not be the same without football. Every Saturday you can find me in orange and blue representing the GREAT gator nation! With that being said, it is often a struggle to find those perfect orange and blue outfits for every football season. The opportunity I believe exists is bringing a new fashion forward clothing store near campus that specifically targets college students looking for game day apparel.

Although any big box store in Gainesville sells gator apparel, I am not necessarily talking shirts that say "Go Gators" or shorts with gator heads on them. I am talking about trendy, fast-fashion clothes that are blue, orange, denim, or white that are fit for college students to look cute while supporting the University of Florida. Currently, students are having to shop online and in-store looking for color specific clothing, typically fit for hot weather. This process means looking through multiple websites and filtering the results by color and style or visiting various brick and mortar stores hoping that the colors orange and blue are trending in the fashion world.

To break it down, the unmet need is a cute, accessible game day apparel store near campus. Mainly female college students have this need. This need has become more prevalent probably within the last decade, but I am sure if I interviewed older gator graduates they could relate to this problem. Currently, students are shopping at various stores online, in-store, and altering clothing to create the style they wish to have.

In order to gain more insight into this opportunity, I interviewed three prototypical customers. I asked them the following questions: 

1. Please describe the need for a trendy game day apparel store near campus.

2. When did you first realize you needed a store to provide game day clothes?

3. When do you realize this need? All the time? Every week? Every year?

4. How long have you had this need?

5. How are you currently addressing this need?

6. How satisfied are you with having a game day store near campus?

Prototypical Customer 1: 

1. I need to support my school along with my fellow students when I go to the games. I want to do that by wearing cute game day clothes which is very hard to find. 

2. I realized it as soon as I got to campus. I knew game days were just around the corner and I had to find clothes fast. I felt even more pressure when I started talking to new friends and they already had purchased clothes. As a freshman, I thought there would be a store to go to that had cute clothes, but was sad to find out you just had to search through the mall or hope you found something online. 

3. I realize that every week girls wear a different outfit to the game. So I either need to find multiple outfits now or shop every week in the fall.

4. Since I am a freshman, I have had this need for a couple of weeks now.

5. So far, I have been shopping online to find clothes. My friend recommended a couple of websites to me, but it is hard to find things that aren't sold out. 

6. I would love to have a shop like this near campus. It would make life ten times easier and so much less stressful. I would definitely shop there all the time.

I learned that there is definitely possibility for this opportunity. I found it interesting that this student had expected there to be a game day store other than the bookstore, but was let down when there wasn't. 

Prototypical Customer 2: 

1. There really needs to be a store that provides trendy game day clothes because a lot of people don't have transportation to somewhere as far as the mall. It needs to be easily accessible to students. 

2. I realized it over the summer before my freshman year. I saw on social media that girls had worn such cute outfits last football season and I wanted to fit in and be happy with what I was wearing once I got to the University of Florida. 

3. I like to have a new outfit to wear every week for the games and it would be easier if there was a store close to provide that shopping experience for me. 

4. Being a junior now, I have had that need for a little over two years. 

5. I mainly shop on Amazon for game day clothes. I really don't like how it isn't fully reliable though. I never know if the sizes are right or if the package will be delivered when I need it. 

6. I would be super satisfied! Honestly, that would be so convenient and save so much headache for me. 

Again, this interview proved that students would be interested in this type of store. I found it interesting how this student was influenced by others on social media. This shows that there could be an opportunity for future campus ambassadors.

Prototypical Customer 3: 

1. As of now, the bookstore is the main place I go to get my game day clothes. The problem with the bookstore is the clothes are very basic, but more importantly they are very expensive so I definitely need a new store to shop near campus.

2. I first realized that there weren’t any options when I started looking for game day clothes my freshman year. I always found myself buying stuff online and altering it to make it a better fit for game day.

3. I think that this need would be most important in the fall for football season, but I still realize it is a need in the spring with other sports and events going on as well.

4. This need started when I was accepted to UF and I wanted to start filling my closet with Gator apparel right away.

5. Currently I am buying clothes online that are just orange and blue and making them into game day outfits, or I will go to the mall or the bookstore.

6. I think this would be an awesome idea! It would make finding outfits for game days much easier than the process now.

Although this interview made me a little concerned about the competition I would face with the bookstore and other stores near campus, I still think there is opportunity if I differentiate myself. I think the most surprising thing about this interview is how early this student began shopping. The only way to fully capture her interest would be online unless she visits campus or lives close to Gainesville. 

After the interviews, I still see an opportunity for this trendy game day apparel store. All interviewees seemed excited about the idea and slightly annoyed that it didn't already exist. Understanding that most customers currently fill this need by online shopping is definitely an important aspect of this exercise. It would be important to have a fully operating online site because that is where most of this business is occurring now. I would have to perform a great amount of comparable shopping to see the prices at which my potential customers are purchasing products at, the specific types of products that are most desired, and obtain any demographic information I can. I would love to see if game day apparel shopping decreases as a student approaches their senior year. Overall, I think entrepreneurs should ask for a lot of customer feedback to make sure they are getting a proper representation of future customers. From that feedback, I think they should definitely adapt to the current market, but also not be afraid if they think they're new idea or new way of doing things could benefit their customer. Always be open when starting a new business. You will receive a lot of criticism whether your idea turns out to be profitable or not. Listen, but do not get discouraged.