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Building an empire with Empire Clothing Club

07 Jun 2020

By Mahika Panditha I personally think there is never really a wrong time to have new clothes in your wardrobe. There are so many amazing locally owned and produced brands, and you have probably seen this specific one pop up on your Instagram feed many a time. Empire Clothing Club is simple and sophisticated, and definitely a hot fit for the guys. Introducing to you this week is Owin, the man behind the company. Owin is the Founder and CEO of Empire Clothing Club, who leads its marketing and strategic efforts! He is very passionate about his work, as you can see from the brilliance that comes from the brand itself. He also wants to encourage others to build their own empires. Some of his goals include becoming the best version of himself (we are rooting for you!), uplifting the community as well as the mindset they represent through Empire’s content, and becoming a globally recognised community brand based right here in our beautiful island. Before we got into the questions, I also asked Owin what his guilty pleasure is, to which he said: “I’ve got serious sweet-tooth cravings at unearthly hours (between 11 p.m. and 4 a.m.) and I can also down a tub of ice cream in a single sitting!” Now that is definitely a talent! A fun fact about Owin is that he actually grew up in a multicultural background having lived in the UK, Malaysia, and Sri Lanka. He is also super competitive and loves sports and games. Before I say too much, let’s dive right in! Hello Owin, tell us a bit about yourself. Hey there! I’m a 23-year-old entrepreneur and the Founder of Empire Clothing Club, currently trying to build an empire in the 21st Century. I have an extroverted personality and I love seeing others expand their mindsets and skill sets whilst wearing Empire Clothing that fits not only them, but also their ambitions. As our saying goes: “If you have a goal or a vision in life, somewhere you’d like to be in life, Empire is not our brand, it belongs to you.” This is what Empire represents as a brand! Why don’t you take us through the story behind Empire Clothing Club. I’ve always wanted to become a self-made individual – someone who builds an empire and leaves behind a legacy; this idea of the “Empire State of Mind” and sharing it with others is the DNA of Empire Clothing Club. I saw that clothing is a strong form of self-expression. This, I figured, would be the best way to convey this belief of building an empire in a tangible form! I also wanted to wear designs and styles which were minimalistic yet powerful, whilst also being of high quality (to change the current perception that foreign brands are better than local brands!). I couldn’t come across this combination in the Sri Lankan market, so I figured that if they don’t have what I’d like to wear, I’m going to create it myself. What inspired you to start? The idea for “Empire” came to me as I was wrapping up college. I didn’t act on impulse at the time and tried corporate jobs for two years, until I found that a nine-to-five just just wasn’t cutting it for me. I had all this energy not being utilised and a vision at the back of my head that was being ignored (what a waste, right?). So after much thought and just as I was finishing up my master’s, I quit my job, took a graphics design class for two months (I’m terrible at drawing, so Photoshop was the only way to go) to learn the basics, then registered the company with the funds I had, and convinced my best friend and another source of inspiration for me, Asjar, to join the company. He left his job and joined Empire Clothing Club (Pvt.) Ltd. The rest is history! My father has been the strongest pillar through this shift, always encouraging me and supporting my decisions. I decided to take his advice wherever possible to motivate and encourage myself. He encouraged me and supported my desire to bring the vision I had to life. One of my inspirations, Michael Jordan, sums it up best: “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take!” And I wanted to take this shot before it was too late. How do you stay motivated? I always have my overarching goal in my head to “build an empire and leave a legacy!” Every time I need motivation or feel like slacking, I remind myself that I have people relying on me. So I’m no longer only responsible for myself, but also for my employees, for my customers, and for contributing to the economy of my country. This always pushes me to strive towards my goals! I remind myself of all that I can accomplish if I put in hustle (fun fact: We’ve got a tee that says “Put In Hustle”), so that when I look back on my life I can say I gave it my all with no regrets. This coupled with that amazing feeling right after smashing goals lights the fire in my belly to stay motivated! Apart from this intrinsic motivation, well I plug into several podcasts, books, and documentaries which cover those individuals who have achieved greatness – those who have already built their empires, some of whom include Muhammed Ali, Michael Jordan, Elon Musk, Kevin Hart, Alexander the Great, King Dutugemunu, and Upali Wijewardene, to name a few. Learning from the greats, the level of energy and motivation they had is a powerful push for me to motivate myself as well. As the quote goes: “It’s what you do on the days you don’t feel like doing anything that counts.” That being said, motivation is temporary – it’s cyclical and unreliable. Instead, I focus on building my discipline because this is what counts when motivation doesn’t. I try to stay disciplined by sticking to a regime/routine; this builds and reinforces positive habits even on the days I don’t feel like doing them until it becomes effortless. Any advice for youngsters looking to start off in the industry? As a young entrepreneur myself, the advice I can offer fellow young entrepreneurs and those planning to start off in the industry is to first find your “why”. Why do you want to do this? Many individuals make the mistake of focusing on the “what” and the “how”. If your why is strong, the rest will fall into place. Our why is to create clothing that inspires our customers to build their empire whilst looking amazing! We build everything else around this purpose of the Empire brand! The second piece of advice I can give you from my learnings is to jump in and start! Constant planning and overthinking for the “perfect way” to start or launch will just stress you out and will be counter-productive. If you have your “why” and your business idea ready, jump into it. The start will never be perfect, but to try to be perfect you have to start! What has been your favourite and least favourite part of the journey so far? I have two favourite parts in this journey! The first is whenever our customers/family members message us saying they love the merch and that we have inspired them in some way or form. Nothing beats that feeling. We call our community and our customers the “Empire Family” and I love the Empire Family! Meeting fellow empire builders across all industries and being able to converse and pick their brains is another perk I’ve had the pleasure of being a part of. The relationships Empire has with its customers goes beyond transactions and we value community in everything we do! Meeting inspirational fellow empire builders including Powerlifting Kodi, Sharan, Gaia, Fahad, Danu, Dinuka, Amandha, and Kevin, to name a few, has been a big plus! The toughest part of the journey so far has been the sacrifice I’ve made in terms of time I spend with my family and loved ones. I’m working on this by allocating more time for those close to me. Where do you want to see Empire Clothing Club in the next five years? In the next five years, I want to grow the Empire community on Instagram to over 20,000 genuine followers and overall social media to around 50,000 followers. As a brand, we want to inspire as many individuals as possible by creating and developing a strong community of uplifted individuals in the process, all whilst making Empire merch easily accessible all over Sri Lanka through retail channels across the island in addition to our existing online presence. In terms of products, we’d like to put out a minimum of two products every month and constantly keep innovating our merch. The vision is becoming a powerful Sri Lankan-made clothing brand renowned across the globe for our brand and quality, thus putting Sri Lanka further on the map in the process. I’ve got other plans for the Empire brand to grow from clothing to a few other sectors, but we’ll talk about that when the time comes. Is there any room for a ladies’ collection? We’ve got quite a few lady bosses who are rocking their Empire merch as we speak! Our existing lady customers love to rock our merch in a variety of ways, including but not limited to a tucked in look, oversized look, or simple crew neck look. In regard to a girls-specific line, it’s in the works, but we want to get it right and not half-heartedly step into it. So we’ll have to polish up our knowledge and find the right people for focus groups, and once we’ve got a great product, we’ll be rolling it out with full force! What should we be looking forward to? We’ve got our all-new premium polo and tank top collections dropping this week! This puts us currently at three types of product: casual tee, sports tee, and formal polo. Essentially, we’ve got tees for any and every occasion. To add to this, we’re also cooking up joggers, shorts, and the cherry on top being  some Empire merch which hasn’t yet been seen in the Sri Lankan market as of yet. We won’t spoil the surprise for you guys, but stay tuned on our socials to find out more. Big things are coming up. To keep up with our journey and the Empire merch we’re rolling out, you guys can follow us @empireclothingclub on all socials; we’d love for Happinez readers to join the Empire Family! How would you say Covid-19 has affected work and what are your plans to combat those problems? Covid-19 came with some serious issues which stalled production, payments, deliveries for us, etc. which are essentially the bread and butter of our business. Income was frozen, our sales had to stop during curfew, and we couldn’t go ahead with our launch schedules either. We realised as soon as curfew was imposed that rather than stressing, it was time to focus on what was in our control and focus on our followers and customers, creating the best possible content to help our community stay entertained and grow through this tough time. That being said, according to the President of the Colombo Fashion Council, we did what no other clothing brand In Sri Lanka did and tripled down on our content, inviting inspirational and highly qualified individuals across all industries to come onboard and share their learnings with our followers through interactive Instagram live sessions. Thrice a week, highly qualified Individuals like Powerlifting Kodi, Gaia Kodithuwakku, Fahad Farook, Prasanna Pathmanathan, Suresh De Silva, and Danu Innasithamby (just to name a few) came onboard and shared their insights across their respective fields! A range of topics including motivation, learning high-income skills and monetising skills, public speaking tips, overcoming anxiety and building self-confidence, and building a strong brand were a few that were discussed. Every other day, we hosted “Empire Jam Sessions” with upcoming musical artists who could use our platform to showcase their talents and vibe with our followers/Empire Family members. Our strategy is simple: Put our customers and Empire Family members first, always, by creating premium Empire clothing combined with entertaining content that helps them grow and improve their skill sets. This is the strategy we’ll be going ahead with, providing as much value as we can and impacting as many individuals along on the way. There will always be adversity, but what matters is how we choose to respond to it. Always remember that when you fall, you can always rise! That’s the Empire State of Mind! Pictures : Empire Clothing Club


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