Two creative students are expressing their ideas through their new clothing brand, ParaBrands. The company, which had a soft launch this fall, aims to bring awareness to both societal issues and Christian perspectives.
THE LAUNCH
Sophomore business administration major Nick Rumer was the one to come up with the original clothing brand idea.
“I came up with the idea to start a clothing brand for the main purpose of making money at first,” Rumer said. “And I was like, I want to start a clothing brand and call it Coastal Hype.”
That was when Rumer’s best friend, sophomore cinema and media arts major Victor Miller, gave his vision for the start-up brand.
“I was like, ‘Bro, I’ve had this idea for a clothing line for two years,’” Miller said. “It’s not just a clothing brand, though. Everything will mean something, we can point back to Jesus, but it’s going to be something that Christians and non-Christians alike can wear and love.’”
Miller brought more to the table, talking about how the death of a relative impacted their brand to further develop into supporting certain safety issues in today’s society.
“It’s more [about] gun and alcohol safety. My cousin [accidentally shot himself] last year,” Miller said. “So in honor of him we’re donating to a charity that his family has been passionate about.”
The brand also decided to give 10 percent of all their clothing profit to Cross Connection Ministries, a charity that supports youth education in Compton.
“Every idea that we have, we have someone with us who has been through these hardships or who could relate to it,” Rumer said.
Miller added that the brand also plans to represent various cultures in their designs.
“One culture we’re looking into is the Armenian culture, because of [the] massive genocide against the Armenians [in 1915]. So we’re working with Armenians to just put together a clothing that will bring honor to that and show how their ideas of brotherhood and Christianity influences them,” Miller said.
THE TEAM AND ITS PURPOSE
The company has now paved the way to having 18 people on its team, with an additional 40 models. The team consists of photographers, cinematographers, business administrators and designers. The team currently holds weekly meetings, with Rumer overseeing the business aspect while Miller runs the designing portion of the company. Their initial “Paradox” brand also aims at making a social impact.
“The purpose of Paradox is to provoke thought and further address societal issues that are going on nowadays,” Rumer said. “We provoke thought through our designs.”
As their business idea has been progressing within the Biola community, Rumer and Miller expressed amazement for the dedication of the community toward them.
“They are giving freely, because they believe in what we believe. They see the vision for the brand,” Rumer said. “Where else could you go to a bunch of students and people show up to help and be like, ‘What can I do next?’”
THE GREAT FUTURE
ParaBrands is now preparing for its next launch of clothing. The “Never Forget” t-shirt in memory of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on New York City is an example of one of their awareness-based designs. Rumer and Miller are hoping that their next season of designs will bring Christian ideologies.
“Our shirts are trying to find a medium … because we aren’t trying to water down the gospel but we’re trying to make it look like it’s here among [people] and accessible to everyone,” Miller said. “If we can promote profound thought then maybe people will be receptive to listen to Christ.”
UPDATED NOV. 19, 11:22 p.m.: An earlier version of the article reported that Miller’s cousin was shot by a friend. He had shot himself accidentally.
