THE HOWS AND WHYS OF STARTING BELONG DESIGNS: what you might not already know
The things people may or may not know about how we started Belong Designs and Why:
We started our company, Belong Designs, during our senior year in college. We are all mechanical engineering graduates from the Colorado School of Mines, who chose to invest almost every waking minute of our time in working towards our goal of making our company a reality. Instead of working Engineering jobs where we would have been relocated to Houston Texas or other remote places, we chose jobs as managers in the Construction Field to stay together in Colorado and make Belong Designs a reality. We started our company with the mission to inspire people to step outside of societal norms and do what they truly love. The idea is that when you follow your true passion, you realize where you belong. Pursue those moments when nothing is on your mind but what you are doing right at that second.
In school and since graduating, we have watched countless people (many of them close friends) pursue a paycheck or do something they hate because that is what they were told they are supposed to do and it is what's expected of them. We felt trapped as we saw our futures closing in around us as we took interviews with corporations and started seeing the rest of our lives laid out on a dark path in front of us. Belong Designs was our escape. We formed our company with the sole intention to make our lives what we love, and practically starved ourselves to get enough money together in school to make our first 40 T-shirts and make our company legal. Since then, we have grown our company organically and have not taken outside investment or outside help while paying off student loans and managing to pay our living costs.
When we graduated college, we moved into a house in the Denver Highlands together where we have made our basement our office space. We currently work full time jobs during the day and then come home to work on our true dream every night. Our shed is now our shipping station where we pack orders at the end of every night and take them to the post office the next morning to be shipped. We have always managed to sell the product we make, and we are producing more and differentiated clothing all of the time. We sponsor 30 amazing people/athletes in the action sports industry as well, where we give these amazing people product so that they can share the message of what we represent and be a part of the Belong Movement. Many people have the perception that we are a larger company, not realizing that we are still scraping together every penny that we can to grow our company and our dream of seeing people do what they love and live by the ideas they believe in and are passionate about.
In all regards, we consider ourselves to be successful to this point, but we have barely scraped the surface of what we want to accomplish. Because we have been learning business from the ground up, we know what it is going to take to not only make our company successful now, but to build a company that has longevity and sustainable growth.
So when you buy a product that we make, you are a representation of the Belong Movement. When you wear our logo proudly on your chest, you are telling people that you believe in finding those moments that make you feel alive. When you share one of our photos, tell a friend about us, or tweet about your favorite athlete or product, you are helping encourage others to follow their true passions, and it might even lead to you finding the courage to break out of societal norms and find your own.
Thank you to all of you who are helping and have helped us grow. Still being able to pursue our dream has been one of the most fulfilling experiences we have known, and every person that believes in the Belong Movement is part of the reason that we continue to strive for more.
-Ben (Co-Founder)
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