Students model Southern Goods

The model population on campus has seen a great rise in the past few months. Many students have been given the opportunity to model for a local grown business called Southern Goods. These students can be seen on various social media sites as well as the company’s website.

“My original plan about 18 months ago was to open a gift & clothing boutique somewhere in the Fairview/Allen area,” Southern Goods founder Mauri Roach said. “However, after many months of research and planning, I decided that owning a store that would be open at least 6 days a week, and dealing with many different product vendors and a landlord might be a little more than I wanted to do. I still have 2 kids at home, so I decided to create an online business. The decision to design t-shirts just sort of happened. I started drawing the Southern Goods logo, and just kept drawing more ideas. I told my husband what I was thinking and showed him my sketches and he said I should go for it. That was last August, and my first shirts were ready in mid December 2014.”

Several students on campus can be seen modeling the Southern Goods products on their website and Twitter page.

“Mauri Roach is a family friend of ours who kindly asked if I would model her Southern Goods attire,” senior Keirsten Lindelof said. “Mauri is a Lovejoy parent and wanted her shirts to be seen around our school.”

While the models don’t receive cash, they do get compensated for their time.

“Going into the photo shoot I had no expectations whatsoever,” senior Adam McDaniel said. “I was just excited to be a helpful hand. I didn’t expect anything in return but before we left she offered us a shirt of hers.”

While the experience was a new one for the models they really enjoyed their time at the shoot.

“Modeling for Southern Goods has been an awesome experience,” Lindelof said. “I love modeling all the different shirts. We always go shoot at different locations. One day we were modeling swimsuit cover ups in 40 degree weather.”

“It was a great experience and I was more than happy to help in any way,” McDaniel said. “I actually was pretty excited doing this knowing that AnnMarie, Braden, Keirsten and Taylor were all going to be there. Everyone there made it a fun memorable experience. Mrs. Krisher created an easy-going environment and did a fantastic job.”

Social media has played in a vital role in the marketing of her product.

“Social media is the best place to promote and market clothing right now,” Roach said. “Southern Goods uses Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest. Every one of them costs a lot to get our followers to actually see what we post, but it’s the way things are. We send an email newsletter to all of the people who have made purchases from the website. We also have collectible vinyl logo stickers, and receive at least 10 emails every week from people from all over who want our stickers. Every package we ship out has free stickers inside, plus a coupon for a future purchase.”

Roach sees a strong future for her budding business.

“In the beginning, the plan was to launch the Southern Goods website, start by selling a few t-shirts and see what happened,” Roach said. “The next step was going to be getting other vendors’ products to sell. Very soon after the launch a boutique on the square in McKinney (Kiss & Make up) contacted me through the company Facebook page and said they’d like to carry the shirts. Also, the Buffalo Creek Boutique in Fairview and Fort Worth will be carrying Southern Goods shirts as well. That has been going well, and I’ve recently re-written the business plan to try to get the shirts in 25 stores by this time next year. I just hired two sales reps to help make that happen. One located in Dallas and one in the Mobile, Alabama area. Now we will concentrate on growing the Southern Goods brand and won’t sell any other company’s products. I’m working with a manufacturer now to design hats and will probably work on shorts in the next six months to be ready for next spring.”