Bruins start up their own clothing companies, No Worries Lifestyle and Gold Ghost Studio

Admittedly, Austin Freed isn’t an artistic person.

“I can’t draw or paint for the life of me,” Freed said. “My sister got all of those genes.”

So it may seem paradoxical that the third-year philosophy student endeavored to start his own clothing company, No Worries Lifestyle, two years ago in San Diego. The idea was not simply to produce apparel, but to embody a certain lifestyle of adventure and personal fulfillment, he said.

Equipped with a silk screen in his garage while in high school, Freed initially emblazoned shirts with artistic designs as a medium of self-expression. It wasn’t until college, however, that Freed said he realized his creative outlet could transcend from a hobby into an actual business venture.

“(My business partner) Parker and I figured, “˜Why don’t we set our goals really high and try to do something big?'”

Currently, Freed is one of a few UCLA students who operates a clothing business while enrolled as a full-time student.

Angel Gonzalez, a fourth-year architecture student, similarly started his own silk-screening company, Gold Ghost Studio, with alumna Elena Hoshizaki last fall. The company sells apparel and prints made by the co-founders and a handful of third-party designers, each with their own design aesthetic.

Like Freed, the idea for the business materialized from Gonzalez’s prior interest in silk screening.

“It started as a creative outlet ““ it never really was intended to be an apparel shop,” Gonzalez said. “We approach it more as a canvas as opposed to just a store.”

Hoshizaki said that synthesizing their passion for design with the business aspects of the project, such as marketing and earning profits, has been a considerable challenge.

While Freed may be slightly better prepared for this aspect of the business ““ his business partner has a degree in finance ““ he said he faces another challenge many students can relate to: A perpetual shortage of time.

“My time is out of control. Pretty much every weekend I’m down in San Diego, so there’s a lot of commuting,” Freed said. “It’s a huge challenge, especially with school.”

Typically, the production process of each company begins with a design concept, followed by the physical process of constructing the print or piece of apparel. Whereas Gold Ghost Studio manufactures the goods itself, No Worries Lifestyle has partnered with an eco-friendly printing company that produces its goods using sustainable energy and materials.

With considerable obligations outside of the classroom, it can be easy for both Freed and Gonzalez to forget that they are, in fact, students. However, both students attribute a large part of their success to their time at UCLA.

Gonzalez said that the university not only united him with his business partner, but it also allowed him to hone in on his craft for design. On the other hand, Freed said that his time inside the classroom has helped him to think outside of the box, a requisite skill for his business.

In the future, both students said they hope to expand their companies into something much larger.

Both companies sell their merchandise online, although No Worries Lifestyle currently retails at two separate stores in San Diego and it continues to look for additional outlets to sell their apparel. Meanwhile, Gold Ghost Studio is hoping to sell their work at craft venues like Renegade and Unique L.A.

According to Gonzalez, finding space is an important issue.

“(The business has) mainly been running out of my apartment. We pretty much converted our living room into a studio. It’s full of screens, paints, inks and tons of materials,” Gonzalez said. “Luckily it’s hardwood floors.”