Duck Denim

Who knew that a year in China, a semester at Nanjing University, and an internship with China Nanhai Oil Trust & Trading Co. (as an international trading intern) would lead to Christina Li being a budding entrepreneur while still an undergrad. Christina is a Clark Honors College student and a triple major at the University of Oregon (Business: Entrepreneurship, Chinese, and Asian Studies) and finally got to use an idea she came up with in China back in Eugene under the college umbrella.

Christina started the Ducks Denim Business Group this past fall, along with six other business majors who joined her venture after she pitched her idea to the International Business and Economics Club, Entrepreneurship Club, and Launching New Venture class, which are entities she is greatly involved in. Their first product? O-Jeans. O-Jeans are premium denim jeans with Oregon logos (which ones are still to be decided) on the back and/or the front pockets. They contacted the head buyer at the Duck Store, pitched their product, and the store love it! The store had wanted to do something like this, but had never been able to get at-cost price low enough to make it profitable.

By working primarily in the exporting division and attending China’s Import and Export Fair, Christina learned great insight into the premium denim industry. Premium jeans can sell $100, but for all practical purposes they cost $10 to make. Using her connections in China she was able to get a competitive price on quality denim, have the manufacturing company waive minimum quantity for styles and sizes, and brought the total minimum order quantity down from 3000 to 1000 through negotiations (since the Duck Store would only order 300 to start). Christina and her group believe that selling their first shipment of 1000 pairs of O-Jeans would not be difficult in a student body of over 22,000. They even have their distribution process down pat: Manufacturer (who has an exporting license so an intermediary is skipped) to Freight Forward (ship, insure, and import products to Port of Portland and they pick up merchandise there) to Duck Store to Storage (inventory).

Right now, cost is the most important factor for Duck Denim. The group wants to put the students first in all of their considerations because they are in fact student themselves. They’re still trying to find the right price point for students (approximately $45). They want the price to be affordable, but still be representative of a quality product. They also want the price to fit in with other products that the Duck Store sells, like sweatshirts ($15-30). The group is still in the process of sending out a marketing survey to help determine prices, styles, cuts, and designs. However, the most important quality they want to emphasize is the unique benefit of O-Jeans—the Oregon duck spirit.   

As for start-up funding, the group just finished their feasibility study and they want to be as conservative as possible in their estimates. As of now, the students only need $11,000 dollars for start-up money. The founding team is contributing $3-5000 and then will proceed to go to family and friends for funding. They want to bootstrap as long as possible before going to the bank. Based on projections, Duck Denim will breakeven by the first year and will not pay salaries for the first year. Their reasoning is what’s the point of paying each other and still having to pay other people?

What’s really left is waiting for the logo licensing to be approved. The Duck Store wants two different styles to start, so the Duck Denim Business Group will be in contact with a few UO alumni that used to work for major clothing retailers to design a fashionable pair of jeans that also shows school spirit. They also plan to launch a denim design contest across campus next year to gain awareness. Additionally, they are in the process of constructing a website and a Facebook page, which have a viral effect for marketing their jeans. The Duck Denim Business Group didn’t sign an exclusive agreement, so if the jeans prove to be profitable, there’s room to expand. In the future, they aim to expand their denim business across university campuses in Oregon, the West Coast, and throughout the USA. As for now, they hope to have the O-Jeans out by the end of Spring and just in time for IntroDUCKtion and Fall football. 

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