Verde Styles was an eco-friendly apparel line started in college. For every shirt sold a tree was planted. It’s probably the catalyst for my entrepreneurial spirit today. It also sparked my love for web development and building products.

Throughout the years of building Verde Styles, I got to meet and work with so many cool people. It was a learning experience of a lifetime.

Below is text taken from the about page:

The Roots

In our sophomore year of college at Temple University, we came to the realization that getting a normal office job was not the way we wanted to live our lives. As aspiring entrepreneurs, Temple’s BYOB Bowl couldn’t have been more appealing with a $50,000 grand prize along with $30,000 is business mentorship and professional programs. With this opportunity to seize our dream, we decided to complete a business plan for a conceptual clothing company with the concept of “One Tee=One Tree.” With little experience and a busy school schedule, building our business plan took countless hours to complete. Although we ended up losing, we now had a clear and easy plan (…or so we thought) to launch Verde Styles.

It’s all fun and games

The following school semester, we found success in hosting t-shirt sales and recycling drives at different universities such as Temple, West Chester, and the University of Pittsburgh. Students loved our exciting music filled events and what we were trying to accomplish with our brand. Shenanigans such as dance-offs and tree costumes were commonplace for most of our events. With each event more successful than the next, we were able to donate enough money to plant 2000 trees with the help of American Forests. However, during the summer of 2010, Verde Styles did not have enough funds from events organized during the school year to continue to expand. We needed something and something quick.

Pepsi Refresh Project

Miraculously, we stumbled upon a commercial for the Pepsi Refresh Project, a new promotion from Pepsi giving away millions to people with good ideas. An epic month of promoting ensued as we worked around the clock building our fan base and getting more votes. Thanks to the help of our friends, family, and fans, Verde Styles received the $25,000 grant and was now ready to take it to the next level. Winning this grant gave us the ability to expand our clothing line overnight. We were able to produce much better products in a short period of time. Our fan base started to grow exponentially from state to state and we were getting orders everywhere from Alabama to Oregon. If this wasn’t enough, we were contacted by 6ABC to do a 5-minute segment about our company.

Marky Mark III

…then came Mark III; the Verde Van. During the summer of 2011, Mark III and the Verde Team travelled far from Philly to promote the brand. This journey, rightfully named the Verde Nation Tour, featured stops up and down the east coast. The kickoff to our adventure started in East Rutherford, NJ for the premiere northeast music festival, BAMBOOZLE. As newbies in the vending world, we had our doubts going up against other brands doing this for years. To our surprise, we sold more than 400 tees in the next three days and judging from the response of our fans, we knew we had something special. The tour was extremely successful and concluded with a memorable experience in Toronto for NXNE.

A Special Thanks

I speak for everyone when I say this journey was a wild roller coaster of a ride. The people we have met, obstacles we have faced, and fans we made have collectively inspired us to create the brand you see today. After getting to know us, you will realize Verde Styles is more than just clothing brand. Our hard work, philanthropic attitude, and optimistic character have led thousands to join The Verde Nation and help us continue to make a difference the world. Now it is your turn to join the Verde Nation.

Create. Educate. Alleviate.