Pair of SHS athletes launch clothing company

SANDPOINT — Over the next few weeks with spring break upon us, kids forced to take classes online and the governor issuing a stay-home order, most students at Sandpoint High will be stuck inside watching every episode of “The Office” for the 57th time and scrolling through endless memes and videos about social isolation and the coronavirus.

But a pair of students and Bulldog athletes will be using that spare time to start their own clothing company.

Christian Story and Christian Niemela have spent the past three weeks creating designs, printing them out and putting them on clothing and have taken the first few steps in creating a business. The company is called Chienachy.

In French, Chien means dog and Chienachy is a Swedish twist on the word that Anton Morau, a foreign exchange student from Sweden that attended SHS last year, came up with.

What does it mean? Well that meaning is in the hands of the creators.

“It doesn’t really mean anything expect what we make it to be,” Niemela said. “It represents individuality and being an influencer and a creator. It’s basically like your own brand.”

This past summer Story, Niemela and Morau got together and decided they wanted to start a business together. They then threw around some entrepreneurial ideas, Morau brainstormed the name and they decided a clothing company was the route they wanted to go.

But the trio didn’t take the concept any further then that until three weeks ago when Niemela got bored and had some free time to mess around with Adobe Illustrator after finishing up some commitments at school. Across three class periods, Niemela was able to come up with Chienachy designs and logos that he thought would look good on clothing.

Two weeks later the group sold their first product on March 19 and have now sold 30 items overall. The venture started with a $300 loan from Niemela’s mom and a $500 loan from Story’s dad which the group has only used about half of. And, of course, they plan on paying back the two loans before pocketing any of the money for themselves.

Right now Niemela and Story are splitting the hands-on workload 50-50 to get the business up and running with Morau back home in Sweden. The group is selling white and black T-shirts, hoodies, crew necks, long sleeve shirts and crop tops but hope to expand to other colors and styles if the business catches fire.

The group is buying all the clothing from a wholesale website, jiffyshirts.com, and then taking the bare products to Nayla Morton’s classroom at the high school to put their designs on the clothing using digital heat transfers.

Morton, a CTE teacher at SHS, wrote a grant about 18 months ago to the state of Idaho asking for equipment to start a T-shirt making business and in January of 2019 the equipment and special printer arrived. Morton was hoping to reduce the amount of money the school spent on apparel and T-shirts by having the ability to make their own custom clothing inside the high school.

The school has used the equipment to print T-shirts for Battle for the Paddle, the annual powderpuff game and student run clubs. Now Niemela and Story are using it to help pursue a dream all three of the founding members of Chienachy had when they came up with the idea.

“I’ve always had the passion for wanting to be a part of a start-up business and actually being able to be a part of it is really enjoyable for me,” Story said.

In order to make their custom clothing, the group emailed Morton their designs and she printed them out. From there it was all Niemela and Story who used a heat press to put the Chienachy logo on each product.

When Niemela and Story designed their first piece of Chienachy clothing last Wednesday, Morton didn’t know the group intended on selling the clothing as part of a business but once she did she gave them some suggestions.

“We just talked through some of the things that I’ve already learned and the many mistakes I’ve made while learning this whole process,” she said.

Morton was willing to help the group when they approached her with the idea because that’s what she wanted to happen when she requested the equipment.

“We want them to become productive citizens,” she said, “and if they can take things that they learn or the resources we have at the school and use them to further themselves in society, we love to see that. That’s the whole reason why we are teachers and we do what we do.”

Next year, Morton will have a retail merchandising class that will essentially run like a print shop once students learn how to use the equipment. She said she’s impressed by what the group has accomplished in such a short period of time especially when it comes to getting complete strangers interested in buying their products through social media.

The young entrepreneurs have created an Instagram and Twitter account for Chienachy and are using their followers on their personal accounts to help promote the business and their products. Niemela has 19,000 followers on TikTok and has received messages from people around the country who are interested in buying a product from them.

Most of Chienachys’ customers so far have been local and they’ve paid using cash or Venmo but the group has personally shipped some items to people. Just recently, the group got its website (chienachy.com) up and running so people can order online.

On Tuesday, Story and Niemela spent five hours in Morton’s class designing their custom clothing but they won’t be able to use the equipment again until after spring break when the school opens back up. In the meantime, the pair is looking at several different options to continue designing products including going to Sand Creek Custom Wear.

Luckily, they have plenty of inventory to work with while they figure things out.

Story and Niemela are utilizing the lack of in-person classes to get the business started and have spent nearly every day over the past week on this project.

“Besides homework, this is the main thing that I’ve been doing for the past four, five days,” Story said.

If they start turning a profit, the group will need to apply for a business license but for now Story, Niemela and Morau are going to take it one day at a time and are enjoying applying skills they’ve learned in class to the real world.

“Right now we’re just going to see where it goes,” Niemela said. “I’d like to see if it can go long term, but we’re going to see.”

Chienachy hoodies are $40, crewnecks $35, long sleeves and crop tops $30 and t-shirts $20. For more information and to order visit chienachy.com.