{"id":18486,"date":"2020-03-17T03:17:27","date_gmt":"2020-03-17T03:17:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/pegasus\/?p=18486&post_type=story"},"modified":"2020-06-10T16:08:25","modified_gmt":"2020-06-10T16:08:25","slug":"stylish-and-sustainable","status":"publish","type":"story","link":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/pegasus\/stylish-and-sustainable\/","title":{"rendered":"Stylish and Sustainable"},"content":{"rendered":"

Spring 2020 | By Jenna Marina Lee<\/em><\/p>\n

[sidebar background=”#eaf2f9″ position=”right” content_align=”center” class=”col-md-4″]
\n\"headshot<\/p>\n

WHO<\/p>\n

Kelsey Bressler \u201914<\/strong><\/p>\n

THE PITCH<\/p>\n

Stylish beach essentials\u00a0\u2014 from swimwear to\u00a0totes and towels \u2014\u00a0produced ethically and\u00a0sustainably<\/p>\n

THE INSPIRATION<\/p>\n

As a native Floridian\u00a0whose family hails\u00a0from Trinidad and\u00a0Tobago, Bressler grew\u00a0up at the beach and was\u00a0always on a quest to\u00a0find the perfect bikini.\u00a0So she decided to start\u00a0making her own and\u00a0wanted her line to\u00a0be environmentally\u00a0conscious.<\/p>\n

BACKERS<\/p>\n

122 backers pledged\u00a0$12,454 through\u00a0Kickstarter<\/p>\n

WHERE YOU CAN FIND IT<\/p>\n

SocaBlue.com<\/p>\n

Pop-up shops in South\u00a0Florida (advertised\u00a0through social media\u00a0@shopsocablue)<\/em><\/p>\n

\"SocaBlue
\n[\/sidebar]<\/p>\n

[lead]The transaction flashed across her screen \u2014 Kelsey\u00a0Bressler \u201914<\/strong> sold a bathing suit she designed to\u00a0someone in New Jersey, and she knew right then\u00a0she had a viable business plan.[\/lead]<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u00a0literally did the happy dance. They weren\u2019t one of my\u00a0backers. They weren\u2019t on my email list. They weren\u2019t a friend,\u00a0or a friend of a friend,\u201d says Bressler, a Jupiter, Florida, resident.\u00a0\u201cThey found me organically, and that was amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"SocaBlue<\/p>\n

In 2018, Bressler started Soca Blue, a company that offers\u00a0sustainable swimwear, hats, totes and towels. She earned her\u00a0degree in sport and exercise science<\/a> but says she always had\u00a0an entrepreneurial drive and envisioned running her own\u00a0company, so she minored in business<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Although she maintains a 9-to-5 job as a private banker,\u00a0she says she has a passion for fashion and wants her company\u00a0to have a larger purpose.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I found this fabric that uses half as much water [to make], produces half as much waste, and uses recycled materials such as plastics, I thought, \u2018I can actually be proud of what I\u2019m doing. I\u2019m not leaving this horrible footprint on the Earth,\u2019 \u201d Bressler says.<\/p>\n

\"SocaBlue<\/p>\n

The fashion industry is one of the environment\u2019s worst\u00a0offenders. According to the United Nations, it accounts for\u00a0about 10 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. If nothing\u00a0changes, the Ellen MacArthur Foundation estimates \u201cthe\u00a0industry will use up a quarter of the world\u2019s carbon budget\u00a0by 2050.\u201d In addition, clothes release millions of tons of\u00a0microfibers into the ocean every year, equivalent to more than\u00a050 billion plastic bottles.<\/p>\n

After researching online, Bressler found Vita by\u00a0Carvico, a fabric made in Italy from recycled materials,\u00a0including fishing nets, carpet fluff and other discarded\u00a0nylons. She also found an ethically certified\u00a0manufacturer in Bali to craft her designs.<\/p>\n

Her Kickstarter campaign funded her first\u00a0collection, and she sold her product to customers\u00a0worldwide.<\/p>\n

\"SocaBlue<\/p>\n

Within the same year, she began designing and\u00a0producing her second line, but she realized her goal of\u00a0breaking into major retailers such as Bloomingdale\u2019s\u00a0and Saks Fifth Avenue was a little too ambitious for\u00a0the current size of her company. So she re-evaluated and\u00a0slowed down but is as committed as ever to being successful.<\/p>\n

\u201cI offer really unique products, and I learned there\u2019s nothing\u00a0wrong in keeping it that way. I don\u2019t need to go commercial,\u201d\u00a0Bressler says. \u201cSixty percent of my clients are repeat customers,\u00a0and that\u2019s the best compliment I could receive about my product.\u00a0I plan to stay true to what the brand stands for and continue to\u00a0produce something that I love.\u201d<\/p>\n

[blockquote source=”Kelsey Bressler \u201914<\/strong>” cite=”” color=”#0098a2″ css_class=””]\u201cWhen I found this fabric that uses half as much water [to make], produces half as much waste, and uses recycled materials such as plastics, I thought, \u2018I can actually be proud of what I\u2019m doing. I\u2019m not leaving this horrible footprint on the Earth.\u2019 \u201d [\/blockquote]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":18656,"template":"","categories":[1408],"tags":[1443,324,1441,1442],"class_list":["post-18486","story","type-story","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-launchpad","tag-business","tag-college-of-business","tag-sport-and-exercise-science","tag-sustainability","issues-1462","issues-spring-2020"],"yoast_head":"\nA UCF Grad's Stylish and Sustainable Approach to Swimwear<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Native Floridian Kelsey Bressler '14 launched Soca Blue in 2018 to take a stand in the sand to offer more eco-friendly fashion.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/pegasus\/stylish-and-sustainable\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" 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