STEVEN Bailey, 21, and Jack Comer, 22, both grew up dreaming of designing unique and inspiring clothing.
Last month, their childhood dreams became reality with the official launch of www.heatedapparel.ca.
Based in North Vancouver, Heated Apparel creates T-shirts geared towards men and women between the ages of 13 and 30.
Bailey said their T-shirts aim to be thought provoking. "With clothing nowadays and you see someone wearing a T-shirt and it's just a logo of some company - you're basically paying to advertise a company," Bailey said. "With every single shirt we design there is a lot of meaning behind it."
Heated Apparel's clothing line, The Original Six, offers six T-shirt designs that are available for a limited time only. Shirts are $33 each plus shipping. "These shirts that are out there right now; once they are gone they are gone," Bailey said. "Then we will come out with more shirts with different designs. We have more than 200 different designs."
In 2009, Bailey and Comer met each other through friends of friends. Comer mentioned his goal of creating his own clothing line to Bailey and shortly afterwards they partnered up.
"I approached Steve. I knew he wanted to do something similar to what I was doing," Comer said. "I knew his taste for fashion and I knew he was into the same stuff as I am and I knew he was a good free-hand drawer."
"I've wanted to have a clothing company my whole life," Bailey said. "I've always wanted to do something like this."
Bailey and Comer are both proud of being from North Vancouver and they show that off in their clothing designs.
"Both of us are overly proud to not only be from Vancouver but from the North Shore," Bailey said.
"I feel like we have something to be really proud of and it hasn't really been recognized," Comer said. "We are going to try and have one shirt in every batch of six designs that recognizes either Vancouver or North Vancouver."
All of Heated Apparel's products are locally made and the shirts are printed by Bold Merchandising, a Vancouver-based company.
Both Bailey and Comer still live in North Vancouver. Bailey attended Capilano University for business and Comer is a Carson Graham secondary graduate.
"I've learned more in the last four months doing this clothing line than I've learned in my post-secondary career," Bailey said. "When we are working we are having fun with it. It's the best job I've ever had in my life."
Since last month's launch, Heated Apparel has received orders from across Canada including Calgary, Montreal and Kingston, Ont. as well as from France.
Heated Apparel can only be bought online on the company's website, but its founders one day hope to sell and distribute their clothing at retail. "Eventually we want to get into stores," Bailey said. "Right now we are just taking baby steps." To see all designs visit www. heatedapparel.ca.
