In 2019, Shao Qing and Wan Yee (Class of 2015) launched their activewear apparel line, Ezra Outdoors. Driven by their passion to do things differently in the industry as with supply chain, design and branding, the 2 of them sought to create their own lifestyle brand during their university years. Ezra Outdoors provides upgraded basics that are built for activity and designed for everyday endeavours, with a focus on body image positivity and transparency. Check out Ezra Outdoors at https://ezraoutdoors.com/.
The both of you launched your activewear clothing line, Ezra Outdoors back in April 2019. What inspired you to get into the fashion e-commerce industry?
Shao Qing:
There were many reasons which got us interested in this. The 2 of us shared a common interest in running a business and the whole retail fashion e-commerce space, so the idea of starting the business and the direction we wanted to head in came quite easily to us.
But in all honesty, what actually got us on our feet to start the business was when Wan Yee texted me after one of our yearly meetups. She asked me if we should go to Guangzhou, a major manufacturing hub in China just to take a look at the clothing manufacturers that were there as part of our holiday getaway.
When we got there we found that the local manufacturers were actually quite impressive. A lot of them matched up to our standards. It felt feasible to expand on our business idea for a clothing line and so we decided to take the plunge from there.
Wan Yee:
I think launching and running a business is not the most difficult aspect, but rather the hardest part about it all is taking the first step. And for us, it just happened that the first step was relatively easier to take because we were already on the ground in Guangzhou and we really liked the clothing pieces we saw from the manufacturer we had selected.
“I would say that for anyone who wants to start a business, you shouldn’t just think so much just about running it, but rather focus on how you can get on your feet and have the courage to take the first step out there.”
How does Ezra Outdoors differ from the existing outdoor apparel shops?
Wan Yee:
At Ezra Outdoors, our aim is to make clothes that can be worn from studio to street, which are pieces that aren’t just built for physical activities, but are also suitable for your everyday endeavours. Existing retailers in the market typically provide expensive high functionality wear which aren’t very versatile, so you can only wear them at the gym but not head straight to town in them. But nowadays, people want clothes that are not just able to retain their functionality, but also go along well with the rest of their wardrobe. So we’re trying to make products that will straddle the price and versatility range very well, providing affordable outdoor wear that you can even wear to town for brunch after hitting the gym.
Beyond just the physical product, we’re also looking at things like supply chain and branding.
Currently in the local market a lot of players are bringing in their products from China, which is a viable option because it’s cheap and it makes business sense. Firstly, when you buy manufactured goods from China, you’re basically getting a white labelled product that is mass produced. This supports big chinese factories that have very opaque production practices, where things like the treatment and compensation of their workers aren’t made known to us. We wanted a more transparent supply chain, so we now work with a small studio based in Bali, Indonesia to produce our pieces. A small business like ours, the studio is run by an Indonesian lady who commits to providing fair and flexible work opportunities for her community.
In addition, we also focus on differentiating ourselves through branding. When you look at different brands on the market, they tend to focus on making themselves look great, having perfect aesthetics by using professional models who look great in athletic wear. But we don’t agree with this portrayal of body image, so we’re trying to challenge that by incorporating people with different body types, sizes and skin tones as models.
All in all, it’s a lifestyle brand, it’s not just an active wear or outdoor brand that we are trying to build.
Did the both of you conceive this idea while you were still in NJC? Or was it thought out after you graduated?
Wan Yee:
We didn’t have the idea of starting specifically an outdoor clothing line back then. Back in NJ, the 2 of us weren’t actually super close even though we knew each other. We first bonded and got closer because the both of us had a very difficult time growing up, especially with things like healthy eating and managing stress.
“I think that the body positivity part of outdoor wear is something that local retailers downplayed a lot, and that’s something that we wanted to change. ”
So we didn’t pursue this idea simply because we wanted to start a clothing brand, because anyone can do that nowadays with platforms like Taobao. We’re trying to make a brand that has a voice, and the reasons behind that voice are the mutual struggles that Shao Qing and I had growing up, and we didn’t want other girls to feel like these struggles are normal growing up. So this objective that we had was what prompted us to create our own line of clothing in the area of outdoor wear.
As young students in secondary school/junior college, it’s often difficult to pinpoint exactly which career path you would want to take in the future. Did you always know that you would want to join the fashion industry when you were younger?
Shao Qing:
For the 2 of us, it’s not so much about knowing exactly which exact industry we wanted to be in the future. But we were more focused on first having a purpose and ambition, then going on to find an industry that best fits us. So I wouldn’t say that we always knew that we would end up entering the fashion scene. Wan Yee and I actually don’t study anything related to fashion and retail in university, Wan Yee studies business and I do philosophy. But we always knew that we wanted to start something by ourselves.
“I think that you don’t always have to know exactly which specific job you want or which specific industry you are going to enter, but it’s important for you to know what you want to accomplish with your life and what kind of change you want to make. ”
Wan Yee:
And on top of that, I think that it’s important to know what you like. Shao Qing and I share the same interests in things like retail, branding and marketing. And those things just come naturally in the consumer facing business. At the heart of it all, if you don’t know what exactly you want to do next time, at the very least you need to know what you like and what you don’t mind spending time doing.
What were some of the challenges you faced so far in setting up your own business in your early 20s, and how did you overcome them?
Shao Qing:
From a skills based perspective, I would say that a challenge when you run your own business is that the way you do, learn and work around things is very different. Coming out of NJ when we were younger, we’re used to following instructions and having things drawn out very clearly for us in terms of project scope.
“When you run your own business, you need to adapt to the fact that there aren’t any of these perimeters and guidelines drawn out clearly for you.”
This means that you have a lot of freedom regarding the things that you can do. It becomes very important for you to strategise and be very clear about what you want to do and how you want to do it. I think this is a stark contrast compared to not just what we do back in NJ, but also what we do in university.
When it comes to picking up skills and learning things, you need to be super on the ball and snappy, because as a small business like ours, it doesn’t make fiscal sense to hire someone else to do a lot of tasks. So Wan Yee and I have both picked up a range of skills that we wouldn’t have picked up in school that we wouldn’t have necessarily thought about picking up as well. We learnt Adobe, coding and SEO related matters. At the start, there seems like there’s a mountain of tasks to do, but over time you learn to be ok with exploring things you wouldn’t normally explore and going around asking and learning from other people. I think that on that front, it is very important to be flexible and quick to learn, and also be very open to change and comments as well.
So for the 2 of us, being able to pick up these skills on the go, and knowing which one of us is better at which skill is very important to us.
Wan Yee:
Yeah, when you are starting a business there are a lot of things that you have to do by yourself. Firstly, if you are working with someone, communication is key and I cannot emphasize this enough. There are a lot of things that can go wrong when you don’t communicate things through, and this can lead to a lot of disagreements.
Regarding learning new things, you have to be sure that you like it, because there are a lot of things you have to pick up on along the way. Starting a business as a young person, you have to treat it like a learning process. Even though we could have outsourced tasks to someone else with the relevant experience, we chose to do it ourselves and spend the time learning and improving ourselves. That’s the main attitude that worked for us.
Building your own business from scratch is definitely no easy task, and a lot of times we tend to have doubts and second guess ourselves along the way. What advice would you give to your juniors in NJC who are looking to venture into entrepreneurship in the future?
Shao Qing:
Personally, I think having these doubts are normal and they are always part of the process regardless of age. For me, what keeps me going and prevents me from spiraling out of control is that I have Wan Yee to talk to as a partner for me to share my worries and concerns with. I think that having someone who is not just there to listen to your problems, but also someone who can also be there to help you work through your problem really helps. For the 2 of us, the way we deal with self doubt is to act on it and do something about it.
Wan Yee:
I think for people who are thinking about whether to make a big decision or not, you need to know what you are sacrificing before you come to a final decision. If you messed up something and wasted your time or money, it’s alright because you just exchanged that time or money for a lesson. As opposed to just not making a decision and wondering your whole life whether or not to go ahead with your idea, because then you would never accomplish anything.
Once you decide to go ahead with an idea, make sure you commit to it. If you decided that you would spend 2 hours a week working on that idea, make sure you do it and don’t give up. The process might be painful but at the end of the day you will get gratification. If you have self doubts, you can also write it out and prioritise and order your doubts and the benefits that come with addressing those doubts to address them systematically.
Back in NJ, I was a very different person. I took BCME and I wanted to be a doctor and get a scholarship. But I would say that to any NJCian coming out of NJ or university, what I didn’t know then was that I shouldn’t conform. I shouldn’t be overly fixated on being a doctor just because I was good at biology and my parents and my friends told me to become one. Instead I should be asking myself what do I like to do? How do I get there? I’m still trying to figure these things out now, but it’s definitely good to start thinking early.
Putting yourself out there and connecting with other people from different professions is definitely a good way to find out more about different pathways that you could take in the future.
Shao Qing:
Yes, I agree. I think the key question that younger NJCians should be asking themselves isn’t just what course they want to study and what job they want in the future. Don’t just think of things very linearly, but see things in a broader view and on a longer term basis. What do you want to do in your life? What change do you want to make, no matter how small it is, and how do you want to go about making it?
Back in NJ I always thought of things as a process; I need to study this course to get into this industry, and from this industry I can do this. But there’s no need to think this way. You can take a step back and ponder about what you really want in the greater scheme of things, and from there you can reverse engineer to figure out what are the steps you need to take. From doing so, you’ll realise that a lot of these processes and procedures that you think you need to follow, aren’t actually the only ways for you to do things and accomplish your goals.