A Re-markable idea

Peachgrove Intermediate students, Josephine Sharp (left) and Emily Donderwinkel (right), have a go designing their very own Re-markable t-shirt, while Hannah Beatson looks on.

Always searching for that perfect fashion item that allows you to make a bold personal statement?

Well, a team of remarkable Young Enterprise students from Waikato Diocesan School for Girls might have come up with the fashion solution.

Year 13 students Roxanna Kelson, Hannah Beatson, Jessica Boerema, Shanae O’Hara, and Celeste Van Dam have put the remarkable back in to the marker pen, developing the Squiggle Re-markable T-shirt Company (www.squiggle.co.nz) as part of the 2008 Lion Foundation Young Enterprise Scheme (YES).

The Re-markable t-shirts, which include a set of 10 coloured marker pens, enables you to draw your own design directly on to the fabric, wow your friends and family, throw it into the washing machine that evening, and start all over again with a new design the next day.

The product has already won the five shareholders the YES Business Plan Award and Business Card Competition.

The Young Enterprise Scheme is a learning experience for young people, in which senior secondary school students form a company; become directors; develop products and services, which they market and sell.

Squiggle’s target market is primary and pre-school aged children, but they decided to test the product on their Dio school-mates.

“The positive response was unexpected with the students taking to them instantly,” says Hannah Beatson, managing director.

“The Squiggle Re-markable t-shirts are now making regular appearances at school sports and social events, and mufti days.”

The t-shirts, supported by Crayola, even became the unofficial uniform for the recent annual Dio journey to St Christopher’s Orphanage in Fiji.

“I think the appeal is that it gives people the opportunity to make a creative statement about themselves or their beliefs. Then, after a quick spin in the washing machine, you can make a completely new statement the following day,” says Hannah.

The next part of the Squiggle business plan is a fund-raising initiative for local primary schools and kindergartens.

Hannah says that the t-shirts, which retail at $25, will be marketed to local schools with $2 from each sale going back into the school’s fund-raising coffers.

“The product was so successful with the teenage market, we feel confident that it will be a huge hit with the younger market too,” she says.

Local businessman Ken Williamson, who along with Rene Swindley mentors the talented young business women, says that they have created a strong and successful business which truly reflects the entrepreneurial spirit that Young Enterprise celebrates.

“Every member of the company has demonstrated good leadership, innovation, passion and the focus to create a successful business,” he says.

“I believe that this product could be a huge success. They have come up with a bold creative idea which has mass appeal,” he says.

And the girls certainly have big plans for the Squiggle Re-markable T-shirt Company. Four of the five are planning to study business at Waikato Management School next year allowing them to stay together and keep developing their product. The fifth member is heading on a gap year to the United Kingdom, but, with that true entrepreneurial outlook, she’ll be taking some product with her to test the international market!