Jersey Champs——北美最大的球衣品牌，Instagram 上坐拥百万粉丝，曾与 Meek Mill , Lil Uzi Vert , Young Thug , Lil Yachty , Lil Pump , Fatboy SSE , Mark Cuban , Action Bronson, Khalid, Logic, Wale 等一众音乐人企业家合作过。设计中颠覆了传统的操作，将球衣元素和大热的Hiphop文化巧妙的结合起来，在 Jersey 产业中掀起了变革的浪潮。
今天我们有幸请到了 Jersey Champs 的创始人 Sean Kelly, 这位罗格斯大学的辍学生，福布斯纽约委员会成员，千万富翁，Entrepreneur、Forbes、BuzzFeed 的熟面孔，让 Sean 带我们一起走进他的 Jersey 帝国。
FWO: 是什么样的机缘巧合让您有了创立 Jersey Champs 的想法？
What ignited the spark in you to start Jersey Champs?
Sean: “我从小就对做生意感兴趣，再加上球衣一直是我最常穿的衣服，所以我一直希望能够变革球衣产业，设计出独特的产品，为消费者提供在传统球衣商店以外的更多选择。我们开始把球衣元素和嘻哈文化结合之后，已然将其变为大势，像是 Lids 这样的大公司也纷纷开始效仿我们的做法。”
“I’ve always wanted to be a business owner and I wear jerseys more than any other clothing apparel. I also wanted to revolutionize the jersey world with extremely unique jerseys that wouldn’t be able to be purchased from your typical jersey store. Since changing the jersey world, companies like Lids have copied our idea and started distributing jerseys.”
FWO: 你的第一笔创业启动资金是哪儿来的？你是怎样得到这笔投资的？
Where did your first funding/capital come from, and how did you go about getting it?
Sean：”我们公司并没有任何投资者，在创立初期，靠着预售得来的一千刀，在一个星期内售罄一百件，靠着这样的模式做到了今天。在这里我要给创业者们一个建议：做电商并不一定需要投资者，源源不断的订单已然可以为你提供足够的资金以实现品牌/企业的有机增长。”
“We did not take on any investors. The company was started with $1,000 that came from “preorders” on our first jersey design. I would recommend not to take on investors for an ecommerce business, as the money you get from orders will provide enough funding to grow organically.”
FWO: 我们注意到 Jersey Champs 与许多说唱歌手、身价过亿的企业家有着良好的合作，您是怎样建立起品牌与名人之间的联系呢？
How do you build the connection with celebrities and do the collaborations with them?
Sean: “我们通过 Ins 上 Direct Message 联系到各路名人/艺术家，并与他们合作，我们公司有专人每天负责这个项目。Gary Vaynerchuk 一直在强调 Instagram DM 不容小觑的力量，我认为当前绝大部分人都低估了 Ins 在联络名人中能发挥出的重要作用。”
“We have partnered with numerous celebrities and artists through Instagram direct message. We also have an employee sending out emails to managers on a daily basis. Gary Vaynerchuk mentions the power of the Instagram DM all the time, and it certainly is a very undervalued tool for contacting celebrities.”
FWO: 您是怎样在 Instagram 上吸粉百万的？
How did you grow your Instagram Page to 1 Million Followers?
Sean: “与各种博主的互动，付费的广告都起了不小的作用，加入“百万俱乐部”并不容易，我们花了整整两年的时间，在广告上投入了至少$50,000才获得了现在的关注度。而毋庸置疑的是，拥有近百万粉丝的ig账号绝对是一个绝佳的平台去推广产品，实现品牌长期价值。”
“Through a combination of influencers, engagement groups and paid shoutouts. It was not easy and i’d say it costed over $50,000 in advertising money and two years of hard work. The 1 million follower club is a great place to be in and provides extremely brand legitimacy and long term value.”
FWO: 您每天工作多少个小时？给我们描述一下您的一天吧。
Describe/outline your typical day? How many hours do you work a day on average?
Sean: “…目前我每天大概工作6-8个小时，因为我把很多机械性的冗长的任务都分配下去给员工做了，这也是我很推荐的有效提高效率的方法，我创业初期的时候工作时间大概是每天12到15个小时。老板这个身份给了我更大的灵活性，可以按照自己的节奏前进，所以有时候凌晨三点我还在工作…”
“I begin the day with a customer service recap from the virtual assistant team and answer and pressing matters. Then i will post on our social channels and answer my personal email inquiries. I have a to do list every day and it contains different tasks such as business meetings, create new jersey designs, phone calls, etc. No day ever has the same schedule. Being an entrepreneur gives you the flexibility to work on your own hours so I often find myself working until 3 in the morning. I’d say I work around 6-8 hours per day now, but it used to be 12-15 when I was first starting out. Now I have outsourced a lot of the tedious tasks which I highly recommend to any business owner as soon as they can afford it.”
FWO: 您在创业期间经历过什么挫折吗？这些挫折给您了怎样的启示？
What have been some of your failures, and what have you learned from them?
Sean:” 去年十二月我们并没有准备足够的库存，而面对着假期季井喷的订单，我们迟迟发不出货，只能给数百个订单全额退款，直接导致了$75,000的损失，这次挫折也给我好好地上了一课，今年我们会在七八月就做好库存的储备。”
“Always be prepared for the holiday season. Last December we did not have enough inventory to fulfill all the holiday orders and we became heavily backordered. We had to refund hundreds of orders and lost over $75,000. This year, we will stock up on inventory in July/August and be prepared.”
FWO: 您觉得十年或二十年之后您和您的公司会达到怎样的高度？
Where you see yourself and your business in 10 years/20 years?
Sean: “我们每年的销售额都在迅猛的增长，吞掉其他公司的市场占有率，到那时很有可能已经被 Fanatics 或者是这个行业里的巨头并购了。”
“Most likely be acquired by Fanatics or another jersey company by then as we are eating into their market share at an increasing rate every year.”
