News | Thursday, 15th December 2011
Student says pants to Christmas.
Website taking underwear world by storm
The recession may be hitting the high street this Christmas but young entrepreneur Andrew Pallett has had shoppers flocking to his online underwear site.
First year Business Management student Andrew is amazed by the response to Urban Alpha, the men’s underwear retailer he launched in November, and already has the world’s number one brand on board.
Despite only being in the first year of his degree at MMU Cheshire Andrew certainly seems to have found a gap in the market: “My Christmas sales have been even better than I had expected, I’ve already sold out of several styles - they are flying out to be honest.”
Andrew (23) had the idea for the business in 2009 when trawling the internet for a stocking-filler for his brother: “he wanted a particular pair of boxers, I was searching all over the internet and I had about 20 tabs open.
“Then I literally had a eureka moment, I took a sip of my tea and thought I could do this better, so then that became my focus, I became totally obsessed with pants.”
Pants under where?
Andrew spent over a year doing market research and making contact with underwear brands before registering Urban Alpha as a limited company earlier this year. At the moment his house is full of stock because of the Christmas rush: “the bath is full of pants, my room is full of pants, in fact there is not a room in my house which doesn’t have pants in it.”
The 23 year old student didn’t let his lack of industry experience or the current economic climate daunt him. He used LinkedIn to identify Key figures in the industry and make contact with them. They have been so impressed with his initiative that he has managed to get top brands like Diesel and Calvin Klein, both companies who are fiercely protective of their brand, on board within his first few weeks of trading.
He is aiming for it to be the top rated website men go to for underwear and is passionate about being the best at what he does: “There are lots of places which do men’s underwear but none which only do men’s underwear – it seems to be an afterthought most of the time, and isn’t always done very well. It’s quite a niche market, but the response I have had and the market research I did has showed me that there definitely is a market of urban, young professional males looking for somewhere to buy their pants.”
Student businessman
Andrew also thinks that being a student has helped him get in the door of big brands and industry leaders: “people in the industry have been taking a lot of notice, some are even going as far as to offer me advice and help me out.”
Andrew is combining Urban Alpha with a part-time degree in Business Management and says the knowledge he is gaining on the course is helping him towards achieving his business objectives.
Andrew adds: “It’s so exciting seeing the response I have been getting, I am going to keep working hard, keep getting up at 5am, keep knocking on the doors of industry and get even more big brands on board.”
