URBAN TACTICS: AND BLOOMINGDALE'S RETURNS HIS CALLS

República Trading Co., born and raised in New York City, is the premiere multi-cultural brand. The República collection is created for the lifestyle minded, trans-cultural trend-setter, who appreciates well designed, detail-centric products. República was founded by Rafael Jimenez in order to help fill a void in the market place for better quality goods for the multi-cultural consumer.

Rooster logo: to evoke rural Latin America

www.republicatrading.com

The article by Seth Kugel describes the beginning success of an entrepreneur in the clothing industry, whose name is Rafael Jimenez. Being a graduate of New York University, Jimenez incorporated his business as the Republica Trading Company. The brand started selling t-shirts, caps, shirts, pants and jackets in a variety of colors and styles. In the recent year, Republica's clothing "landed in some impressive venues-11 of Bloomingdale's 31 stores, including stores on both coasts" (p. 429). The author tells a story about Jimenez, who has started selling his first t-shirts $20 each back in 1995. The idea came after the entrepreneur saw someone wearing Banana Republic T-shirt, and thought that he could have changed the word "Banana" for "Dominican" to sell t-shirts in his neighborhood, where almost all of the residents had roots from the Dominican Republic. So, he was able to sell 12 of those. During all summer, Jimenez was able to sell more than 300. Then, he started creating t-shirts with different logos, such as "Choco-Latina", "Dominican Baby", "Bizcocho" and etc. Later, in 2004, the collection included t-shirts with logos, including words like "Culture", "Peace", and "Revolution". The theme of the products connects to the Latin cultures. One day Rafael shared a cab with the buyer from Federated Department Stores, including Bloomingdales. The meeting has led to a successful chain's decision to sell Republica's T-shirts and hats across the country. Today, Mr. Jimenez sees himself more as an entrepreneur than fashion-industry lifer. 

Kugel, S. (2006). Urban Tactics: And Bloomingdale's Returns His Calls. Fashion as Social  

             Process. The Meanings of Dress. 428-430, 2nd Ed., Fairchild Publications, Inc. New York, NY

When creating the company, Jimenez’s goal was to create traditional and well-designed products with great quality that represent the diversity, lifestyle and rich cultural traditions of Latin Americans and people of multi-cultural backgrounds around the world. When Rafael Jimenez first began selling his product, he started out with T-shirts only. Later on, he gradually expanded his products to caps, shirts, pants, and jackets. However, he was still strong in the sales of his T-shirts. Republic Trading Co. became so successful that Federated Department Stores, Bloomingdale’s parent company, began carrying the products across the county. However, as a freelance producer and after so much success, Jimenez still is not convinced that he wants fashion as a full time job.

After researching the company a little more, it was quite fascinating to discover that República Trading Co. no longer sells T-shirts, or any type of clothing. Instead, the company has transformed into selling eyewear (glasses and sunglasses). It was quite surprising to see that the online store was no longer selling T-shirts, which was their best selling product.

This article is an inspirational story about a Dominican
 entrepreneur named Rafael Jimenez. Rafael Jimenez
 took an idea he got while riding on A train of a t-shirt design and managed to eventually start his own clothing company called Republica Trading Company. The article discusses his journey from selling T-shirts on his neighborhood streets for $20 to having his T-shirts designs being sold in 11 of Bloomingdale’s 31 stores, including stores on both coasts. By starting his business, Republica Trading Company , Jimenez’s made a splash in the Latino market and retailers began to recognize the power and scope of young Latino market. He definitely opened the door for the Latino market in the fashion industry.  Rafael Jimenez is not only an inspiration to Latinos, but to all from urban areas and minorities. This shows that one should always dream big, take chances, and aim high. Also to always pursue your ideas, any idea no matter how small can have endless possibilities. 

It is clear that Rafael Jiminez has made it successful in his career in the fashion industry. It was fascinating and pretty intersting to to read how he got his brand name, how he was riding up town on a train and then he noticed somebody wearing a Banana Republic t-shirt when he thought to himself that he should change the word Banana to Dominican and sell the t-shirts around his neighborhood where everybody had roots in the Dominican Republic. When Rafael printed about 12 Dominican t-shirts and sold them around his neighboorhood for about 20 dollars each and they were all gone in about 20 minutes. He was thinking about making t-shirts for Dominicans and people were telling him that it would not work out because supposedly the Dominicans want the "tacky stuff." Rafael did not listen to anyone and did whatever he wanted. This is a good example because if you truly want something and you truly want to make it happen, you should go for it no matter what anybody says!