Many Loyola students are aspiring businessmen and hope to develop their skills in entrepreneurship in college. Numerous upperclassmen have decided to get a head start on their careers by starting their own businesses during their time at Loyola. These Cubs are learning new ways to explore and use their talents while making a little money along the way.
One senior businessman is Cameron Chavez, founder of Cam’s Customs. Chavez specializes in graphic design and creates custom cleats and sportswear.
He started small doing small jobs for his friends and teammates on the lacrosse team during his freshman year and now has large scale partnerships with the Loyola football team and minor league athletes such as Andrew Morales, a pitcher for the St. Louis Cardinals’ AAA baseball team.
Cam’s Customs, Chavez said, “can take the ideas of the client and express them onto the product that they choose.” Chavez does not plan to pursue this business or business transition planning after graduation, instead hoping to pursue product design in college.
“It’s been a great experience to be able to run a business at such a young age, and I am thankful for everyone who has been able to help me with it,” Chavez said.
Other startups at Loyola include Kole Lim’s sportswear customization business. Lim started his business during his freshman year by cleaning cleats for his teammates on his soccer club. Lim started painting and customizing his own cleats and wearing them to his soccer games and players from other clubs began to ask for Lim to customize their cleats as well.
Lim saw that players on his team were unhappy with the limited design options available and he made a business out of that opportunity.
Lim said, “I wanted to do something that I hadn’t seen done before. Who wants to customize and clean their own shoes?”
“This business is important to me,” Lim said. “After I finish customizing a shoe, I feel really accomplished–I feel really proud of myself and what I can do.”