Creating a lifestyle: HáRBëR Clothing is more than just an urban apparel line.
Pronounced like “hare bear,” HáRBëR Clothing is a new urban apparel line founded by three friends in their early twenties — Taylor Ross, Harry Berduo, and Luca Pignatiello — who grew up in Framingham, Mass. HaRBëR produces t-shirts, tank tops, hoodies, beanies, and baseball caps.
Author: Yuri NevesA skateboarder in Boston wears a HáRBëR Clothing sweatshirt.
The genesis of HáRBëR Clothing was inspired by an early drawing of a bear by Harry Berduo who was called hare bear in high school. According to Pignatiello, Harry had always wanted to start a clothing line and had the logo “but we never really had much behind the logo when it started.” Luca wanted to bring the idea to Taylor because “I knew he was a very smart kid and we’ve been friends for a long time. I knew he could bring certain things that maybe that I think I wouldn’t be as great in.”
So, Luca and Harry brought the idea to Taylor who at the time was in the midst of graduating from Emmanuel College with a Major in Management and a Concentration in Accounting in 2013. The three met over several days to brainstorm ideas for a company and came up with the name HáRBëR, which is a combination of the first three letters of Harry’s first and last names.
However, they wanted to be more than just a clothing line. They wanted to create a lifestyle, a brand, something that people would also want to get behind. So, they came up with the phrase Have A Reason…Be Ëvery Reason…an acronym and a positive message, if you will, which supports their four principles: purpose, determination, motivation, and success. “We believe that through purpose and determination one finds motivation to achieve success,” says Pignatiello.
Ross’ inspiration for HáRBëR Clothing came from several sources. “I’ve always had entrepreneurial influences from my mom’s side and my dad’s side. My grandfather started his own business and was able to employ my uncles and my father. My mom started her own business and had her own cleaning business for many years. So, really I wasn’t sure what it was I wanted to do but I always wanted to be my own business, so to speak, to run everything, to be in charge.”
With entrepreneurship on their mind, they realized that it was important to protect their idea so “we formed an LLC to get more concrete security of not only the name but meaning and use of the word and bear image,” explains Ross.
The three of them pretty much did almost everything on their own and were connected with Boston-based law firm Prince Lobel Tye LLP to set up their trademark and copyright for their new company. On April 23, 2014 they received the official word from their lawyers that the LLC had been formed.
A simple start
Author: Taylor RossA red HáRBëR Clothing sweatshirt.
As far as the clothing line itself they started off with something simple: t-shirts. They began by giving away their first batch of tees and once they saw that people were clamoring over them they were confident that the business would work. They created a website and a Facebook page to sell their product and to spread the word.
Buoyed by the hype surrounding the first batch of tees, they went through an online distributor in California. Ross admits that they didn’t know what went into ordering custom t-shirts. “We started with an online distributor but quickly noticed that the quality wasn’t where you wanted it to be.”
Enter Michael Kessman, a friend of Ross’ who established his own lifestyle and apparel brand in 2009 called Made In Boston, and is an active screen printer. He was able to help them out by “getting their products customized fully and showing us what it takes to become a clothing line,” describes Ross.
Kessman showed them the printing process along with the different processes of designing and putting the tags on the shirts. He also helped them to open a screen printing studio in Holliston, Mass., this past October. Of Kessman’s assistance and influence, Ross says, “he was a huge driving force in helping us to figure out that we could do that.”
The three founders have big plans for their clothing line. They’re working on their first real catalog, a spring 2015 catalog with two new designs which is “going to be a real point of change and diversification in what we’re going to be releasing,” said Ross enthusiastically. “Up to this point we’ve been purchasing garments and putting stuff on them. We want to move to the next stage where it’s custom fabric. So you get a garment, switch the sleeves, you put custom fabrics on there.” [They showed me some colorful fabric purchased by Harry in Guatemala to use in their line.]
As far as the continued growth of HáRBëR, they haven’t put together a formalized written business plan as of yet “but we definitely have vivid images of where we want to be,” says Ross. “We’re all actually taking steps to be more involved in it now that it’s developing more.”
As they look towards the future, the three of them are all working on the line full-time with the support of their families. They’ve divided the workload with Taylor responsible for contracts, general media, the lawyers, the vendors and the screen printing. Luca is involved with the day-to-day business operations including being in constant contact with the people who promote the line, and Harry, the creative force, is responsible for the designs. He recently started learning hands-on printing and has begun taking sewing lessons since the spring line will have a lot of custom stitching.
They hope to increase their line’s presence in retail outlets from Mass Apparel in Allston to include ten to fifteen stores in the state as well as in N.Y., Calif., and Florida.
For more information on HáRBëR Clothing, visit
This article appeared in the March issue of Banner Biz.
To read the full issue click here.
