Exploring Life & Business with Sean Kim of SOCO Clothing

Today we’d like to introduce you to Sean Kim. 

Hi Sean, so excited to have you on the platform. So, before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
In November of 2020, I decided to kickstart my clothing brand with two of my close friends from college. Despite the ongoing pandemic, we knew we wanted to give back to our community by focusing on a prevalent issue in society today. Therefore, we decided to focus on mental health. The change to online schooling and limited face-to-face connections had made it challenging to meet new people, let alone see friends and family. As a result, there was an immense growth in mental health concerns that needed to be addressed. Together, we started SOCO Clothing LLC with the mission to take a stand against the growing stigma for mental health. 

Day-by-day, we continued to build upon our brand and our message. SOCO stands for So Others Can Overcome and our unique products and designs were developed to showcase our mission. By wearing our apparel, we hope to expand upon our cohesive community and push for a method to normalize conversations about mental health and the well-being of others. Most importantly, we donate a share of our profit to Mental Health America of the Heartland based in Kansas City, MO. This organization is dedicated to promoting the mental health of the community, and improving the quality of life of persons with mental illness, through advocacy, education, and support. By purchasing our product, you can directly give back to those in need and together, we can bring hope to the 1 in 5 Americans living with a mental health condition. 

We launched our website and our first collection on March 8th and have since received tremendous support from our community. Through social media, specifically our Instagram page @sococlothingllc, we were able to continue to spread the word about our mission and raise donations for MHA. On May 26th, we launched our second collection that has helped continue to grow the company and has brought us to where we are today. In fact, on July 27th, SOCO Clothing LLC was invited to table at the Kansas City Royals “Royals for a Cure – Mental Wellness” MLB game at Kauffman Stadium. We were so grateful for this opportunity to expand our community base and look forward to all the future events ahead. 

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
When we first started, we were inexperienced college students with little to no background in entrepreneurship. Therefore, we really struggled to come up with a plan. It took us several weeks of brainstorming, researching, and learning about the market to have a firm understanding on how to start and be efficient in our work. One of our biggest struggles along the way was balancing our time working on the company with school. Each of us are full-time students with our schedules already packed with extracurriculars; therefore, finding more time for work was quite demanding. It came to a point where we were so busy in our daily lives that we had to hold off on SOCO for a few weeks. 

After regathering, we continued to develop our company and work through the struggles along the way. At times, it became difficult to gauge our potential audience size which in turn impacted how we worked through our finances and marketing. Again, this was due to our inexperience which pushed for a need for more time to restrategize. That being said, no matter how much we struggled, I believe the biggest motivation to get us to where we are now was our purpose. We truly believed we were going to make a difference and focused on that every single moment. 

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about SOCO Clothing LLC?
Our brand is called SOCO Clothing LLC. SOCO stands for So Others Can Overcome and we are a newly developing clothing brand dedicated to raising awareness for mental health and creating a strong family of support. We pride ourselves on our well-bonded community and our constant willingness to give back to others. Purchasing and wearing out clothes showcases your commitment to be there for your friends, family members, and even strangers. To learn more, check out our website at www.sococlothingstl.com. 

SOCO Clothing LLC strives to give back to its community in any means possible. That is why we take pride in our efforts to donate a share of our profit to the Mental Health America of the Heartland Organization based in Kansas City, MO. This organization is dedicated to promoting the mental health of the community, and improving the quality of life of persons with mental illness, through advocacy, education, and support. By purchasing our product, we can bring hope to the 1 in 5 Americans living with a mental health condition. 

SOCO Clothing LLC isn’t like any ordinary clothing brand because of our mixed dedication to support mental health awareness while providing unique apparel to our community. We aim to offer our customers a variety of the latest trends in fashion and design. Therefore, our passion drives us to provide nothing but the highest quality of products and exceptional service. As our community continues to grow, we have received positive feedback from all those who have purchased our products. Our greatest target audience has grown through the use of Instagram @sococlothingllc where we post new members of our community each week. We are so proud of all those who have joined our community and have committed to ending the mental health stigma. 

Do you have any advice for those just starting out?
The biggest advice I have for people who are just starting out is to focus on their strengths and not their weaknesses. Although this may seem like common sense, it wasn’t always easy to apply to our company as we started with a very small team. In the beginning, we delegated random tasks to each other and had high expectations for the outcomes. After each setback, we started to realize that we needed to just focus on the things that we could each do best and work together as a team on what we couldn’t handle. With this in mind, we accelerated the productivity of our company tenfold and suitably fit our roles. 

Also, I would want new starters to know that you need to get used to failure. Not everyone is going to support the idea of your company; in fact, most people won’t. The few who do support you are the ones who you should always be grateful for. 

Pricing:

• SOCO Embroidered Hoodie – $31.99
• SOCO Sweaters – $27.99
• SOCO Short Sleeves – $24.99
• SOCO Short Sleeves – $21.99
• SOCO Hat – $19.99

Contact Info:

• Email: sococlothingstl@gmail.com
• Website: www.sococlothingstl.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sococlothingllc/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SoOthersCanOvercome