At 2 a.m. on Friday, when some students are at the bar with friends and others sleep, DJ Grant and his partners are busy running a fashion-design business.
The 23-year-old merchandising management senior and his two partners started Shione Clothing Co. in August 2002. MSU alumnus Byron McGhee is founder and CEO, and studio art senior Jermaine Barnwell designs the clothing.
"We felt the fashion world was missing something, and we basically wanted to shake things up," Grant said.
The line is "sophisticated, casual menswear," and the target ages are 13 to 30. The clothing designs include jeans, T-shirts and button-down shirts as well as outerwear.
In addition to Shione, Grant also has co-founded another fashion-design company, Fresh Out Da Box, which soon will be based out of Houston.
As an after-school job, Grant and Barnwell do custodial work in the Physical Plant.
"I don't get much sleep because I work from 9 (p.m.) to 1 a.m. at the Physical Plant," Barnwell said. "That's when the juices start flowing. Ideas come to me more easily at night."
Grant said he does a lot of work at night, but it's during the day in his classes where he learns the most valuable tools of the trade.
The merchandising management classes Grant took really helped him, he said, and if he wasn't in school he probably wouldn't have started Shione with Barnwell and McGhee.
"School has been a huge factor in our business because some of the stuff we do in class is real hands-on stuff that I can use for the business," he said. "In my entrepreneur class, we did business plans, and that was the same time I did the business plan for Shione.
"When we talked about different cultures in the business world, that's when we went into the overseas (manufacturing) thing with Shione, so I could tell my partners what everything meant."
As of now, Shione has made more than $50,000 in the three years Grant and his partners have been running it.
On April 22, Shione clothing will be featured in a fashion show by Multicultural Apparel Designers & Entrepreneurs, a campus organization.
Their clothing was even worn in a music video - JoJo's "Not That Kinda Girl."
Grant said they haven't made a profit yet, but they have broken even.
Kyoung-Nan Kwon, assistant professor of merchandising management and Grant's entrepreneur class instructor, said it is not unusual for students to continue their projects outside of class.
She also said what Grant and his partners have done so far is impressive.
"Theirs is a very successful story as a student business," Kwon said. "They had an idea and worked on it outside of class, and as I remember, they didn't have much financing in the beginning."
Shione is a Hebrew word that means beginning, but Grant said it was a struggle to get the business off the ground.
"You should have seen us three years ago. I couldn't even tell you how sad it was," Grant said. "Everything we learned, we had to seek it out on our own."
But since then, Grant and his partners have managed to keep up with the rhythm and processes of the fashion-design world.
First, Barnwell designs the clothing line with the help of Grant and McGhee.
"Everything you see from Shione, like graphics, advertising or marketing, I pretty much have a hand in," Barnwell said. "I'm like the skin of the company, if you think of it like a body."
After the line is designed, Barnwell and Grant go over the specifications, or specs, of the clothing so they can send them to the manufacturer. The specs include style, measurements and clothing weight.
Sometimes Barnwell and Grant will work until 5 a.m. in Barnwell's Hubbard Hall dorm room, which they call "the lab."
"You know how in a chem lab you have things everywhere bubbling in beakers and chemicals and stuff? That's how our lab is, too, except we have the materials we need to get the job done," Grant said.
Final specs are then sent on to the manufacturer. Grant said they use a variety of them, which is common practice in the fashion world.
Parts of the line are made in Grand Rapids and Tennessee. Large-volume orders are sent to a company in China.
The manufacturer then sends Grant a pre-production sample for approval before they complete the whole line, which could be about 200 pieces. In the meantime, Grant and his partners talk with retail stores, telling them when they will have the merchandise.
Shione has retail in stores in Chicago, Washington, D.C., Grand Rapids and Atlanta. Locally, Brick Citi, 1122 W. Holmes Road in Lansing, sells Shione merchandise.
Lauren Tolin, a psychology sophomore and Brick Citi employee, said Shione clothing sells well. She has a few items from the smaller women's line.
"I think with the way things are going, they're going to be even more successful in the future," she said. "They sell really well, and they've even been in a music video."
Grant graduates in May and he and his partners will move to Chicago in August to expand the company, but right now they are selling things on the Internet and at trade shows.
He said he never would have come this far if it weren't for school.
"This school has some of the best resources in the country," Grant said. "I used to go to the business library for hours every morning."
Despite the success of the business, he said there are some drawbacks.
"The thing I like the least is going to conventions because you have to be talkative and in people's faces, and I'm really laid back," Grant said.
"I feel like I can't be myself because the fashion industry is Hollywood - that's just the way it is."
Barnwell said even though he's in a high-profile business, he doesn't let that stop him.
"At times, this business can be kind of intimidating, but it more so just drives me to keep on going at it," he said. "We've made it so far and grown so much that it would be stupid to stop now."
Grant said Shione is his career now, and he and his partners are going to carry it through.
"We know our vision, and we believe in our product," Grant said. "We just keep going and keep trying because for every 10 things that go wrong, one thing goes right, and that's how you know it's working.
"You just have to keep going."
Kristin Longley can be reached at longleyk@msu.edu.
