Don't wait until you're ready
Meet Liz, a former professional volleyball player who played on Team Mexico and the Canadian Beach Squad, and founder of Kinetika (external link) .
While studying for her PhD at York University, Liz was fascinated by her research in kinesiology and biomechanics. After graduating, Liz knew she wanted to do something that would keep her connected to the volleyball community. While being actively involved in sports, Liz felt like her injuries were holding her back at times. Because of her own experiences, she wanted to find a way to educate others on how to correct movement to prevent injury. From this, the idea for Kinetika was born.
On one side, Liz is building an app to screen injury risk in volleyball players, and educate them on what exercises can help correct their movements. On the other side, she is also building a volleyball club where she can connect with her community and put her research to use. These two things make up Kinetika.
Liz joined the Biomedical Zone after learning about it from a Startup Advisor. While in the BMZ, she applied for the the Micas grant, and is now working as a fellow at TMU with Professor Naimul Khan, and is using the grant to develop an MVP.
We joined the Fashion Zone because we wanted to surround ourselves with like minded people. It’s motivating to know that others around you are achieving success in the same industry. Also, the resources and advisors have brought value and insight to our process. Currently, we’re working with the in-house pattern maker to develop a new version of the Creator Jacket.
We’re improving the style, fit, sizing, and even the swapping mechanism. We’re doing research and developing on a one size fits all panel, so that one art panel can be fitted and displayed in an endless number of Creator Jacket styles. This would increase efficiency for our manufacturer, our inventory, and it would allow for more options for our customers. Once the Creator Jean Jacket 2.0 and SwapWear® 2.0 is finalized, we will be working on expanding the ecosystem with a Creator Varsity Jacket.
The future of wearable art is modular, sustainable and supports community.
Photo credits: Kenya-Jade Pinto
The biggest challenge we faced during our journey was...
Launching during the peak of the pandemic. We had supply chain delays, freight backlogs, and our inventory was even stuck at the Vancouver airport during the British Columbia flooding.
We pulled through and we were able to ship out the jackets successfully in the new year. We’ve been selling Creator Jackets in our online shop for 8 months now, and we’re just getting started. It’s our vision to create an ecosystem of swappable wearable art - starting with our jean jacket, then we’re going for a varsity jacket, and more jacket styles!
We work with talented artists from across the globe to make art panel designs. Every art panel sale supports the artist financially, and saves five plastic bottles from polluting oceans with our recycled materials. To us, the future of wearable art is modular, sustainable and supports community.
The best piece of advice I received was...
To just get going. Many fear the risks and uncertainty, but entrepreneurship is a journey where you’re always learning as you go. Aside from getting started, this applies to A/B testing and experimenting so you can craft your ultimate process. Many focus on trying to get it perfect the first time, which can leave you frozen in the tracks. Just get going!
Photo credits: Creator Jacket
Connect with Lake Siva (external link) and Jane Souralaysack (external link)
One piece of advice I would give to aspiring entrepreneurs would be...
To take it one step at a time. It’s easy to get overwhelmed when you’re wearing so many hats, working in and on the business. This path is difficult but rewarding, and results only show after you’ve completed many of your steps.
We’re excited to help people with self expression in a way that has never been done before. Our quality and modular design stays true to “buy less but buy better.” It’s been an uphill battle, but Creator Jacket is building an entire ecosystem of swappable wearable art that is better for people, planet, and the artist community.