The Falcon   |   Volume 83, Issue 51

Published 5/15/13   |   Log In

Sea-Town Swag caters to hip-hop culture in city

Seattle Pacific freshman Jacob Zimmer holds and wears T-shirts from his company, Sea-Town Swag.
Photo credit: NATHAN SOSNOVSKE/The Falcon.

Student promotes shirts through local artists

By ALLISON NORTHROP, Sports Writer

Published: May 30, 2012

Seattle Pacific freshman Jacob Zimmer realized one day that his ideas had swag. Now, Zimmer designs T-shirts for his business, Sea-Town Swag.

“You see some designs and you think, ‘It’d be cool if I could make something like that,’” he said. “I realized I could do that. It didn’t just have to be an idea. I could utilize the resources and the opportunities that were given to me.”

He started his business during his senior year in high school, but he said he was conceptualizing the Sea-Town Swag brand the summer before.

His original intent was to have his business called “Sound Apparel,” but he said people kept pushing for “Sea-Town Swag,” so he licensed his business under the name.

So far, three designs are featured on his website. His original design contains a dominant “Sea-Town Swag” with the Seattle skyline filling in the letters.

To parallel the 50th anniversary of the Space Needle, Zimmer released a new design, featuring a dominant gold space needle on a black shirt.

All Sea-Town Swag attire is printed on American Apparel products.

Zimmer hopes to offer a tank top option this summer, and in the fall, he hopes to re-introduce the crew neck.

Zimmer, who says he involves himself in the Seattle hip-hop scene, said his designs are catered to that culture.

“It’s really cool. [Seattle hip-hop] shows how much culture and how much pride in this culture [is] in the city, and that’s what has been inspiring my designs,” Zimmer said.

Recently, Zimmer worked to get his favorite band, Fresh Espresso, to promote his shirts. The band had a concert at Pacific Lutheran University. Zimmer caught the band after the show to give band members one of his shirts.

“I’ll bring [a shirt] to a show and see if [artists will] wear them,” he said. “When Macklemore sold out the Showbox in February 2011, I brought a shirt with me, and my friend threw it onstage.

“He caught it. Unfortunately, I didn’t get a picture of him wearing it.”

Zimmer was able to capture a shot with “P Smoov,” or Peter Robinson, a band member of Fresh Espresso, holding up Zimmer’s Galaxy Gold Needle Tee.

The picture is posted on Sea-Town Swag’s Facebook page as well as the business’s Tumblr account.

Zimmer said that although he has tapped into social media, most of his sales are still done in person.

However, he said he likes when he sees that someone has bought his product off of the website because it means he probably doesn’t know them.

Although he is uncertain where his business will go next, Zimmer said he has a passion for business.

“Entrepreneurship is so cool. … There are so many skill sets people can bring to the table, and if you just combine them to entrepreneurship, you can combine them and put them into a business,” Zimmer said. “There are so many opportunities and resources around you; you just have to take advantage of them.”

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