By Raci Levine
Features Editor
Costa’s boys basketball coach Jay Stewart put his ideas into reality this year with his new clothing brand.
In February, Stewart created InJoi, which is a modern streetwear brand for all ages. He wanted a positive and relatable name for all ages for his brand, which led him to create the name InJoi. He created a clever way for writing the word, but his emphasis was for his buyers to enjoy life.
“I wanted to create something fashionable for everyone to wear,” Stewart said. “I’m inspired by street fashion, skateboarding, jazz, art and other people’s fashion. I’m inspired by people who are themselves unapologetically; I can’t say this enough; we all have things we enjoy that makes us all unique. That’s what inspired me to create the line.”
Although Stewart never studied fashion in college, he always had an interest in it and knew one day he would make it a priority to create fashion. Growing up, Stewart would design and create clothes to fit his style. Now, he gets to bring them to life and share his designs with the South Bay.
“[My goal is] to create a brand that everyone can relate to,” Stewart said. “For my customers to see the world wear and embody what the brand means. To enjoy life.”
InJoi has many clothing items, including sweatshirts, hats, t-shirts and shorts. In addition, his brand also sells accessories like skateboard decks, hockey jerseys, slides and cross bags.
“The brand is high-end streetwear with dope meaningful designs and great quality material,” Stewart said. “I’m a hat guy, so I would have to say the newest snap-back [hat] we just dropped is my favorite. I love cool colors that pop; I love hoodies and animals, which is the reason I decided to have the giraffe as our logo.”
Stewart loves the artistic and design part of the fashion industry. For kids interested in getting into the fashion and design industry, Stewart hopes they go for it and take a leap of faith. His favorite part of running his own business is seeing kids and adults wearing his clothes. Stewart says that this inspires and drives him to keep creating and designing for InJoi.
“My favorite experience [from] building the brand has been all the positive feedback and support I have received,” Stewart said. “People have expressed that they love the name, the designs and what the brand is about.”
At the moment, InJoi clothing is only online, but in the future, Stewart is looking to open a retail store but is waiting to find the right location. Although COVID-19 negatively impacted a lot of businesses, it had a positive effect on InJoi during quarantine as Jay had the time and opportunity to create his designs.
“At the height of the pandemic, I took the time off to create a direction I wanted to see InJoi take,” Stewart said. “During the Zoom era, everyone was offering free courses, [so] I hopped on every opportunity to learn product sales, brand aesthetic, photography, IT, and anything I felt would be useful to the brand. I thought COVID-19 gave me much needed time to work on the brand.”
There are always challenges to overcome while starting a new business. Stewart faced creativity block and stress over deadlines. These challenges help make his brand stronger and better.
“Creatively you face these ruts,” Stewart said. “I’ve learned to just create as I go. On the business end, having to stay ahead of the curve as far as trends go.”
Leave a Reply