It’s 8:50 am and you're running late to work, sweating, stiff and yeah, you might even smell bad. With our ever adapting lives, we need clothes that can keep up. Co-Founder of Ministry, Aman Advani, realized the gap in the market and launched his company to help unleash our inner athlete by reinventing performance based workwear.

The bold, daring and newlywed, Co-Founder of Ministry, Aman Advani always had a passion for performance based activewear. “As a generation who grew up around Nike, I found it crazy that we are still wearing this cotton woven stiff, unforgiving outfit to work 16 hours a day just so that we can look sharp enough to get through it. That’s where the dream of creating Ministry really started for me.”

What originally began as a men's only collection, Ministry (formerly known as Ministry of Supply) recently changed their name and launched workwear for the flip side of the coin, women (oh, yes!). The brand revolves around incorporating NASA’s smart fabrics, performance-based designs, and data to craft the ultimate workwear line for both men and women.

With no experience in fashion, Aman graduated from Georgia Tech University, where he majored in Industrial Engineering. Following the trend, as most engineers do, Aman worked in consulting at Deloitte for four years prior to graduation and then enrolled at MIT in 2011. Dating back to 2009, Aman made his first sock prototype by cutting out the soles of a dress sock and inserting the soles of a Nike sock into a rudimentary version of today what is called their Atlas sock. Fun fact: Aman met both of his co-founders at MIT and took a leave of absence to fulfill his venture full time. “Prior to meeting my co-founders, Gihan and Kit, I found out that we were all separately prototyping and exploring options for this space that at the time we called performance professional. So, it only seemed natural to link up.”

Why the Name?

Ministry is based upon the character Q from the James Bond movies. You know, that guy who makes all of Bond’s clothing and gadgets. Essentially, he makes Bond look suave, but also ready for anything. Q is based on a person who in real life operates under the title of Ministry of Supply. “So, for us it was an obvious link to what we call the empathetic inventor.”

“We spent a year in R&D, spoke to thousands of people, sent out surveys to men to find out what they like, don't like and what their pain points are. We initially went through 14 rounds of sampling to make our first shirt.”

Before being known for Ministry, Aman was working on a company called Beneathe with a similar concept. However, before officially launching, the gang engaged in a Kickstarter campaign to test out the market. This was a safe and efficient way to get market feedback. The best part about using a Kickstarter campaign was not having to guess size or color prior to production for distribution. Nothing was pre-stitched. As a result, Ministry was able to get an immediate understanding of the sizing and best selling colors from day one. “We got access to what our customer wanted or looked like which otherwise would have had to been predicted and forecasted.” After building up strong momentum, sending out clothing to influential bloggers and speaking at panels and bars, they raised $430,000 via Kickstarter. Not bad! “The biggest feedback we got from Kickstarter was that we nailed the functional component, but needed to tighten up the fashion style.”

Word On The Block

Word of mouth marketing has been the most influential platform for Ministry. “We don't have to go and pay an immense amount to get a customer to come to us and it has been something really special for us to see how much people have stepped up and spread the word on our behalf.” Aman also tells us how they like to surprise customers every now and then by sending them free gifts.

The Challenges

Sourcing, sourcing, sourcing. We hear it all the time when it comes to selling products. Ministry bases their factory partnerships on ethics, capabilities and service. “Geography and price points are not qualifications for us.” Most of their production takes places in Japan, Taiwan, China and L.A. “Initially we were reaching out to factories via cold calling to get their attention, but found out that it is much easier to go through a warm introduction. So we worked our way through the fashion scene and met a lot of key contacts at Patagonia and other start-ups and leveraged their networks, which was one of the best things we could have done.”

The Advice

After chatting about all the new fashion start-ups and high competition in this industry, Aman tells us how “it sometimes seems daunting and terrifying to try and break into the fashion world, but one thing I have learned about fashion is that there is a spot for everyone. It may be big or small, but there is a spot for you. Once I had the confidence of taking a vision and bringing it to life, selling a product is not impossible. I feel that it is such a deeply fragmented industry that it’s open to newcomers, even though it might not seem that way, but give it a shot!”

His most important two cents: Market pull! “Are you creating something that there is demand for? If not, it is going to be exhausting and you are probably not going to make it. If people don't want your product, it is going to be expensive to sell it to them.”

Want to upgrade your workwear and feel like a superstar? Shop here. If you are interested in visiting Boston and getting to know Aman better, email us and we will put you in touch.

Photo courtesy of Aman Advani.