Kansas City News Blog

By CAROLYN SZCZEPANSKI

Jack Short and Daniel Lyons might describe themselves as science geeks, but they're on the verge of breaking big in the fashion world.

The two Oak Park High School grads, class of 2005, both went to the University of Missouri-Columbia intent on going to medical school. That's still the plan, but a summer spent studying abroad last year added a twist to their plans.

In Europe, they noticed that people aren’t just talking about being more environmentally friendly, Lyons says. There, citizens wear their business suits as they ride to work on their bikes, and local fashion boutiques stock organic fabrics like it's going out of style.

When they got back to the U.S., Short and Lyons wanted to bring that sensibility to young American consumers. “I remember calling Jack up and saying, ‘Hey, what if we launched a green company that was geared toward the college-aged demographic?’” Lyons says. “No one had really don’t it yet and the idea really got us excited.”

They scraped together $20,000 in start-up capital and launched Factory Green, an online business for eco-friendly fashion.

Six weeks ago, the online site opened for business. One T-shirt sports the image of a stick figure pointing at a tree stump. The thought bubble above his head reads: “WTF?” Then there’s the fashionable organic shopping bag with the message “F*@k Plastic” emblazoned in large, curly script across the side.

“We’ve been filling orders around the clock,” says Lyons (he's the one on the right in the picture). He thinks that’s because Factory Green’s products aren’t just reasonably priced and environmentally responsible. Their clothes also “kick serious ass."

They wanted Factory Green to be entirely student-run, so they got input and exclusive clothing designs from peers studying fashion and business at MU. Lyons and Short also researched manufacturing and found earth-friendly facilities in India and the U.S. where production is fed by wind and solar power. And the two young entrepreneurs learned that, although clothing made with organic cotton and bamboo is far softer than traditional, pesticide-sprayed fibers, it doesn’t have to cost $90 for one measly item like some eco-boutiques charge.