Hip new Pause Designs takes on clothing industry in St. Catharines
Austin Kent
Issue date: 3/14/06 Section: Culture
To some, clothing is a way of covering up, keeping warm and fitting in, but to most, clothing is more than just not being nude; it is a way of establishing an identity and expressing oneself through artwork and design.
If you are the latter, then perhaps you have found yourself searching the racks, shelves and aisles of your local mall or clothing store, looking for something to wear that does not a) suck, b) cost a fortune, or c) both.
Enter Pause Designs, a group of three men from Niagara-On-The-Lake.
"For a lot of clothing companies, style becomes pastiche," said Ken Dubois, a third year film student at Brock University. "It's not incorporated, whatsoever, into individual identity."
The idea to use clothing as a vehicle for expressing themselves came about in 2001, when Ken and the eventual creator of Pause, Eric Hernder were still in high school.
"I was always just drawing," said Hernder. "Ken and I would always work together in Grade 10 art class, so it just came naturally."
For three years, Pause lived on only in the minds of its creators, and their frustration with the current clothing industry grew. It was not until 2004 that Pause hit play and began thinking of ways they could realistically turn their ideas into a fully functional business.
"We were getting angry at the other clothing companies for costing too much and producing products with very little effort, there just wasn't any emotion in their artwork," said Hernder in response to what finally motivated them to jump into the industry themselves.
"[In 2005] I took some courses at the Institute for Enterprise Education, on entrepreneurship and put together a business plan, got these two guys as partners, and went from there."
The three partners, who share equal ownership rights, all met as friends in high school, both Ken and Eric who graduated from high school in 2003, and their partner in crime, 18-year-old Andrew Sitko.
In 2005, they released their first batch of 125 shirts. They released four styles originally, with most designs in both men's and women's styles and they have since released one more design, made available on their Web site.
If you are the latter, then perhaps you have found yourself searching the racks, shelves and aisles of your local mall or clothing store, looking for something to wear that does not a) suck, b) cost a fortune, or c) both.
Enter Pause Designs, a group of three men from Niagara-On-The-Lake.
"For a lot of clothing companies, style becomes pastiche," said Ken Dubois, a third year film student at Brock University. "It's not incorporated, whatsoever, into individual identity."
The idea to use clothing as a vehicle for expressing themselves came about in 2001, when Ken and the eventual creator of Pause, Eric Hernder were still in high school.
"I was always just drawing," said Hernder. "Ken and I would always work together in Grade 10 art class, so it just came naturally."
For three years, Pause lived on only in the minds of its creators, and their frustration with the current clothing industry grew. It was not until 2004 that Pause hit play and began thinking of ways they could realistically turn their ideas into a fully functional business.
"We were getting angry at the other clothing companies for costing too much and producing products with very little effort, there just wasn't any emotion in their artwork," said Hernder in response to what finally motivated them to jump into the industry themselves.
"[In 2005] I took some courses at the Institute for Enterprise Education, on entrepreneurship and put together a business plan, got these two guys as partners, and went from there."
The three partners, who share equal ownership rights, all met as friends in high school, both Ken and Eric who graduated from high school in 2003, and their partner in crime, 18-year-old Andrew Sitko.
In 2005, they released their first batch of 125 shirts. They released four styles originally, with most designs in both men's and women's styles and they have since released one more design, made available on their Web site.
