“There’s so much to expect,” Anthony Vasquez, the founder of Oz Apparel said. 

Oz Apparel is a clothing brand designed by Vasquez for SUNY Oswego students as an alternative to The College Store on campus. 

Vasquez said he saw a need for more options for SUNY Oswego clothing. On a college visit to Penn State, Vasquez was amazed by their college store and the variety of styles available but when he came to Oswego, he was let down by what he saw. 

“I walked into the college store with high hopes and walked out with disappointment,” Vasquez said. “As a student I want to be able to represent the school I attend; Not only in showing it off but feeling comfortable and being able to put together different styles.”

Vasquez said he always wanted to go to college but “didn’t have the guidance” to apply. During his senior year of high school, he was contacted by the wrestling coach and he was convinced to send in an application to SUNY Oswego. He was accepted and started college in fall of 2021.

After struggling to balance school and wrestling throughout his freshman year, Vasquez decided to quit the team. With his extra free time, Vasquez decided he wanted to start a clothing brand for students as an alternative to the college store.

“I’m not the type of person who can sit and do nothing,” Vaquez said. “Not having wrestling, not having that thing that I was grinding towards, I needed to find something else. And when I walked out of that school store I said ‘this is it.’”

Though he is a psychology major, Vasquez said one of his goals in founding Oz Apparel was to use the skills he is learning outside of the classroom. 

“This is stuff we learn in classes, not just if you have a degree in business or design,” Vasquez said. “We just take what we learn and apply it to the real world.”

When Oz Apparel was started, Vasquez said he had other people working with him, but they are no longer involved. Recently, he has found others that he is hoping will help him grow the business. Vaquez also aims to rejoin the wrestling team when he brings more people onto  Oz Apparel.

Initially, Vaquez said his plan was to design clothes and put them up on his website but then changed his model to feature clothing for periods of time. Oz Apparel has ‘drops’ each semester with specific designs that are only available during that time. 

“The purpose of the drops, not only is to have new things, but to ensure that the things that are up are never going to come back,” Vaquez said. “For example, everything on the summer drop is never coming back. The people who bought it are the only people who have it … and will forever be the only people who have it. It creates a rarity … and it adds a sense of value to the product.”

A major part of Vasquez’s business model is going out onto campus and talking to students because, “if I’m doing something for the people, I need to know what they want.”

“Although it’s Oz Apparel, it’s not just me,” Vasquez said. “There’s so many other factors that go into it. Yes, I create the designs. Yes, I do the website. Yes, I do the marketing and run the Instagram. But I don’t do it alone, I get verification from people here on campus … because to me, that’s what matters.” 

One thing Vasquez is working on is more feminine and unisex designs. After a female student commented that she thought his designs were too masculine, Vasquez immediately shifted gears and started tweaking his ideas.

“I love constructive criticism,” Vaquez said. “What it does for me is it helps me say, ‘stop, let me see the world from your shoes.’”

Looking ahead, Vasquez said he is already planning and creating new designs to add to the shop. Though the fall collection was released on Sept. 22, he has hopes to add more to it and possibly do a winter drop as well. 

All Oz Apparel merchandise can be purchased through its website, shopozapparel.com. 

Photo provided by Anthony Vasquez