Chris Olsen, Steven Blash and Eric LaFont started the Dying Decade clothing company with a simple vision: to produce attractive T-shirts, to be part of the music scene and to have fun doing it.

Olsen, a Binghamton University junior majoring in consumer behavior, started selling T-shirts as a hobby at College-in-the-Woods in 2008 with fellow student entrepreneurs Blash and LaFont before the three decided to create a full-fledged company business. Blash is a senior majoring in electrical engineering at BU and LaFont is an MBA student at Mt. Saint Mary’s University.

The company is looking to bring socially responsible clothing and more local music to the city of Binghamton. While they still focus on their original vision today, the company has evolved to act with ‘integrity and social responsibility,’ Olsen said, producing clothing that is now only made in the U.S.

In February, Dying Decade enlisted the help of BU’s Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE) chapter for consulting advice and cost-benefit analyses of the company. SIFE President Craig Broccoli, a senior majoring in mechanical engineering, stated that although the work with Dying Decade has been short, they have had a few key developments.

‘We’ll be working on the project next year, but we’ve started with Spring Fling this semester,’ Broccoli said. ‘We’re trying to expand marketing and to get a customer base.’

SIFE works on several consulting projects year-round in which experienced faculty and student volunteers devote time researching how to help local businesses grow. This year they hoped to have Girl Talk, a music artist who performed this past weekend at Spring Fling, wear Dying Decade T-shirts.

‘Unfortunately, Girl Talk didn’t wear the shirts,’ Olsen said. ‘We made the mistake of giving him a small/medium, which is his actual size, but the shirts he wears on stage are an XL, so it just didn’t fit the performance.’

Starting a clothing company as a student has required overcoming several challenges, including starting a website to sell clothing online and learning firsthand how to market the business better.

‘My biggest lesson was learning how different reality is from practice,’ Olsen said. ‘But it has also taught me how important it is to have integrity in your work.’

Although Dying Decade is a clothing company, it also works with independent local bands such as BU’s My Only Escape, Binghamton’s I Am Brave and The Heisman Hopefuls to help revitalize the local music scene.

The company has traditionally focused on working with and promoting bands from Orange County and Syracuse, where the three founders hail from, but began focusing on growing their brand within the local Binghamton music scene after receiving encouraging responses from students.

After graduation, Olsen believes that there is potential to work full time in expanding the brand recognition. He expects this summer to be crucial, when the company will have to market at events such as the Vans Warped Tour.

‘It has to be an organic thing,’ Olsen said of the company’s future. ‘As long as we keep doing what we’ve been doing by helping to empower people, we hope that they will do the same for us and support the company.’