Lee Drukker (C04): Life of a Young Alumnus

 As college graduation approached, I began to feel constricted by what people expected me to do. Until that time, I had followed the prescribed path of high school and college, and I was curious about what was outside of my familiar environment. I packed up my belongings and drove to Vail, Colorado. I was skiing every day, and I had met a lot of fun, interesting and intelligent people. Life seemed terrific, but I was not satisfied.

 I began to analyze the people around me as well as myself. Why had we moved to Vail? What were we looking for? I began to think that we had moved in order to find a life that was different and exciting, a lifestyle that was more than a job, or status, or possessions. Were we succeeding? I concluded that we were only escaping from the lives we did not want. However, I did not want to escape. I wanted to challenge, to change, and to create. I was not going to allow myself to be relegated to some corner of existence simply trying to avoid a prescribed path. It was then that I decided to create a company with this message: we should never compromise the vision we have for our lives. I didn’t know what type of company I was going to start, but I needed to find an industry in which people identified the message of the product with their lifestyle. Clothing presented itself as the perfect industry. People wear certain brands because of what it says about their lives. Polo represents a lifestyle of country clubs and privilege. Billabong represents a lifestyle of taking it easy and chilling on the beach. I designed a logo, and decided definitively that this was what I wanted to do. At the end of the year, I packed up and headed to New York.

 I arrived in New York with my logo, $10,000 that I had saved that winter, my determination and absolutely no knowledge of how to get this done.  I called anyone I could think of who might offer advice. I walked the streets of Manhattan stopping in stores, visiting fabric houses, ribbon places, label makers.  I Googled and Googled and Googled some more.  I learned about warp and fill, thread counts, minimums, dye lots, sample makers, showrooms, publicists, manufacturers, pattern makers, buyers and much more. After about six months, I had created samples of six different shirts in five color ways each, a belt, look books and line sheets. I was ready to sell my line, which I had named Drukker.

 I delved into selling my clothes, but innumerable obstacles quickly thwarted me.  After two months of contacting buyers from major department stores and small boutique owners, I learned how the industry works. Buyers are primarily interested in lines that have been worn by famous celebrities, pushed by highbrow show rooms, or are already being sold by prominent retailers. More importantly I was having a difficult time linking my lifestyle with my clothing, and putting my clothes in stores that emphasized popular culture seemed hypocritical because the message of my company was to live your life without consideration for what is deemed popular. Needing a new tactic to sell my line, I decided to market directly to my target demographic, and that’s when the Drukker Enterprises website was conceived. My idea was to create a website that sold my clothes and featured individuals who embodied the lifestyle I wanted to promote. I would attract customers to my website by using underground artists and musicians as models in return for their fan base e-mail lists.  I would interview the artists, post their stories, and offer a sampling of their music or a glimpse of their artwork.

 Once again, I was back at the learning stage.  I enrolled in computer classes to learn how to construct a website and use computer graphics programs, and I began scouring the city for talented artists and musicians. I contacted the artists that I thought were the best in the city and their responses were overwhelming. Everyone I contacted signed on, and once word got out about my company 50 to 100 people contacted me each day asking to be featured on my website, DrukkerEnterprises.com.  I recently launched the site and I have been busy marketing my company, trying to attract new viewers, and increase sales. I also continue to scour the world for the next undiscovered musician or artist. In any given week I listen to thousands of musicians and view the work of thousands of artists, conduct interviews, and write articles. In addition, I continue to design new clothes; my next clothing release will feature some of my graphic design work. Right now, the most vital aspect of growing my company is building the brand identity and thinking of new ways to reach my target demographic, and it is in this way that my education at Northwestern proved to be vital. As a communications major, I primarily learned how to use rhetoric to influence a consumer base. Although these studies did not directly relate to selling clothes, the basic premise of learning how to sell yourself and your ideas has been and invaluable tool that I have carried with me as I continue to grow this young company. I invite you to check out the site and the clothes at: www.DrukkerEnterprises.com