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Caption: Hunter Knight Founder and owner of Properly Tied
Caption: On June 7, 2013, a senior at Lafayette High School in Oxford, Miss., launched his own clothing line online with only social media as a means of free advertising. Hunter Knight had been preparing for this day for about a year.
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Caption: He began by creating websites for a couple marketing companies in Memphis through mutual friends and word of mouth. He noticed various branded t-shirts and bow ties were becoming popular and formed the idea of having his own business.
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Caption: “Being the nerd that I was in middle school, I just kind of learned how to do it [create a website]. I had to learn how to make the 'shoppable' website, rather than just a website telling about a product,” Knight said.
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Caption: Within 24 hours of the launch, 2,001 t-shirts were sold. It was a hit from the beginning.
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Caption: Starting the company with only the help of his little brother and parents, three years later he works with five staff members everyday in his Oxford warehouse, while five outside sales representatives travel and sell all things Properly Tied.
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Caption: As the company grew, Knight had a 1,500 square foot warehouse built next to his parent’s house that they still use for storage. Now on West Oxford Loop with 4,000 square feet of main storage and workspace, he has plenty of room for further expansion.
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Caption: He sells his products in close to 300 stores in 14 key states in the South with the exception of “a few stragglers,” Knight said. Starting with about 50 SKUs (Stock Keeping Units), he now has around 2,000.
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Caption: “It started in my bedroom, and now we’re here.” Hunter Knight
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Caption: Knight and his team travel to about six cities four times a year, ultimately taking “about 20 or 30 trips annually to meet with stores at trade shows,” Knight said.
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Caption: Properly Tied now manufactures for 14 other companies as well. 90 percent of his merchandise comes from outside the U.S. in countries such as Vietnam, China and Peru.
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Caption: However stressful, Knight enjoys the traveling, meeting new people and constantly learning something new.
“It’s never the same thing every day,” Knight said.
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Caption: Knight has hope for the future of Properly Tied. They strived to expand the youth line this year and succeeded. In 2017, they are expecting to launch a 40-page catalog of a new Properly Tied women’s line.
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Caption: “Each year we're just kind of adding new things, keeping it relevant and changing to try to make it better." Hunter Knight
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Caption: Knight is a Marketing and Corporate Relations major with a minor in Entrepreneurship at Ole Miss. Since Fall is the busiest time of the year, he dropped to zero hours but will be back in the spring as a junior.
Caption: Marlee Crawford
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