Teens virtually in business

Sick Bros Clothing is finally in the black.

After a year of putting together business plans, developing designs, and working on a website and store, the aspiring youth apparel company held its grand opening Thursday at Marina High School. The event featured a ribbon cutting by Councilwoman Jill Hardy and lines stretching out the door, full of students ready to write checks.

If the company were real, its investors would be sitting pretty.

Yes, Sick Bros Clothing is a simulation, the centerpiece of Marina’s Virtual Enterprise class, in which students spend their whole year managing a business, from first business loans to promotion and sales of the final product. This year, the teens aimed to market skate-influenced fashion to the 16-25 demographic, with argyle sweaters, fitted jeans and printed shirts in bold colors.

Accountant Matt Lerno said the grand opening had turned the virtual company’s finances around.

“We were not into the pluses until now,” he said. “This is huge. Before the grand opening we would be selling 10 to 15 items here or there.”

The class teaches kids a whole range of entrepreneurial skills in a hands-on environment, teacher Marilyn Cunneen said. At the same time, the simulated salaries students earn are a chance to teach personal budgeting as well, she said.

“It’s like an economics class, but it’s a real life situation,” she said. “They decide what they want to sell, they interview with me for their positions, they write an HR manual and decide on a uniform, and all the rest. I tell them the rules, but they build this up themselves.”

Some of the hardest work in the class goes toward the regional trade fairs that offer awards for virtual businesses in a variety of categories, Cunneen said. This year, Sick Bros won fifth place out of 50 in booth design at a fair in Long Beach, as well as fourth out of 50 in salesmanship.

“It’s so hectic,” Sales Director Ashley Lopez, a senior, said of the fairs. “Everything’s really crowded. We found out it takes so much work to win a prize.”

How did that salesmanship prize come about?

“Basically, when the judges are checking out our table we had to get their attention, talk to them, keep them interested and reading our brochures,” she said. “It’s also about selling as much [to other students] as you can.”

The company also has a fully functional business website, www.sickbrosclothing.org, complete with a black-and-green motif developed by the students in the marketing department.

Vice President of Internet Technology Jeff Beckers, a senior, said he learned a few things about coding and databases as he worked on the site, making sure that in addition to browsing the catalog and checking out the staff roster, visitors can order online from a web store.

“I could flip it into an actual working store, selling real products, really easily,” Beckers said.

Don’t worry about the price, though — like the rest of the company, both the money you spend and the clothes you order are purely virtual.

MICHAEL ALEXANDER may be reached at (714) 966-4618 or at [email protected].