Carter Graves, a senior general business major from Dallas, is turning a familiar trend on the University of Mississippi campus into a growing apparel business.
Graves launched his clothing company, GMDY, six months ago with the goal of bringing a new quarter-zip style to the Ole Miss community.
Graves began his collegiate career studying real estate but eventually realized he wanted to pursue a different career field. He noticed the uptick in students sporting quarter-zips on campus, whether it be in classrooms, dining halls or the Grove. That observation sparked the idea behind GMDY.
Graves then began designing and sporting his own quarter-zips.
“I was walking around campus, and my friends would see me wearing them and say, ‘You should make those for Ole Miss,’” Graves said. “It wasn’t until this summer that I realized that real estate wasn’t really my passion and I didn’t have a ton of drive for it, so I switched career paths into something I like.”
After switching his major to general business, getting his company off the ground was not an easy process. Graves presented his business plan in April to one of his marketing classes. He faced skepticism toward his product, including from professors, and struggled to obtain responses from potential collaborators.
Despite the setback, Graves persisted.
“Persistence is definitely key. Definitely what’s got us to where we are is just not backing down, reaching out, and then a lot of times people didn’t even respond to our emails,” Graves said. “A lot of it’s just circling back, reaching back out, being very persistent and not taking a ‘no’ for an answer.”
The name GMDY is a shortened version of “game day,” reflecting the company’s connection to the Ole Miss community and its game day culture.
“I wanted something to represent a game day, when most people are going to be wearing those quarter-zips, so I wanted to associate it with game day,” Graves said.
Each quarter-zip is designed by Graves and his team, with feedback from friends and other students to shape the final product. He has created three designs for Ole Miss fans so far. Once a design is finalized, Graves sends it to a supplier for manufacturing. The entire process takes approximately three to four weeks for each design, from initial blueprint to receiving the finished product.
One feature that sets GMDY apart is its minimalist design. Graves wanted to create something versatile customers could wear in a variety of settings without feeling like they were advertising a brand.
Photo by Madison Twiddy
“I never really liked the big zipper look on some of those quarter-zips, so having the hidden zipper (is good). … It’s a really clean quarter-zip, so you don’t have a massive logo in the middle of your chest,” Graves said. “You can wear it to work or to the golf course or out to dinner and working out, and you’re not really just a walking billboard, as I should say.”
As the company continues to grow, Graves said he wants to reach more customers and introduce additional products. A key part of that growth has been building relationships with local retailers, including Patrick Kelly, the owner of Finch and Kelly in Oxford. Currently, GMDY apparel can only be found online and at the Finch and Kelly store on the Square.
“I reached out to Patrick (Kelly) last April, and he told me he was going to take a chance on me, which I was super grateful about,” Graves said. “I got my first shipment in and showed it to him, and he was over the moon. He was like, ‘These turned out better than I imagined,’ and we have had a great relationship ever since.”
GMDY has expanded to creating apparel for seven other schools in the South, including LSU, Alabama, Oklahoma, Iowa, TCU and University of Louisiana at Lafayette. However, the company is focused on cementing its presence at current schools while exploring opportunities to expand its product line.
In the future, the company wants to expand to provide women’s apparel, particularly for Ole Miss game days.
“We have talked about bringing women’s clothing, as well,” Graves said. “We’re designing some things, and it’s going to take some trial and error, but eventually, we would like to have a clothing line for women.”
With the holiday season approaching, Graves hopes to increase sales through the company’s website and retail partnerships.
“Right now, we’re really trying to hone in on Ole Miss and the schools we are at, and try to get all the products (that) we can out,” Graves said. “Especially with Christmas … coming up, we’re really trying to ramp that up and get as many people as we can through the doors of Finch and Kelly (and) as many people as we can on our website, because I think (a quarter-zip) would be a great Christmas gift.”
For Graves, one of the most rewarding parts of starting GMDY has been seeing people from different generations wearing his designs around campus.
“Just from looking around, especially walking around the Grove and seeing people wearing it, I’ve seen anywhere from high school (students) to grandparents walk around in it, which is awesome,” Graves said. “It’s honestly a feeling you really can’t explain.”
