FOLIO
Words by Lorelei Belanger
With so many malls, shopping centers and stores in town, it can be hard to weed through and find the small, local businesses. Proud Jags fans and Jacksonville locals are always looking for the best merch, and it’s easy to go into any sporting goods store in town or order a shirt for next day delivery from Amazon. It’s more time consuming to find a local business with a vision and mission. But it’s also more impactful. If you’re already supporting your home team, why not support your community at the same time?
There are too many local clothing brands to list all of them, but I found a couple with unique game day gear — and the most compelling backstories.
Jia̅ Co.
In April 2023, Jacksonville native Eric Yi decided to start his brand. At the same time, he decided to quit his corporate job. Yi worked in corporate real estate for eight years: Money was good and it was a solid career. He had even worked his way up to associate vice president of one of the biggest brokerage firms in town, but he didn’t enjoy it. Yi stayed because the money as good, but he felt the job was extremely transactional: It was always “just get the deal done and see you later” for him. Yi said his wife, Emily, was home full- to part-time during his journey in commercial real estate while they started having kids. He says she is also an entrepreneur with her own mental health practice, and she wanted to grow her business also. So she suggested flipping roles. Eric struggled a lot internally with the risks involved in leaving the corporate world, but he said, “At the end of the day, it just became, do I want to hate my life? I’ve been doing this for eight years and haven’t enjoyed it. What’s it going to look like when I look up one day in another eight years?” After wrestling with the idea of leaving his secure career, he decided to go for it and filed his LLC for the brand the same week he left his corporate job.
Yi said the very beginning of his brand’s story starts when he was 1 year old. “In Chinese culture, they lay a bunch of different items out on a blanket, put the baby on the floor and let them crawl and grab an item, and that’s supposed to represent what they want to do in life. So, I grabbed lipstick, and that meant being into beauty and fashion and those things. I never thought anything of it when I was younger, but it’s funny now, I’m, like, who, that’s kind of trippy.” Growing up as part of a minority group in Jacksonville in the ‘90s was hard at times, but he found that fashion was a way to fit in. Yi was an athlete growing up and said he wore things to fit in with that group, like jerseys and lots of hip-hop wear.
The brand name Jia̅ Co. comes from the Chinese work “Jia̅,” which means family. The tagline is “Family is the Company You Keep” because it is a family company. Yi greatly values family, blood and choice, “I love my blood family, but I feel like throughout my experiences in life, a big, I guess, checkpoint in life was losing one of my best friends. That kind of galvanized our friend group back together, and going through something like that can really put into perspective what’s really important. For me, that’s spending time with the people that I actually care about, that’s not always blood family, but they are like family.”
The logo, a cherry blossom, is used as an analogy in one of Yi’s favorite movies as a kid, “The Last Samurai,” “to describe the cycle of life and how quick our time on Earth is.” Cherry blossom trees bloom all at once, but shed the petals within a two to three weeks. He says, it kind of represents seizing the moment and using time in the right way.
Right now, the brand focuses on Jacksonville Jaguars merch, when I asked why, Yi said, “My love for the Jaguars. How do I describe it? I just love teams and groups and family. I like feeling like I’m on a side with somebody.” He says he is “tribalistically loyal” and grew up locally, so he has always rallied around the team. He loves sports and football, but he said the Jaguars represent much more than “the product on the field.”
The design process for Yi is pretty loose, he says a lot of his ideas come when he’s listening to music while he’s working out or doing chores. “We’re all influenced by a bunch of different ideas that we see, and we regurgitate how we see or how we think things should be. So, I’m influenced by a ton of different things, like music, other fashion, and I love floral. I have this weird juxtaposition as far as my style, and I think a lot of the other creators will say this too: You want your brand to reflect yourself.” Yi said he does hit creative blocks and can struggle with creativity.
In terms of production, all six of the products released have been made differently. With his first shirt release, a tour style t-shirt with the season schedule on the back and a design on the front inspired by Kanye West’s “Graduation” album, he had lots of interest before production even began. He had a few samples of the shirt, which he gave to some friends,who posted it on social media. He instantly started getting messages asking when and where people could get the shirt. Since he needed large qualities, he used a local print shop to print the shirts. Another piece released was a tie dye version of the shirt. Yi and his three kids hand tie dyed the shirts in their house, “Again, we are a family company.” A hoodie that was released was hand splattered at home by Yi, and he pressed the design on the hoodies himself, also at home.
“Everybody is here to rally for our team,” Yi said. And so I hope that resonates in the stuff we make. I don’t want it to just be Jaguars merch. Like, I really do want it to represent Jacksonville and Duval County inclusively.”
You can find Eric Yi’s pieces at jiafamily.co, or follow @the_jia_co on Instagram to stay up to date on new releases and where to find their products.
The CMIV Collection
Josh Williams, another Jacksonville native, wanted his brand, and its name to represent where he was from, which is where CMIV came from. CMIV is Roman numerals for 904 (Jacksonville’s first area code).
Williams worked in the corporate world for 12 years and got very tired of “doing something I didn’t love and didn’t care about.” He has always been passionate about sports and fashion. He started to think about what he could do with those interests, and how he could make money from them.
His transition from his corporate job to owning his own brand was quite sudden. “Not to sound dramatic, but one day, after 12 years at my job, I was on my lunch break and decided to quit. I walked out, went home and told my fiance.” Williams said it was a big leap of faith, but after five years of owning his own business, it was worth it. He said one of the biggest challenges he had to overcome was learning about business. “I didn’t go to school for any of this stuff, so it has all been self-taught,” he said.
Williams left his job in September of 2019, and shortly after, the pandemic started in March of 2020. He said that while the world shutting down while trying to start his own business “threw a wrench” in his plans, it allowed him lots of time to focus on strengthening his skills and gathering his ideas. “I took advantage of the time to learn things about the business, fabrics, materials that I could use.”
Williams has always been a sports fan, and has been a Jaguars fan since the inception of the team. He loves the hometown feel the Jaguars have, and the sense of community around the team. “I never felt that a lot of the merchandise that was created represented my style; it was kind of just throwing a jaguar on something.” He wanted to find something that could show his support for his hometeam, but also embrace his uniqueness and personality.
“I wanted something that represented me, while also showing love for my team,” he said.
Williams says he doesn’t really have a design process: “I just kind of let the ideas come to me. I try to keep my eyes open as much as possible I draw inspiration from everything.” At first, he recalled, it was pretty easy to come up with designs and products because he had “a whole lifetime of ideas.” And like many creativies, he said he does get into ruts or hit blocks sometimes but taking time to clear his head and take time for himself helps the ideas flow easier.
The CMIV Collection products have a lot of variety, some taking inspiration from racing t-shirt designs, record labels, vintage merch, and sporty designs. Shirts, shorts, hats and even socks are available from the brand.
You can find Josh Williams brand The CMIV Collection, on Instagram @thecmivcollection or on the website (cmivcollection.com). Some products can also be found in person at Employees Only Vintage.
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