Wearing his hoodie to school, he felt as if he could finally express himself creatively. This encouraged him to print out more hoodies and accessories, as well as start his website, IDVDL.com.

Around 2016, Senior Antonio Lugo, founder of IDVDL, was struck with the idea of creating his hoodie. He wore it to school and found himself surprised when people were beginning to show interest in it, so he created more.

“It started as a regular trend in the Columbus School, but after a while, he, started being more extravagant, so then people were buying it ’cause they liked it,” Nicolas Zarate, Grade 12 and IDVDL.com customer, said.

“The idea of starting something related to clothing or design has always been on my mind since I was little,” Antonio Lugo, CEO of IDVDL, said.

As time went on, IDVDL kept growing into a larger business. According to Lugo, selling clothing to his friends and classmates is part of what made it successful; they were eager to buy his items due to their connection to him.

“People are really messing with it, they like it, the people want more, they liked it, I have followers, and that’s great. People that pay attention to what you’re doing is great,” Lugo said.

Another factor was understanding his clients. Lugo’s customers are people he has known for many years, some even from Kinder 5. Knowing what kind of audience he wanted to appeal to was something that really helped him out in the long run.

“You go to Nike and see a lot of the products, and a lot of them look the same, but if you go to IDVDL I feel like the products, especially the sweatshirts, they’re all very different, and that’s what I think makes IDVDL stand out,” Zarate said

Lugo eventually went on to create his website, IDVDL.com, figuring that the best way to distribute his merchandise would be to sell it online. Right on time too, because with the current pandemic the world has been struggling with for over a year now, online shopping has increased significantly starting in February 2020.

“I created a new website that let my customers purchase through the website, so I created a new store. I designed it in a very cool manner as well, very unique. It has been very successful because it is a new step for the brand,” Lugo said.

Exploring his website, one can find dozens of items ready for sale, from pants to hoodies, to shirts, even necklaces are included. Every item is displayed in several pictures once they’re clicked on, as well as a short description accompanying it, to let the client make sure what they’re buying.

Lugo is not alone. High school students are starting their own businesses more frequently and with greater success. The last years have seen the creation of many brands created by students, some not even high schoolers, such as the clothing brand, Are You Kidding Me, created by Brandon Martinez, and Sebastian Martinez, 13 and 11 years old. IDVDL has become another successful brand run by a student, and surely not the last one to make an appearance. Brands like Trashbots, Maya’s ideas, and Hack+ are becoming the future of entrepreneurship, literally making this generation of students the planet’s future.

“The first sweatshirts he had were literally just white and black, and vice versa, so I feel like that’s why I didn’t buy at first, but now, I started seeing his sweatshirts more and I found the Aura one, I felt it was very unique, and I feel like it stands out more, and it makes IDVDL a better company,” Zarate said.

“When it comes to my business, no, I don’t regret anything because I believe that everything that has happened has constructed the way that everything is working right now, everything happens for a reason, yeah. The only mistakes are lessons, mistakes aren’t a bad thing,” Lugo said.

After analyzing last year’s sales, Lugo noticed he sold 600+ units, part of that success due to his new online store, it was around this point that he realized he needed to take this whole thing more seriously; seeing numbers like these start to show up meant to him that his business needed to take another step towards the future.

He plans to continue his business, following in all the steps to hopefully become a larger company. He plans to study design in Bogotá with the sole purpose of improving IDVDL. This would include adding more items to his website, ones that could bring more diversity to the table. After that, he plans to go to the United States to hopefully collaborate with more people.

Works Cited:

Lugo, Antonio. “Productos.” IDVDL,  idvdl.com/collections/frontpage.

Magazine Contributor. “Meet 16 Teen Founders Who Are Building Big Businesses — and Making Big Money.” Entrepreneur, Entrepreneur, 20 Aug. 2019, www.entrepreneur.com/slideshow/337852.