Wilson College Students Get Leg-up on Building a Business, Designing Products in Immersive Summer Program

“How did you spend your summer break?”

It’s a question that’s been asked frequently in recent weeks as the fall semester at NC State got underway — no doubt evoking responses about summer jobs, internships and trips to far-flung destinations.

For two students in the Wilson College of Textiles, though, summer 2024 brought uniquely immersive access to one of the most innovative spaces on Centennial Campus — and a crash course in building a business.

The Wilson College of Textiles Summer Innovation Program offered students an experiential dive into the ins and outs of entrepreneurship, from making a product to forming a business plan. 

The inaugural edition of the program came to life this summer in the Prototype Lab, the innovation hub that will serve as a key component of the fledgling Flex Factory. 

Home to 3D printers and a wide range of cutting and sewing equipment, it’s a space meant for fostering precisely the type of entrepreneurship offered in this program.

“The vision was a program, in the Flex Factory, specifically to support student entrepreneurship — and specifically, for student entrepreneurship in the textile realm,” explains laboratory manager Bailey Knight, who headed up the program.

How the program works

Knight, along with faculty and staff, selected participants from a pool of applicants who had pitched innovative concepts the Prototype Lab could support.

Specifically, the Flex Factory team selected students who pitched unique concepts the lab and its experts could feasibly turn into a real-life, physical product. But they were also on the lookout for a business plan with real potential — one the student could workshop over the two-month immersion, under the guidance of specifically-selected technical and entrepreneurial coaches.

Then, students spent the summer developing both their physical product and business plan, honing individualized day-to-day goals in close consultation with faculty, staff and graduate student coaches. 

 “Our students learn so many great things in their classes at the college, and in this program,” Knight explains, noting that a key part of the program called on students to register their own LLC. 

“Those are some really great things they can apply to this 100% real-world scenario,” she says.

A valuable hands-on opportunity

Student participants came away with a true, real-world sense of what it would take to get a textiles-based startup off the ground.

“This was a really interesting way for me to kind of ‘play it out,’ and see how I would start: how you would even go about creating a product, and then creating a business around your product,” says Julia Handley, a rising junior in the Wilson College’s fashion design program, whose business called Handley Design saw her create an all-new leather handbag concept meant to last a lifetime.

But her takeaways from the program may have comparable longevity.

“From finding your clientele, to building a platform and all the financial aspects,” Handley says. “I think it was really beneficial because I didn’t really understand the underworkings of it all before this summer.” 

Annie Hoyt, a rising senior in the fashion development and product management program, focused on growing her four-year-old company. Deni, a startup, sells adjustable garments that can stay with the wearer for years, in the interest of sustainability — and helping the consumer money in the long run.

“I think what really piqued my interest was the opportunity to work with people who are very knowledgeable and very skilled at what they do,” Hoyt says, noting the allure of the program’s extensive access to the Prototype Lab’s high-tech equipment.

“The opportunity to learn new skills and work with a bunch of equipment you would never usually work within one space – the 3-D printers, the cutters, the sewing machines, the knitting equipment,” Hoyt adds. “It’s just a really great asset to the college.”

Fostering entrepreneurship

Indeed, expanding the capacity to support these types of projects is a key goal of the Prototype Lab and the larger Flex Factory, itself poised for a multi-million dollar buildout early next year, says Wilson College of Textiles Dean David Hinks.

“One of the aspects of NC State that makes me most proud is that our university ranks second nationally for research commercialization among public universities. Part of that impact is due to the remarkable entrepreneurial focus of our students, staff and faculty,” Hinks says. “In the Wilson College of Textiles, we have seen a rapid rise in student entrepreneurship in recent years.”

It’s a culture of entrepreneurship Knight hopes to support in future summers, too, by continuing this summer innovation program.

“Incredible success,” Knight says of the program’s inaugural run. “What made it so successful was, of course the resources, the space where they could work on their projects and the machines they could access and the software they were able to use, all within the Prototype Lab and some other facilities within the college but also, most importantly, it’s because of our people that made it happen.”