Ditch Day Apparel is rooted in radicalism and sustainable development, and aims to add fun to university equipment. The company was founded nearly a year ago, and its business model is based on limited sales and slow fashion. (Provided by Kim Yunji)

Abandoning fast fashion, Ditch Day Apparel paved the way for sustainable development.

Ditch Day was established in December 2020 and is committed to bringing fashionable and sustainable round neck shirts to every university campus, said Yoonji Kim, technical design coordinator and chief model. The first-year student in computational mathematics was initially recruited as an employee of the "Bachelor of Tea" magazine, a social justice magazine and the predecessor of Ditch Day. She said that she designed and produced a crew neck shirt with embroidered patches for Charity fundraising. She said that after becoming popular on TikTok, Kim and other founders renamed themselves Ditch Day Apparel, a name inspired by Advanced Ditch Day.

"We started advertising for these round necks on TikTok, and one of our TikToks was completely blown up," Kim said. "We (donated all funds) but then decided to rename the brand to Ditch Day Apparel and (make) our own small business."

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Although Kim has not joined the fashion industry until recently, she said that she has been interested in fashion since she was a child. In high school, she created an Instagram account and posted photos of her dress on it every day, which she said allowed her to explore beyond basic aesthetics and express her personal identity. By trying different hairstyles and accessories, she said that this account is an interesting way to discover her style of camp.

Reflecting her original goal, Kim said that Ditch Day is characterized by a round neck. From bright and soft colors and exquisite animated university mascots to neutral staff, they look clumsy, such as their brown staff embroidered with Down-eyed frog wearing a cowboy hat. She said that the brand's goal is to stay away from ordinary university sweatshirts and hope to approach university products in a more free way.

She said: "I think our brand itself is very distinctive, and the graphic design is very eye-catching." "I really like our'Zoo' series. This is very Ditch Day-these designs represent Ditch very well. Day."

Lark Chang-Yeh, Ditch Day’s creative director, said that most of Ditch Day’s designs are inspired by psychedelic drugs. She said that one of their distinctive round neck shirts, aptly named "ZOOTED FLOWER", showed three dim flowers, with a stone-like expression in the middle. Chang-Yeh said that the brand hopes to distinguish itself from the outdated aesthetics through simple and stupid design, hoping to create a round neck shirt that makes customers happy.

In addition to focusing on the individuality of the crew neck design, Kim also said that she and the co-founder of Ditch Day are proud to use ethical and sustainable materials to produce crew necks. Switching to crew neck shirts made in the UK with organic cotton and recycled polyester, Kim said that Ditch Day hopes to create higher quality products and reduce clothing waste. She said that inspired by their growing demand, the company decided to influence customers to buy goods from other sustainable companies and stay away from fast fashion. This change will have a smaller impact on the environment.

Attracted by the authenticity of the Ditch Day brand, Kim's roommate and first-year neuroscience student Anne Zhao said that she bought products from Ditch Day Apparel because she knew she was supporting a sustainable cause. She said that she was attracted by Kim's direct involvement in the design and promotion of crew neck shirts and the brand's insistence on its roots of radicalism.

"(Ditch Day) is very attractive to me because I know it comes from a well-meaning place," Zhao said. "Although becoming their own brand (not) is just a product of this activist group, they are still loyal to (the original message)."

Zhao said that in addition to promoting sustainable development, the Kim and Ditch Day team still present themselves as an activist group. Recently, in August, Kim stated that the team launched a fundraising campaign to sell sustainable tote bags with textile prints, and donated all profits to Afghan refugees.

Kim said that with the recent shift to ethically sourced crew neck shirts, the brand hopes to inspire customers and students to opt out of the fast fashion trend. (Provided by Kim Yunji)

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Despite the growing demand for Ditch Day crew neck shirts, Kim said that the brand still implements limited price cuts because she and the other founders are both college students. Between school and their own social life, she said they did not have enough time to meet the needs of their clients. Jin said that every drop will be sold out within a few hours, and the limited drop will inadvertently create a sense of exclusivity for their customers and trigger anticipation for the next drop.

"I really like the limited availability because it makes us more interesting and mysterious," Kim said, "It's like (waiting) concert tickets are right in front of my eyes... I think this is the charm of our brand."

Currently, Ditch Day only offers round necks that are consistent with the founders' colleges: UCLA, UC Berkeley and UC Davis. Looking to the future, Kim said she hopes Ditch Day can expand their merchandise to include other universities and products, such as handbags. She said that a large part of Ditch Day is that it is in a community outside of her own social circle, and that students she has never met can recognize these products.

"We see our crew neck shirts and community content everywhere, which strengthens our motivation to further spread the brand and reach more audiences," Jin said.

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