Today we’d like to introduce you to Gihan Amarasiriwardena.
So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
As a collegiate cross country athlete and MIT-trained chemical engineer, I knew there had to be a better way to make business wear. I used to spend hours in my MIT fraternity sewing dress shirts out of athletic shirts. At the same time, before we met, my cofounder Aman was cutting out the bottoms of his dress socks and replacing them with the soles of his running socks. Aman and I, along with our co-founder Kit Hickey, later met at MIT, and realized we all wanted to invent a new type of apparel—performance professional.
People today are accustomed to performance clothing in the gym or on the trail—but don’t usually find the same functionality in their clothing on their commute, at their desks or during big meetings. Merging the worlds of style and performance, we engineer apparel so that it can flex with the demands of the modern woman or man’s busy and active lifestyle.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Starting a business is rarely a smooth road, but at Ministry of Supply, we like to think of bumps in the road not as obstacles, but learning opportunities. We welcome challenges and see all problems—from negative customer feedback to store locations that aren’t performing well—as signs we must adapt and refine our strategy.
Aman and I are both tinkerers and engineers, we love testing and adapting our products to solve everyday problems, and we’re so passionate about creating this new category of performance professional clothing. We knew from day one that we wanted to be the ones hacking and inventing apparel, and we’re lucky enough to spend our days working on this dream.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Ministry of Supply story. Tell us more about the business.
Born out of MIT, Ministry of Supply is a clothing company designed for the modern professional who values form and function in every aspect of their life. People are accustomed to performance clothing in their athletic gear, but don’t usually find the same functionality in their business apparel. With features like a four-way stretch, odor-absorbing fabric, and moisture-wicking fibers, Ministry of Supply engineers clothes that equip you against the trials of the 16-hour day and keep you looking sharp.
As Ministry of Supply’s President and in-house design expert, I lead the fabric and garment development processes. This past year, we partnered with MIT to redesign Ministry of Supply’s first dress shirt, developing new heat-resistant collar stays and adjusting the design so that the fit mimicked the human body.
We also launched our 3D Print-Knit Experience, which allows customers to design and manufacture clothing at the Boston flagship store. We have worked closely with the manufacturer of the knitting machine, Shima Seiki, to hack the machine for new use cases that could be applied across the manufacturing industry.
Pricing:
- Men’s Apollo 3 Dress Shirt – $115
- Women’s Easier Than Silk Tee – $65
- Men’s 3D Print-Knit Blazer – $285
- Women’s 3D Print-Knit Sweater Dress – $285
- Smarter Dress Sock – $15
Contact Info:
- Address: 105 South Street Boston, MA 02111
- Website: https://ministryofsupply.com/
- Phone: 617-945-1915
- Email: mos@launchsquad.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ministryofsupply/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ministryofsupply/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/ministrysupply
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