Arkansas startup company, RaftUp, hopes to engage the community of boaters, hikers, climbers, and outdoor-lovers with their new line of clothing.
Since the company started in 2015, RaftUp has continued to bring new ideas to the market of people who enjoy kicking it back and relaxing riverside, lakeside, or even oceanside. The lifestyle brand will be sure to bring awareness to the RaftUp app while fulfilling the company’s mission of going out on the water, and connecting with friends and family, says Alysha Hemani, Marketing and Communications Coordinator of RaftUp.
With the first product launched, the company has featured the Buffalo River in their line while donating $5 of every shirt purchase to the associated nonprofit, the Buffalo River Foundation. The current product as well as upcoming lines, are designed to bring support and awareness to different bodies of water. While the line is sure to appeal to customers on warm, summer days, the online store also carries different variations of the design on sweatshirts and hoodies meant for any season.
“The design really brings out the social aspect of it, being out on the river with your friends, cracking a beer or whatever, enjoying and living in that moment,” Hemani says. “I think it will really connect with those people. We want to bring that out with every design that we launch-that community of reminding you how you feel when you’re there.”
With nearly 15,000 users on the app, the new line is sure to appeal to a great percentage of people who are attracted to the outdoorsy aspect of the product. “This is the first time we have done anything like this, so we are taking a risk and seeing how it goes,” Hemani says.
The plan for the RaftUp shirt line is to eventually branch out to more coastal areas to align with their presence of the Miami Boat Show in February, as well as create a design that brings attention to the lakes of the Ozarks.
With the goal in mind to promote the brand by eventually having ambassadors out on the waters, the company hopes to represent the brand through all the different activities the outdoors has to offer. “We really want to be an aspirational brand, so instead of just telling people to go out there and enjoy the outdoors, we want to show them that we also are out there doing these amazing activities” Hemani says.
While the new, exciting update on the app will draw in all kinds of outdoor-lovers, the company hopes to play off the audience of customers as the company’s presence expands to different bodies of water and different states. “We want to be able to represent those outdoor sports through our shirts and tell these stories, so that will hopefully tie in our app, our mission, and the whole idea of making it easier to go outdoors and do what you love and what makes you happy,” Hemani says.
READ MORE: Arkansas’ Hottest Mobile Applications: RaftUp
