TP student starts successful fashion brand
Temasek Polytechnic graduate starts fashion brand, donates part of proceeds to needy students
You may have seen young people wearing a black T-shirt with the words "Temasek XXV Established 1990".
The T-shirts are from a homegrown brand created by Mr Lutfil Hadi, 25, when he was a second-year diploma in Business Intelligence and Analytics student, to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Temasek Polytechnic (TP) in 2015.
"XXV" is 25 in Roman numerals.
Mr Lutfil was the president of his course's interest group and was looking for another way to engage students and celebrate his school's silver jubilee.
He and his executive committee decided to take pre-orders for the T-shirts, and within a week they had sold 3,000, three times their original target. At $10 each, they made $29,000.
All proceeds went to the Campus Care Network (CCN), which raises funds for students in need.
Mr Lutfil, who graduated from Institute of Technical Education College Central with a Nitec in Multimedia Technology, was also once a beneficiary of the financial aid programme.
He was given a one-time amount of $250 when his father, the family's sole breadwinner, was retrenched as a managing director's personal assistant.
POTENTIAL
As messages asking for the next round of orders filled up his inbox , Mr Lutfil realised that the brand had potential.
He started to channel more resources into the business, starting up the XXV club, a group of about 60 students who were dedicated to running the business.
He then went into partnership with two other TP alumni to take XXV to the next level. In 2016, it organised a fashion show to showcase all five collections of the TPXXV shirt.
Other than expanding the product line to include lanyards and bags, it recently unveiled a store at the Temasek Launchpad with the help of TP's Innovation & Entrepreneurship department.
XXV donates 10 per cent of all sales proceeds to TP's needy students. To date, it has donated more than $75,000 to CCN.
Mr Lutfil, who graduated last year and is now doing his full-time national service, is looking to expand the brand.
"Running this business is a dream come true. I am thankful for everyone who has supported XXV," he said.
Students can try for a place at Temasek Polytechnic before taking their O-level exams by applying to its Early Admissions Exercise at www.tp.edu.sg/eae
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