This Fashion Marketing Student is Kicking her Brand into High Gear

Alexis Unger has been painting and drawing for as long as she can remember. The Central Valley native, and first year Fashion Marketing major, gained her artistic inspiration from her older sister who used to draw characters from her favorite movies.

“What’s an older sister good for if it’s not to copy everything that they do?” she says.

Alexis, however, quickly took her artistic talents far beyond simple illustrations on paper. In fact, she’s working to build it into a brand.

“I was painting on anything and everything that I could find during my teenage years,” she said. “When I ran out of canvases, I decided to customize my shoes.” With that, Alexis struck upon a unique idea and, um, ran with it.

“I painted on my first pair of Nike AF1s at the end of my junior year in high school,” she said. “After I finished, I posted them on social media and got multiple responses from people who were interested in having me customizing their own shoes.”

After taking on several commissioned projects, Alexis realized that she was on to something.

“I decided to major in Fashion Marketing because it was a unique program that married my interests in both fashion and the business worlds.” Since arriving at Woodbury, Alexis has also taken to heart the advice of School of Business faculty member, Alexandra Saba, who told her that everything is a business.

Recently, Alexis has been putting her efforts  into building and marketing her brand—she’s calling it Get Kicked—as well as practicing professional conduct with her clients.

“At this point, I’ve customized about 25 pairs of shoes and other items, like water bottles,” she says. “I haven’t met a disappointed client or someone who wasn’t willing to pay me to create something they dreamed up.”

Going forward, Alexis would like to continue to legitimize Get Kicked and build it into a larger brand. Soon she plans to create a website and start collecting even more custom orders. She is also planning to continue her education by getting her MBA after completing the Fashion Marketing program in a few years.

“I’m lucky to have the means and capability to create for people,” Alexis says. “So I want to take advantage of it while I can. I’m hoping for lots of new people to ‘Get Kicked!’”

Learn more about the Fashion Marketing program