It’s no secret that the Baylor University College of Arts & Sciences has a diverse student body. With 25 academic departments represented –– spread across the sciences, humanities and social sciences –– its graduates go on to excel in a wide careers.
It’s also no secret that an impressive number of Arts & Sciences alumni are choosing to start their own businesses after graduation, sometimes in fields quite different than those they studied in school. To get an idea of just how varied these business ventures can be, we talked to nine A&S entrepreneurs to learn about how they used the skills they learned at Baylor to achieve success in the marketplace.
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Matthew McClard (BFA ’00)
Foot Cardigan
You might not have gotten the word yet, but fun, boldly patterned socks are replacing neckties as a way for men to express their personalities. In any haberdashery, shoppers can find large selections of socks with unusual designs. For Baylor alumnus Matthew McClard, this fashion trend has meant big business for his company, Foot Cardigan.
Founded in 2012, Foot Cardigan is a sock subscription company in which customers receive a random pair of colorful, boldly patterned socks each month.
“We design awesome men’s, women’s and kids’ socks, then send them all over the world,” McClard said. “Our goal is to take the otherwise snooze of an errand of buying socks and make it fun again. Not to mention that everyone loves getting fun mail.”
Originally from Little Rock, Ark., McClard moved to Oxnard, Calif., as a senior in high school. He decided to apply to Baylor after a group of church friends did, and because the University offered the major he was interested in pursuing. McClard would go on to earn a Bachelor of Fine Arts with a concentration in graphic design from Baylor.
“Fine arts was something I always wanted to do,” McClard said. “My design classes taught me a lot about creatively solving problems and how to convey ideas in a visual manner. My fine art classes were great at teaching me how to express myself within different mediums. Both of these have been invaluable in creating the business and art side of Foot Cardigan.”
After graduating, McClard got a job in graphic design and industrial design for an interior design company in Dallas, a position he held for about five years. During that time, he also moonlighted as a web developer before beginning a new job at a branding company.
In early 2012, McClard and Bryan DeLuca, Foot Cardigan’s CEO, were working for different companies in the same small building and became acquainted. DeLuca and his team had the idea for Foot Cardigan but needed to create a website. They chose McClard to help them, bringing him in as a partner in the new company. McClard and a group of freelance designers would eventually create the sock designs.
“As far as idea generation, we have tried to embrace the absurdity of what we do. So nothing is off the table. If we think it’s funny, or a good idea we run with it,” McClard said.
Foot Cardigan has attracted notice from news outlets such as the Dallas Morning News and Good Morning America, and in October 2015 the hosts of the ABC television show Shark Tank were so impressed by McClard and his partners that they made Foot Cardigan a lucrative investment offer.
“It was reassuring to know people as smart as the Sharks believed in what we are doing and loved the idea,” McClard said. “The fact that we were able to get four offers blew us away. It gave us a lot of confidence in our plans for the future.”
––by Julie Carlson