Aug. 31, 2023

For years, Jael Thorpe went to the annual Magic fashion trade show in Las Vegas looking to buy merchandise for her boutique.

The founder of J. Ella Boutique entered the industry in 2010, a few years out of South Dakota State University, and expanded it to Sioux Falls five years later.

Now, though, an entrepreneurial shift has landed her on the other side of the table at events such as the recent Magic show.

She has traded in retail store ownership for a new business largely focused on wholesale apparel – Gameday Social Apparel Co. – which specializes in clothing and accessories for what Thorpe calls “the social fan.”

Think of the person who enjoys going to a tailgate party and wants to look on trend at the same time.

“We’ve had a good week,” she said from Las Vegas at the start of another day meeting with regional and national retailers considering buying her merchandise.

“We actually onboarded a couple major retailers. We’re exhibiting at the show, our manufacturer is here from China, and we work with Weisser (Distributing from the Sioux Falls area), and they’re here. It’s been fun to be on the other side of it.”

At the moment, she’s experiencing the rush and the hurdle of trying to scale strategically and aggressively at the same time. Gameday Social recently moved its operations to Sioux Falls, and interest is such that Thorpe could see many more deals coming her way.

“I just feel like I’ve always been an entrepreneur, but I really feel like the last 15 years of my career have all just led to this,” Thorpe said.

Early entrepreneur

Thorpe, 39, has been a business owner nearly half of her life. Beginning in Gary, a small town on the border with Minnesota, she started a photography business in 2006 focused on weddings, senior pictures and commercial work. The boutique followed in 2010.

Along the way, she served on the Brookings City Council and as deputy mayor.

“The boutique was slow and steady, building a local brand that was sustainable, and I think I did that,” she said. “But the entrepreneur in me was hungry for that scalability.”

Her lease in Sioux Falls was taken over by a different boutique in 2021, and she sold the Brookings store earlier this year.

But the experience of running the boutiques led her into the niche she’s trying to fill with Gameday Social.

“We’d been doing some SDSU product at the boutique, and I started to see an opportunity bigger than that,” Thorpe said.

On a whim, she approached Scheels in 2019. The regional chain said yes to a last-minute meeting.

She “threw together” some designs, “ran to Fargo and pitched them,” and the buyers said yes to giving the line a try.

The retailer saw the potential in the concept – and so did Thorpe.

“I love to tailgate and go to games with friends, but I’m not a sports fan, and I never wanted to wear the generic sideline apparel,” she said. “There’s a missed market there, and that’s where we’ve been very successful securing major licensing agreements. These universities recognize our big competitors are missing that category.” 

Gameday Social’s growth spurt

The first employee dedicated to Gameday Social was hired in 2021. It now has grown to a team of 10 that’s largely based in Sioux Falls, using leased office space at 402 W. Ninth St.

“I love Sioux Falls,” Thorpe said. “It’s just big enough of a market where people are more collaborative, and the entrepreneurial spirit in Sioux Falls is incredible.”

Merchandise initially was printed in Sioux Falls and shipped from the basement of Thorpe’s former boutique. But in the past two years, licensing deals started to come together – first some Big Ten schools and now about 25 universities in “power five” conferences.

“The name of the game in this industry is licensing,” Thorpe said.

“It’s a pretty cutthroat industry and highly competitive. We’re just a little company in South Dakota bootstrapping … everything we do, and we’re competing with Nike and Hanes and Fanatics, so we have to be extremely strategic and very niche-down, so we really put our strategy into the category of elevated women’s apparel.”

Gameday Social’s competitive advantage is in its nimbleness, she said.

The company quickly can respond to fashion trends and has sourced manufacturers able to support the designs, including with embellishments that set them apart.

“It’s kind of a running joke in our office how little I know about sports. Literally, I know nothing. But I know female consumers,” Thorpe said.

“We positioned ourselves as an elevated brand. So our competitive edge is speed to market, adaptability and quality. Massive companies producing garments by the hundreds of thousands find it’s impossible to maintain quality at that scale. It’s not our goal to be the biggest sports apparel brand but rather the most extraordinary.”

About 75 percent of the business is from women, with some mens and youth offerings. Gameday Social has its own direct-to-consumer site, but it’s 90 percent business-to-business.

“What we’re really trying to do is build a true brand … and that’s been a big part of our strategy with wholesale,” she said. “It’s massive brand distribution.”

So far, Gameday Social apparel is carried in 1,000 retail store nationwide. Another line focused on elevated resortwear also is finding traction.

“A lot of our key resort customers are in Vail, Aspen, (Colorado); Park City, Utah; so ski and coastal communities,” Thorpe said. “A lot of the silhouettes are similar to the Gameday brand, but it’s such a different flavor from sports. It’s a lot more organic, a little more preppy.”

It has all combined to create challenges keeping up with distribution. Thorpe has partnered with another fast-growing Sioux Falls-area company, Weisser Distributing, to support her warehousing needs.

“I always heard the term scaling a company, and it’s like a sexy term, but it’s really hard,” Thorpe said. “It’s gritty. It’s messy. Definitely a company that’s rapidly growing is not always an easy place to work. We’re constantly pivoting, and it takes a resilient personality, and that doesn’t work for everyone.”

That said, as she looks to the future, it’s with a lot of optimism.

“I just feel like I’ve finally found my lane and that next step, and it’s been fun,” she said. “There were so many missteps over the last 15 years and still are, but I feel like I’ve found my spot in the world.”