By Sheldon Spackman

Red Deer entrepreneur launches clothing line to support mental health

Sep 8, 2018 | 6:00 AM

A young entrepreneur from Red Deer is launching his own clothing line while also supporting a worthy cause.

Jaret Smith, the 24-year-old owner of Unparalleled Premium Wear, says he got the idea for his business during an entrepreneurship class in his third year of university.

“We had to create something,” recalls Smith. “Basically, everyone was making these multi-million dollar companies that just didn’t seem reasonable to make for a class project and just kind of too much out there for a university kid in a class. I wanted to create something simple and we could get bonus marks for actually producing products and actually showing off business which I think is part of what being an entrepreneur is, you know producing something and not just talking about it.”

With that philosophy in place, Smith decided on a clothing line which he originally called 403 Lifestyle Clothing — a name he used until the end of last year when he changed it to Unparalleled Premium Wear.

“I wanted to take a different direction,” he explains. “Playing hockey for so long and being in athletics, I wanted to tailor it to more of an athletic wear company and have products of that sort. Right now, we’re just head wear but I am working on creating products that are athletic tailored and stuff that you can wear for not only street wear but athletic wear.”

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Smith adds he plans to make the Unparalleled brand a more stylish and unique type of sporting wear.

“Maybe a shirt that has a different cut to it but still athletic material or material that you might not see in stores,” says Smith. “It was just about being different, having something different and I guess while doing that, I wanted to support a cause like mental health. It’s something that I think needs to have as much light shed on it as possible and with the way it’s been trending the last couple years, I think it’s something that is being talked about more and it’s good to see.”

He says mental health is an issue close to his heart.

“I’ve seen a lot of people go through depression and I’ve gone through it myself,” says Smith. “I’ve lost friends to mental health issues and seen other people lose their friends and family to mental health issues and it was just something that I thought needed to be supported. Every month we make a donation with a percentage of our revenue towards Canadian Mental Health [Association] to our local branch here.”

Smith says Unparalleled hats will be available for sale next week with toques to be released in October.

“For the spring, my short term plan would be having a couple shirts, shorts, some socks, more hats, hoodies and stuff of that nature,” adds Smith. “If I had to vision something long term, I would eventually like to be up there with the Under Armours and Nikes. People may laugh at that and say that it’s not possible but I think you’ve got to shoot for the stars when you’re running a business, put everything into it and see where it takes you.”