Love Your Melon is an apparel company that started as a class project.
The Love Your Melon Company was founded by two friends, Zachary Quinn and Brian Keller. They met in an entrepreneurship class at St. Thomas University, where they were tasked with the challenge of creating a business from scratch.
They were only given two stipulations from their professor:
- You can’t spend more than $700 dollars to start the business
- The business needs to turn a profit by the end of the semester
Quinn and Keller liked the idea of a creating company centered around a “Buy One Give One” business model. The pair came up with the idea to sell beanies and to donate 1 beanie for every 1 sold to a child battling cancer in the United States. Every year, approximately 45,000 children in the United States battle cancer.
After a year and a half into the business, the company reached its initial goal to give a hat to every child battling cancer in the United States. After reaching its goal, the company began looking for other ways to continue to make an impact on communities and families.
“My immediate thought was what do we do next? What is impactful?” says Quinn.
Even after reaching its initial goal, Love Your Melon continues to be a mission-driven business. In addition to giving hats to children fighting pediatric cancer, the company now donates 50% of its total net profits every year to pediatric cancer research. The company has donated a total of over 9.4 million dollars to fighting pediatric cancer and over 230,000 beanies to children battling cancer.
Quinn believes that giving back should be a fundamental component of every business.
“Every business should be making someone’s life better and supporting communities,” says Quinn.
In addition to providing hats, all of the company’s products are made in the United States, which provides U.S jobs in manufacturing. Overall, Quinn emphasizes the importance of impacting communities on multiple different fronts, what he calls “a wholistic way.”
” In addition to providing beanies to these kids and fighting pediatric cancer through research, and family and financial support,” says Quinn. “We support U.S jobs in manufacturing and we provide customers with great quality products. It’s this very circular mentality.”
He explains how the company simultaneously balances three different missions:
- Providing support for causes
- Providing jobs
- Providing consumers with products that make their lives better
You can purchase Love Your Melon’s products at their website (Hats for Children Battling Cancer | Our Story | Love Your Melon ) or on Amazon. Love Your Lemon will be having a special 2 for 1 sale on March 7th, 2022!