Teen turns hobby into cool business

ERIE, Pa. (AP) — Nic Lucore’s brilliant business idea didn’t come to him as a flash of inspiration in the shower or in a dream.

It came to him about three years ago when he was sitting and freezing in a chairlift at Peek’n Peak Resort and Spa. He was wearing a bandanna across his nose and mouth to try to keep warm.

“It just wasn’t cutting it,” said Lucore, a snowboarding enthusiast and a 17-year old senior at Fairview High School. “It just wasn’t good enough.”

Later that week, he went to a fabric store, bought a remnant of fleece, and, using skills he picked up in middle school home- economics class, sewed it on to the back of the bandanna.

With that, the Lamb-Dana was born.

Lucore tested the idea out on friends. He went to a local sewing store, The Sewing Corner, looking for advice on how to make his product better.

That same year, he made his first major sale: the Erie Sport Store agreed to buy two dozen.

An experiment in keeping warm had become a small business, and Lucore, an avid snowboarder and sailor, had become an entrepreneur.

“It’s pretty cool,” Lucore said. “At the time, I was like, ‘This is nice.’ But now I realize that [making and selling a product] is hard to do. It doesn’t happen all the time.

“It’s a great feeling that someone would spend money on an idea or a product that you come up with. It’s the ultimate compliment.”

In the three years since, Lucore has grown his business by cold- calling ski resorts and sports stores locally and across the nation. He has sold to 10 clients, including two Alaskan resorts, and has six current buyers. He sells the Lamb-Danas in bulk, and price depends on the size of the order and the pattern.

A typical order of three to four dozen costs about $7.50 per bandanna, he said.

Phyllis Van Horn, the buyer and manager for Three Mountain Outfitters, a retail shop owned by Smuggler’s Notch Resort in north-central Vermont, has been buying from Lucore for two years.

Van Horn said she decided to try the product after getting an e-mail pitch from Lucore’s mother.

As she was ticketing the first batch, customers already were going through the box, picking out their favorites.

She sold three dozen within three weeks and reordered. She said she received her latest order of 72 two weeks ago and has already sold half.

“The snowboard culture is into looking like the bad boy, a little grungy,” she said. “If they can protect their neck and face with something that’s not status quo, they’re drawn to it.”

Lucore initially hired students from high school to help sew but switched this summer to two professional sewers who have committed to sewing four dozen bandannas every week and a half.

On a busy week, Lucore spends 10 to 20 hours in the basement of his Fairview Township home, cutting and finishing fabric: tie-dyed fabric, paisley fabric, camouflage-patterned fabric, fabric with tiger stripes and cheetah spots.

He’s sold 20 dozen Lamb- Danas so far this year and expects to sell another 20 dozen by the end of the year.

“I’m really proud of him,” Lucore’s mother, Shirley, said. “It’s neat that he came up with an idea and did something with it.”

Lucore hasn’t made any money from his enterprise just yet. All the money he’s received has gone directly back into the business, including the purchase of a serging machine.

After graduation, Lucore plans to enroll at the University of Vermont to study engineering.

“The ultimate goal would be, really, to just have fun,” Lucore said. “It’s nice to have something to do if your planned career doesn’t work out.”

One thing’s certain: He’ll be warm, whatever he does.