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Female Founders: Whitney Bansin of The Wild Collective On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman Founder

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

Never take no for an answer- if the door is closed, go through the window. As a female trying to disrupt the sports apparel industry, many people told me “no” or that they didn’t think my idea was good enough, but I listened to my gut. I focused on the fashion-forward designs that the industry was lacking and knew I could deliver one-of-a-kind apparel that stylish sports fans would love.

As a part of our series about “Why We Need More Women Founders”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Whitney Bansin.

Meet Whitney Bansin, CEO, Founder and Lead Designer of The Wild Collective. She knows her city. She’s a Las Vegas resident of over 25 years and graduated with a business degree from UNLV.

Before she was 20 years old, she launched One Luv Agency, a fashion, hair, makeup and styling agency focused on styling celebrities and working with top clients from around the world. Most notably, she ran and oversaw all beauty creative direction for Zappos retail for 7 years.

Her fashion and styling background provided the foundation for her knowhow with apparel. Since 2014 Whitney has been designing unique fashion pieces and accessories, working with major resorts like MGM Resorts and Caesar’s on the Las Vegas Strip. When the NHL’s Vegas Golden Knights came to the city in 2017, she was tapped to create fashion-forward apparel that complimented the fan merchandise. She quickly saw the opportunity: fan sports apparel was expected, limited and lacked fashion appeal. This insight led her to launch The Wild Collective. The passion and success of her early collections catapulted her into major league and collegiate sports. The Wild Collective is now officially licensed across the NBA, WNBA, MLB, MLS and multiple college teams including The Ohio State University and The University of Alabama in addition to its exclusive deals with the Las Vegas Golden Knights and The Raiders.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?

My background in fashion and styling provided the foundation for my know-how with apparel.

Before I turned 20 years old, I launched One Luv Agency, a fashion, hair & makeup and styling agency focused on styling celebrities and working with top clients from around the world. Most notably, I ran and oversaw all beauty creative direction for Zappos retail for 7 years.

Since 2014, I’ve been designing unique fashion pieces and accessories, working with major resorts like MGM Resorts and Caesar’s on the Las Vegas Strip. When the NHL’s Vegas Golden Knights came to the city in 2017, I was tapped to create fashion-forward apparel that complimented the fan merchandise. I quickly saw the opportunity: fan sports apparel was expected, limited and lacked fashion appeal. This insight led me to launch The Wild Collective designing fashion-forward, licensed sports apparel.

Can you tell our readers what it is about the work you’re doing that’s disruptive?

We take a fresh eye to the sports apparel market, pulling the right fashion trends through and weaving them together with premium and sustainable fabrics. All of our styles are created with the wearer in mind and the desire to go beyond the conventional and expected, to unleash the individual. We create apparel for the Plus-1 fan, the one who wants to head to the game and look the part without sacrificing style when their local or favorite team goes on a win streak.

Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

In the beginning, I was flying by the seat of my pants. I had no clue what the process of production was. One time, I had this large accessory bag order for a retailer and I was told I needed to UPC code all of the bags before I could ship them. The boxes came in from China and we had to go through every single bag and individually add the tags. It took us days and I had to hire five people to come and help me just so I could get this order out. Little did I know that the factory in China would UPC tag them for free. Lesson learned here- if you don’t know, ask.

We all need a little help along the journey. Who have been some of your mentors? Can you share a story about how they made an impact?

I’m not a person who has ever followed in another’s footsteps, I have always set my own path. There are many people in my life that have always believed in me and my intentions. I believe the most important help you can get along the journey is from someone close to you whether it be your significant other, friend or family. In my case, my rock has always been my husband Lui. Over the course of our 17 years together, I have come to him with some pretty crazy ideas and not once has he ever said he wouldn’t support the idea. He knows that my entrepreneurial brain works differently than his and that business is my passion. So if the term happy wife happy life fits in here — his way is to support me in my business endeavors so that I can thrive. Having his support along the way has allowed me to keep my head down and just keep pushing, knowing that he has my back on the back-end if anything collapses. Whether it’s picking up the kids so I can get through 10 more emails or letting me take the dogs for a walk so I can get some fresh air and clear my mind. It can be the little things that can make a huge impact on a person’s health and well-being when it comes to building a business.

In today’s parlance, being disruptive is usually a positive adjective. But is disrupting always good? When do we say the converse, that a system or structure has ‘withstood the test of time’? Can you articulate to our readers when disrupting an industry is positive, and when disrupting an industry is ‘not so positive’? Can you share some examples of what you mean?

Disruption is a good thing when it brings about a positive change. What I mean is that disruption should push an industry or trend out of a stale status quo. However, I agree disruption needs to be meaningful and considered. As an entrepreneur, I like to find the “gaps” in the market and identify the areas that are operating but could be enhanced in some way. I like to fix and finesse those areas to create something unique and desirable to customers and since I started my career in styling and makeup so I tend to have an eye for finding little ways of making changes to make a big impact over time.

Can you share 3 of the best words of advice you’ve gotten along your journey? Please give a story or example for each.

Hustle — When building a business, you have to be willing to dig in the trenches to reach your goals. It’s important to surround yourself with people who support you through the process so you can remain focused and relentless on what it is you’re trying to build.

Belief/ believing in yourself and your vision — You will hear negative feedback and feel some self-doubt when disrupting an industry like sports apparel. However, I’ve had to constantly remind myself to believe in myself and what I’m creating. Deep down, I know that what I’m doing will make a significant difference across the industry, in terms of providing more fashionable, unisex options and sustainability.

Never take no for an answer- if the door is closed, go through the window. As a female trying to disrupt the sports apparel industry, many people told me “no” or that they didn’t think my idea was good enough, but I listened to my gut. I focused on the fashion-forward designs that the industry was lacking and knew I could deliver one-of-a-kind apparel that stylish sports fans would love.

We are sure you aren’t done. How are you going to shake things up next?

I’m constantly thinking of ways to shake things up and create “new” in the industry. Whether that’s unisex options, better and more consistent sustainable options, custom and personalized options (like custom denim options where you can create and design your own denim jacket), I’m always looking ahead. I want to lead and not follow and the industry is always moving. Looking forward, I’m excited to have new collections launching for Major League Soccer where we’ll have unique cuts and apparel options in a league that has a unique customer base who wants to incorporate more fashion into their wear.

In your opinion, what are the biggest challenges faced by ‘women disruptors’ that aren’t typically faced by their male counterparts?

When I started out, I got “no” a lot. And I was generally dismissed for bringing fashion into the sports realm. “Who is this girl thinking she knows this sports retail industry?” I might not have known the ins and outs of the industry, but I know the consumer — and I knew that they were being underserved. That insight kept me down the path of making it better. And after getting no after no but continuing ahead and showing what I could do, I got a lot of yeses that turned into bigger and bigger conversations.

Do you have a book/podcast/talk that’s had a deep impact on your thinking? Can you share a story with us?

I’m a huge fan of Gary Vaynerchuk. When I was looking to rebrand, a friend of mine recommended his advertising company VaynerMedia. Little did I know before hiring them that my husband was already a huge fan of his. He is a scorpio like me. He also tells it like it is and is very blunt with his advice which is something I can relate to. As an entrepreneur, he is especially inspiring. He has his hands in all sorts of different businesses and I love watching what he gets into and why.

You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂

The use of sustainable methods in clothing to be the norm, not the exception. The Wild Collective looks to be a leader in this space and challenge the current sports market to do better. The Wild Collective uses materials that are created and sourced ethically, a 360 circular economy: where we source and reuse materials and use cutting-edge production methods. As a brand, we are committed to keeping up with the best and most up-to-date sustainability practices so we can continue to lead in this space.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

Staying consistent and staying true to yourself. I strongly believe in listening to yourself and what your gut tells you. I’ve had to make some tough calls regarding whether or not to place an order or how much inventory we should have on hand for the websites. Right now, shipping is a huge situation across the world. Everyone’s dealing with this massive supply chain issue so being able to navigate that and knowing when it’s smart for you as a business to take a hit, and when it’s smart for you to be able to take an opportunity and seize it is crucial. So I think that listening to my gut and looking at the facts during these unprecedented times has really defined my leadership with The Wild Collective and continuing to build on that. I also think that the relationships I carry are relationships that people believe in not only us, but I do believe that they believe in me as an owner and leader, and that they believe in the vision.

How can our readers follow you online?

Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this

Female Founders: Whitney Bansin of The Wild Collective On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.