Seniors Cody Morgan and Braden McCraw are headed to New York City in April to showcase their work with “Naturally Threaded,” a virtual sustainable, environmentally-friendly capsule-clothing company. The students manage the virtual company as COO and Co-CEO, respectively, with other students from area schools as part of their work in the Business Management and Entrepreneurship program at Berks Career and Technology Center’s (BCTC) West Campus. In this program, students do not actually create or sell any tangible products. Instead, they create immersive virtual enterprises by conducting market research and developing business plans and products. They then select different career roles in leadership, marketing, human resources, manufacturing and more to manage the day-to-day operations of their business. Once their virtual enterprise is established, they then compete against other students’ virtual enterprises in virtual economies as well as in local, regional and national events where they’re judged by business leaders and professionals to gain insight and feedback into their company's real-world feasibility and potential success.

Describing Naturally Threaded as a capsule closet concept where “your shirt or sweatshirt will never go out of style,” Braden said that the concept of the company is to provide environmentally-conscious clothing using sustainable manufacturing processes. “We’re fighting against fast fashion–like things from Shein or Amazon. (Our clothing) is a little bit more expensive, but it’s not made from plastic or polyester.” 

Cody said that the creation of the company really allowed him to tap into his love of the outdoors by exploring styles and manufacturing processes that are environmentally-friendly: “We want to save the environment while providing quality clothes.” To this extent, Braden said that the company’s newest focus is manufacturing with zero waste by taking manufacturing scraps and turning those into new products in a line called Rethreaded. “This has proven to be very successful in competition,” he said. During the most recent competition, which was the Virtual Enterprises International (VEI) regional event, Cody and Braden were required with their team to submit executive summaries and deliver a compelling ten-minute presentation to a judging panel of industry experts. They then engaged in a five-minute Q&A session, demonstrating their in-depth understanding of their respective business plans. Following the competition, which attracted participants from schools across New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Maryland, Naturally Threaded placed first, allowing their executive board of students to move onto the national competition in NYC in April. 

Although the virtual company doesn’t actually exist, the immersive experience of creating and running Naturally Threaded inspired them to pursue real-world goals: Both seniors now plan to pursue business degrees following graduation. Expressing their initial surprise at the “white collar” educational opportunities at BCTC, Cody laughed and admitted that he thought the center was just for “greasy gearheads who wanted to be mechanics–even though I love that stuff.” Braden agreed and recalled how his dad, who went to vo-tech and now holds a job as an engineer, really encouraged him to explore his options at BCTC. “Honestly, I wouldn’t have been able to do this if I didn’t go to Tech,” he said. “(My education and these competitions) allowed me to discover that I have a niche for marketing and sales.”

Congratulations to these Eagles and their teammates on this prestigious honor, and best wishes to them in the VEI national competition in April!