Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Evan Wargolet. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Evan, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What were some of the most unexpected problems you’ve faced in your business and how did you resolve those issues?

When you start of anything new, there are challenges you never expected to face. My clothing line Conquered Kings, was founded with the idea of functional yet fashionable items. Things you can wear to the office, going to dinner to working on your car, without the need to change. That is the aspiration, and one I still believe needs to be served. Now trying to do something that is good at a lot of things, can sometimes lead to what is an items true purpose. What compromises are you willing to make? What material even exists that can serve that purpose? There is also a ton to learn that I am only really just scratching at the surface of.

Since I was running into a ton of road blocks on how to make these type of garments, I started to focus on the second object of the business, which is to make a statement. One for the better of everyone. Kings were Conquered by the people, due to unmet needs. The people can own their own destiny if they so choose. Also everyone has a King to Conquer, whether that is climbing a mountain, hitting your sales goals, getting the courage to speak out against oppressive systems; whatever you King is, we want to support you Conquering it.

Third objective, which is the reason I consider doing business, is to give back. A business needs to make a profit to be able to give back and small companies need to scratch and claw to do that. A lot of times you think that oh, it will be easy, people will just want your product; ‘it will sell itself’ which could be farther from the truth.

One of my first popup event was in partnership with one of my coworkers who’s side business is vintage clothing. Their brand is Bro Bros Closet. And he was helping me get my feet wet. At the event I had some queen chess pieces. My logic was, the queen is the most powerful piece on the chess board. When you have someone’s queen captured, it feels great in the hand. When I am thinking I hold on to a queen and makes me realize I can do it, and it is a good fidget toy.
Now, I am at the event, I am a clothing brand, I happen to have queen chess pieces, and people would automatically think and say “oh, you’re a chess brand.” All that to say, marketing/branding is about putting out into the world that is consistent with itself. It wouldn’t be in Nike’s brand to sell ice cream. I thought that queen chess pieces were aligned with my brand and others saw it that way, but the only saw the queen and not the rebellious clothing or what it symbolized. It was a humbling experience to think even more critically about the brand, and how I can re-emphasize what the brand means and what it means to the client.

The first objective has never left my mind, but all the goals need attention sometimes, especially when you are building something new.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Conquered Kings is a rebellious brand. Our logo is a skull with a crown. It is a reminder that nothing is insurmountable, change can happen, and all it takes is the hard work. We are known for our rebellious spirit, our awesome logo, and our tenacity. I feel like some brands rest on their laurels, while I try and think of new perspectives. Try to touch on topics others might only imply or speak about. Some problems might feel like “thats the way it’s always been” or “it sucks but cant do anything about it.” Those sentiments are absurd. Systems are made by people and people can be influenced and changed; we can shape those systems for good.

I am proud of our logo and branding. The script font, and firm blocky letters – reminiscent of other familiar logos but different as these two elements are not combined typically.

Above most iterations of the font logo, you will notice a skull with a crown. Skull signifying death, and a crown which soffits royalty. Most work is being done to make it rival others like moral patches or on polos, so keep an eye out for a larger assortment as we gain momentum. Our operation is currently one person as a side hustle, which will hopefully will be large and in charge. Our operation believe in quality over quantity, and we hold our products to high expectations.

My brand is being built on subtle details. Details that only the wearer knows, basically Easter eggs for you to find out. It’s in the subtlest details that really complete an outfit.

We strive to be something more and to give back. Giving back is the heart of why I wanted to build a business in the first place. The work that nonprofits do is amazing, and I am a product of that system, and I want to help them achieve their dreams, and serve youth in their pursuit of knowledge. History repeats itself to those who are not students of history. In this I want to build something that is bigger than myself, so we can achieve greater heights together. Eventually I want to potentially move the company to a B corp, but we need to build our cliental. Will you come on the journey with us?

How’d you think through whether to sell directly on your own site or through a platform like Amazon, Etsy, Cratejoy, etc.

I currently use Wix as my ecommerce website, and sell on etsy. I wanted to make sure I had an online presence to bring legitimacy to my brand, which a website brings. This allowed me to have a non gmail address to help make my brand more real. I was torn on which website makers to use. I ended up using Square at first, as it was cheap and I could talk about the brand, but it did not have a shop. I looked around and I was torn on Shopify or Wix. I ended up with Wix because the per month cost for an eCommerce platform was more cost efficient, especially while starting out. It also allowed me to integrate Printful so I can start designing without investing too much in inventory and allowed me to explore ideas.

Etsy is a very competitive area but seems to be more sorted for small brands. I have considered doing Amazon as well, but my concern is a lot of clothing cannot be copywritten protected, so tons of other brands could see my work, and undercut me. However, Amazon is the largest seller and search engine for buying needs and I have been considering moving to Amazon a few times. I am missing out on a lot of clients by excluding amazon, but there are real fears that brands that are not me, can out market me, and sell my ideas.

For Wix vs Shopify. Wix from what I understand is harder to generate SEO (search engine optimization) based on a few different people’s advice to me about my website. I have considered moving over to Shopify to help change this, and allow me to easily add my products to Google Shopping, which is another major shopping channel. Wix has work arounds but it is not ideal. From my understanding, it is not easy to swap from Wix to Shopfiy, and that is more time and money to swap sites, but it might be worth it, if that actually means sales increase, and ease of being found is key. Since I have not used shopify, it is possible it is all hopeful, but based on other builders they say it might be a good change. Otherwise a lot of sites use wordpress but that takes more programing vs a builder site.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

So I am going to tell a personal story, as I think a lot of times, business is half idea, and half person running it. If you do not believe in the person, the business wont survive.

So when I was in college, I went to the University of Wisconsin – Madison. The school’s mascot is Bucky Badger, and I wanted to be it. There are about 5-7 Bucky’s to do all the events, and only 1-3 positions open up a year, as 3rd year Bucky’s do not need to try out again. I was a really good student in Highschool, 3.9 GPA, and did a lot of extra curriculars, but when I got to college I realized I was not fully prepared, so my first year I was a 1.9 GPA and you needed to be a 2.0 to try out to be Bucky. Second year I was not 100% full time student. Year three, I did my physical and found out I had a hernia, which I had corrected but then I was barred from trying out due to the length of recovery. Year 4, I finally got to try out and did not do as well as I would have liked, but I knew that I wanted to try out and see at least what I was getting myself into, but a year later then anticipated. Year 5 I finally felt confident enough to do it and be bucky, but the committee does not like taking seniors due to only have one year of service.

Now during the years I wanted to work towards my goal by doing everything I could. Each of the sections to test to be Bucky are: Pushups, Dancing to different music, props, and being in the suit. Around the same time a documentary came out called “Being Bucky,” which I watched to try and get everything I might need.

I took ball room and hip hop dance classes. I took an acting class. I took improve classes. I took a weight lifting class. I reached out to current and former Buckys. I shadowed a professional mascot back at my hometown. I got a job as security for the Badgers events, so I could go to more events to see Bucky and get to know all the things that they needed to do.

Second layer of the test, which was optional, was Ice Skating, which I took an Ice Skating class so I could be ready for that.

Last part of the testing, if I made it past first round, is a 2 minute skit, and then questionnaire via a panel, asking about sports knowledge of the teams among others. I built out a full skit with props, music changes and the like. I had a bucky flag on my wall to help motivate me.

I unfortunately never got to be Bucky, or make it past the first round. But I worked really hard to achieve that particular goal. I put everything I could to try and make it a reality, but it didn’t work out that way. But that is part of life. To quote Captain Picard : “It is possible to commit no mistakes and still lose. That is not a weakness. That is life.” Success can be defined many different ways, but one of them is how many times you get up after you get knocked down.

Hopefully this showcases my determination and resiliency. You have to try everything you

Contact Info:

• Website: www.conqueredkings.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/conqueredkings/
• Facebook: facebook.com/conqueredkings
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@RoninsCorner