We were lucky to catch up with Madelyn Filio and Robert Gay recently and have shared our conversation below.

Madelyn Filio and , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Going back to the beginning – how did you come up with the idea in the first place?

The idea of Prevail Clothing Company was created in High School over 5 years ago. Believe it or not, we were 16 and 18 years old. Maddie was in fashion class and at that time, we were spending so much money on clothes when in reality we had our own ideas we wanted to create as well. Our starting fund was $300 gifted by Maddie’s grandmother (Lola). We used that money to purchase a vinyl cutter and the first batch of t-shirt blanks. Next, Maddie’s other grandmother (Mimi) helped us purchase and create our LLC and EIN #. Finally, we spent most of our nights drawing, brainstorming, and creating the shirts in our parent’s kitchen. We sold our clothing to friends around our high school.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

My name is Madelyn Filio, and my business partner is Robert Gay. We are a couple and also excellent business partners. Prevail Clothing Company sells streetwear items such as tracksuits, t-shirts, mesh shorts, tote bags, etc. Prevail Clothing has a unique East Coast Aesthetic with a mixture of streetwear and comfort. Since we started our business in an unconventional way, our motto is to “Defy the Odds”. Meaning, whatever you do in life, no matter your upbringing or what you have been through, always prevails.

Everything we create is in-house or locally made. We design and create every design, or sewing layout. We support other local minority-owned businesses to help us print our clothing, nothing is mass-produced from overseas. We also sell cut and sew products such as our infamous “Puffer Tote Bag”. This tote bag replicates the puffer jacket made from bandanas. From start to finish, Maddie and Robert Design, Market, Sell, Sew, and Ship out our clothing. In the past five years, we have spent countless nights staying in, working long hours after our regular 9-5’s, and sold our brand at pop-ups in freezing or hot temperatures.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

My name is Madelyn Filio, and my business partner is Robert Gay. We are a couple and also excellent business partners. We started our clothing brand in high school with about $300. Robert and I are both young, minority, entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurship is not very common in our community or in our families. Although both of our families were very supportive when we started this endeavor, we did not have the resources or knowledge to run a successful business. With that being said, we had to learn as we went. We created our business and formed our LLC in 2019. That summer, we both had graduated from high school, and our brand became so popular around the school we ended up participating in “pop-up shops”. As we continued to grow, so did our clothing brand. We hosted and participated in multiple pop-up shops, and in 2020 we moved into our first apartment! Unfortunately, in December 2020 our first apartment burned down. We lost all of our inventory, equipment, and 80% of our personal items. We took 2021 to regroup, rebrand, and grow. Fast forward to 2022, we hosted a relaunch party! Last year, we participated in over 20 pop-ups in multiple cities, pitched our business at Pharrell Williams’s Mighty Dream Forum, and started mentoring other minority, high-school-owned businesses.

Since we started our business in an unconventional way, our motto is to “Defy the Odds”. Meaning, whatever you do in life, no matter your upbringing or what you have been through, always prevail.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

Our overall goal is to give back. Our support system played a huge part in our journey and we owe our success to them. We’d also like to expand whilst impacting and motivating our community. Maddie’s ethnicity is Mexican-Filipino and Robert is African-American. We want to show young black/ brown children that they can do this too. Last year, we started mentoring high school-owned businesses and our goal is to eventually expand Prevail to also offer career and business consulting/ mentoring. As for the business itself, we would love to have a brick-and-mortar store, continue to grow our social media and online presence, and have our own warehouse where we can supply our brand internationally.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.prevailclothingva.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/prevail.clothingco/?hl=en
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/madelyn-filio-277b2a214/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@Prevail.ClothingCo

Image Credits
Professional Photos are taken by @jalecia.photos or https://www.instagram.com/jalecia.photos/