Building a brand

FRESNO, Calif. - Bulldog cornerback Jamal Ellis has received a well-rounded education from high school to college along with becoming a key cog in the Fresno State secondary – completing his Bulldog career with 24 consecutive starts. But there is so much more to that education that Ellis has obtained not just from hitting the books, but diving head first into his own business venture in addition to a football career that earned him a full-ride scholarship.

Learning to think on the fly like before the snap when reading alignments or setting coverages with his fellow defensive backs in the secondary, Ellis has learned about private business along the way with a clothing line he and his brother Jarrett started back in 2009 growing up in Southern California called Xtra Kredit.

From nuisance to passion

Both the Ellis boys grew up as athletes. Jamal was obviously big in football, his brother Jarrett played basketball and ran track. They grew up in a household with highly supportive parents who encouraged and found avenues for their kids to pursue what interests them. Their father, Arthur, is a Battalion Chief with the LA County Fire Department, which he has been with for 28 years.

Their fashion sense came from their mother, Shon, but it was something that at first they did not enjoy.

"I guess you could say we got instilled with fashion from our mom because she always wanted us to look our best," Jamal said. "A funny story about that, growing up all the way until we were in high school we went to public school so you could wear whatever you want, but every day she made us wear a shirt with a collar except for Fridays. She wanted us to look our best all the time, I hated it at the time but now I realize what she was trying to instill in us and that was to always look your best."

And over time that sparked something in the boys.

"Fashion turned into more of a passion," Jamal said. "It is just something we like to do, plus if we can create our own clothes and wear our own clothes, that makes it a plus."

"The passion was definitely for fashion first," Jarrett said on the inspiration to start the line. "We wanted to create our type of look and wanted to start something new, getting into street wear and sportswear."

Jamal and Jarrett began to combine what they enjoyed and what they learned from their parents.

An idea is born
Jamal transferred to Redlands East Valley High School at the start of his sophomore year, Jarrett's freshman year. The boys are 18 months apart in age.

Being at a new school, the boys used fashion as a way to fit in with their new classmates. As Jamal entered his junior year in school, Jarrett formulated a fashion idea where he wanted to create a connection between school and cool California streetwear culture.

"We first started in 2009 and it all started with a t-shirt that we made that read 'we are the future,' on the front," Jarrett said.

Jamal joined in with his brother and they came up with the brand name Xtra Kredit.
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"We started out selling shirts at our high school REV (Redlands East Valley) out of the trunk of our car between classes," Jamal said. "It was a pretty big hit. Seeing as both of us had transferred into REV, we really didn't know a lot of people. We hadn't quote-unquote established ourselves there, it was something different we brought to the table and a lot of kids there they just ate it up."

Jamal and Jarrett started selling shirts, tank tops and jackets. And as more and more kids at the school started to like it, they expanded into shorts, different shirts and were incorporating different logos into their designs. With that, the sports theme entered into their brand.

They made shirts that resembled the New York Knicks logo, the Los Angeles Dodgers logo, but "instead of saying Dodgers, it said Xtra Kredit. "That sports avenue, a lot of people liked that," Jamal said.

Jamal and Jarrett formulated a base motto 'Stay Hungry' for their line at REV.

"We had these shirts that said 'Stay Hungry' with our small Xtra Kredit logo underneath it and a lot of the sports teams on campus liked the logo with the 'Stay Hungry' so we decided to start making shirts for our athletic teams," said Jamal. "Like for our baseball team, we'd have 'Stay Hungry' on the front and on the back it said Redlands East Valley Baseball.

"We started branching out that way and a lot of coaches on campus and the athletic director liked the idea and we just ran with it."

Jarrett's senior year, REV's men's basketball team made it to the state playoffs. Jarrett was one of the stars on the team, averaging 14.8 points per game. Jamal and Jarrett ended up selling shirts to their high school student store and kids at the school were able to buy them and wear them in the student section at the basketball games.

"That was the base foundation in high school and we actually made a name for ourselves," Jamal said.
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They hired friends as sales reps, as they called them, to sell to other high schools.

And so just like that Jamal and Jarrett had a real business on their hands.

Learning the ropes
Now with taking on ownership with a business comes responsibilities and also regulations that had to be followed. And this was when the Ellis brothers began to receive an education in their venture.

When Jamal enrolled at Fresno State on his full-ride football scholarship, he brought their brand up to the Central Valley.

It was at Fresno State when Jamal learned about licensing rights and that he and Jarrett needed to change some of their practices to become compliant with federal regulations.

"We were just kids making those shirts, we really didn't know any better," Jamal said referring to how they used to use logos that resembled the marks of the Knicks and Dodgers. "I actually learned by taking sports law here at Fresno State with Dr. (John) McMillen that there are different licenses and you can't just change a logo and make it yours. The Dodgers and Knicks have rights to their logos. As soon as I learned that in class, I called my brother to let him know we have to stop making these shirts."

From there their brand evolved into more of a classic streetwear blended in with athletic wear.

"We switched from there and stayed very Xtra Kredit based," Jamal said.

There is still one shirt they have out there that they learned how to alter in a legal way. The shirt depicts NBA Hall of Famers Allen Iverson and Michael Jordan, with a photo of Iverson crossing over Jordan and the words 'Practice?' on it. It is their best-selling shirt.

"We changed it to the percentage necessary for us to be able to use it," Jarrett said of the image. "We essentially just altered it. We changed some of the color schemes and we changed some of the numbers and the background so it wouldn't be copyright infringement."

Jarrett learned the steps needed to create the image through one of his business professors at Loyola Marymount. Like Jamal, he has sought business advice from many of his professors while working his way through school.
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The Next Step
Over the past few years the brother duo built up enough revenue to buy their own screen press that they have in their garage back home. Jamal and Jarrett also have three close friends to help chip in when they are unavailable.

"We're in the process of getting into different retail stores and it's looking good so far," said Jamal. "As of right now, all of our sales are going through XtraKredit.com.

"We make the clothes all on our own. Another member of our Xtra Kredit team, his grandma had a sewing machine and taught him how to sew. So anything that is stitched, he hand stitched it."

For Jamal, a football schedule and full class load left little time to go back home last fall, but Jarrett would make the drive north for Jamal's games and bring product and ideas to talk about – even right after a game.

Jarrett, though, has found himself just as busy by grabbing a part in All Eyez on Me, a Tupac Shakur biopic – set to be released in June 2017.

"That set us back a little bit while he was shooting that," Ellis said. "It was kind of crazy, he's in this major movie cast as Snoop Dogg, it still hasn't hit me yet. But obviously his focus left Xtra Kredit for a little while."

What came with that was a new network of people for Jarrett to introduce the brand to.

"I went to go visit Jarrett while he was in Atlanta filming and I get there and I see the director and producer wearing Xtra Kredit shirts. So with him being in that movie, I hope he's able to help tie our brand around the buzz of the movie when it comes out ... that is some next level stuff that I never thought would happen."

No matter happens, the education Jamal received at Fresno State will prepare him for whatever the future throws at him. He graduated this December with a bachelor of science in sports administration and will continue his education at Long Beach State this spring seeking a masters.

"I'm sure if we could get this to take off, we could make a career of it," Jamal said. "But we both know and I know from playing football, you always need to have a backup plan. That's what we want to do, and that would be a dream to make this as our career and make a living making and selling our clothes. That'd be pretty cool.

"As of right now, that's what we're going to strive for and if it doesn't work out that way, we'll still have Xtra Kredit on the side."

As the brothers have continued to grow academically, whether it be in business or marketing, it has allowed Xtra Kredit to evolve. Like their passion for fashion and their ability to start something new and create a desirable product, their academic educations have become instrumental in their long-term goals of getting their clothing line into more hands and more stores.

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~ Jason Clay, Josh Mitchell and Matt Burkholder contributed to this report.

Fresno State Athletics

Players Mentioned

Jamal Ellis

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