What we do. Route One Apparel is an e-commerce platform that specializes in making state pride gear as well as collegiate apparel. How we began. We were founded by a University of Maryland undergraduate in the business school in 2010. This student had lost her job at a local bar called the Thirsty Turtle, which was an extremely popular as well as notorious establishment. She saw this as her call-to-action and together with some friends created the "Turtle Survivor" jersey. Within a week of advertising the jersey to peers through free social media outlets, there were over 600 pre-order sales in just a matter of days. Where we are now. Route One Apparel has seen many successes and has experienced a lot of growth since its beginning. We now have a 30+ member street team and have had countless partnerships with local bars and businesses. Additionally, the staff of Route One Apparel has been able to meet many celebrities of our generation – LMFAO, Jenna Marbles, and Dom Mazzetti – to name a few. In March of 2012, Route One Apparel was selected as a finalist in the “Cupid’s Cup” competition, hosted & sponsored by Kevin Plank, the founder of Under Armour, and the Dingman Center of Entrepreneurship at the University of Maryland. It was a great achievement to have been selected over 50+ other businesses, many of which had owners that were alumni at the University of Maryland. In fact, Route One Apparel consisted of the youngest entrepreneurs in the entire competition.