Startup Addressing Men's Embarrasing Problem in Running for $20,000 Prize: You Can Help

Jeff Schattner models his Lawrence Hunt performance dress shirt, which offers a solution to underarm perspiration. (Courtesy photo)

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Jeff Schattner’s moisture-wicking dress shirt – the one that offers a solution to the embarrassing problem of underarm perspiration stains – has been such a hit that the Royal Oak man is in the running for a $20,000 prize.

Schattner’s Lawrence Hunt performance dress shirt start-up was awarded a $10,000 prize as a regional winner of the Comcast Innovation 4 Entrepreneurs competition, and is now in the running for a grand prize that will be determined by public voting, which ends May 10.

Schattner told the Patch the prize money would help him accelerate the growth of his company, an answer the the dreaded underarm perspiration mark – embarrassing in social situations and a betrayal of boardroom nerves .

Schattner, 31, was at an outdoor wedding in June 2013 when he had the eureka moment that led to the launch of Lawrence Hunt performance dress shirt. It was a sticky, uncomfortable, sweat-inducing 90-degree day, and he soaked his dress shirt.

What men need, he thought as he suffered in the heat that day, is a comfortable shirt that stays dry and is at the same time elegant enough for formal occasions and business meetings.

Not long after, he was at Comerica Park, watching a Detroit Tigers game on a hot sunny afternoon. When the pitcher raised his arm for the windup, Schattner was surprised by what he didn’t see.

“No pit stains,” he said.

The reason was moisture wicking fabric sewn into the pitcher’s jersey to pull perspiration away from his body. It’s commonly used in athletic clothing and some casual lines, but they lack the crisp firmness that well-dressed men look for in their shirts.

But Will It Sell?

Was there a market for a shirt that offered the dry comfort of an athletic jersey and the starched perfection of a tailored dress shirt?

He let the question simmer over the winter and through the spring, bouncing ideas off his wife, Sarah.

“I was throwing out a different idea every other week,” he said. “This is one she didn’t reject immediately.”

Last July, Schattner took the question to the Kickstarter crowd-funding website, where he raised $16,850 from 128 people in 30 days. Kickstarter’s all-or-nothing funding approach protects entrepreneurs from getting only a portion of the funds they need to launch their projects.

“It’s a good way to test interest with pre-orders and take the risk out of it,” Schattner said.

“Last summer our ‘performance dress shirt’ became the most funded fashion project ever in Detroit and second most funded fashion Kickstarter project in all of Michigan,” he said. “We are also one of the top 10 most funded dress shirts of all time on Kickstarter.”

Through the Kickstarter campaign, Schattner received orders for 100 shirts for his new company, which he called Lawrence Hunt – a sturdy, top-drawer sounding name, he thought, that borrows his father’s first and middle names.

“I wanted to pay homage to him,” Schattner said. “This sounds professional and powerful.”

Growing Michigan Fashion Epicenter

Schattner wears dress shirts to his finance job with Chrysler Corp. in Auburn Hills, but he doesn’t know anything about making them.

So he teamed with designers-in-residence at The Runway, a fashion incubator in Lansing that helps designers produce their collections and ultimately move them to market. The aim of the incubator is to create a fashion epicenter in mid-Michigan and retain local talent, rather than export up-and-coming designers to other fashion enclaves.

The result is a shirt Schattner says “bridges the gap between professional and performance wear.”

The shirts, available in a variety of sizes, colors and patterns, are made of 100 percent Egyptian cotton, with barely noticeable underarm wicking with a hip environmental twist: It is 100 percent Polyester made from recycled plastic.

Wicking in the Lawrence Hunt performance dress shirt is made of recycled plastic. (Courtesy photo)

“Pits Stayed Nice and Cool”

Customers like the shirt and say it does what it promises: It keeps them looking good – and dry.

“Sporting my Lawrence Hunt shirt at the office today and have had several comments already,” Eric Whitaker, an executive at PricewaterhouseCoopers wrote in an email.

Another customer, Jarrod Wood, said he wore his shirt under a sweater during a cold walk to work in the morning and kept it on all day as he presented in meetings with a hot overhead projector running nearby.

“No problems with the heat though,” he said. “My pits stayed nice and cool.”

Schattner’s shirts are available the retail store at The Runway, and also via an online store, www.lawrencehunt.co, launched in December. On Jan. 1, Lawrence Hunt began offering a monthly dress shirt subscription service in addition to its performance dress shirt options.

Without the overhead of a retail space, Lawrence Hunt can offer a $100 dress shirt for $65 at its online store. The shirt club takes the cost down to $40-$45..

The dress shirt club, which works like a subscription box club that sends a variety of merchandise chosen by the business at regular intervals to customers, is the first of its kind in fashion, and it responds to the way people – especially men – shop, Schattner said.

“Men don’t love to shop,” he said. “We do the shopping for them.”

Membership is limited so Schattner can control his inventory, and members must be invited or ask to be invited. The first 100 people enrolled quickly, and 20 people have put their names on waiting lists.

Customer service isn’t lost in the world of e-commerce.

“We are also one of the few companies that allows its customers to take 15 days to try on the shirt, before deciding if they want to keep it,” Schattner said. “It merges the touch-and-feel experience with the online store.”

Schattner says he hopes one day Lawrence Hunt will “become an e-commerce dress shirt that people look for,” and that it will be a chapter in the story of Detroit’s comeback from bankruptcy.

“We have accomplished this from taking something from nothing, and growing it within Michigan,” he said.

Schattner hopes his startup will serve inspire his daughters, ages 2½ and 9 months.

“They could see the work ethic that goes into it,” he said. “Maybe they’ll be motivated to build something.”