In 2010, while backpacking in Vietnam, Jelle van der Zwet decided he wanted an orange suit for the upcoming World Cup.
Being in a mecca of tailoring, Jelle and his two friends, Jasper Castelein and Guus Bakker, ended up with three crazy suits, which garnered the attention of tourists around the town.
The suits were the beginnings of the three friends setting up Opposuits. Jelle explains: “That’s how it started basically. Right away I had those thoughts of ‘wow’ – I think everyone knew that you could get a crazy suit made in Asia, but nobody had turned that into a business model, where you made those suits with standard suit sizes, etc.”
Two years later, as Jelle was finishing his Master’s degree and in the process of becoming a chartered surveyor, the trio decided to get 2,000 orange suits made in China for the European Championships. Jelle continues: “We sold those 2,000 suits in two to three weeks and it went viral in Holland. We got in all the newspapers and TV shows and before the tournament started, we had sold all 2,000.”
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