It’s time you ditch the backpack and get yourself a Bucket Tee.

Florida Atlantic alumnus Alex Alfaro and his friend, Jake Kehlenbeck, a Florida State University graduate, officially launched their brand, Bucket Tees, back in March. The line features tee shirts with large pockets in the middle of the shirt.

“[My best friend and I] were just drinking beers and talking about how crazy people are dressing nowadays,” said Alfaro about how the Bucket Tee concept was born.

“We were like, ‘What’s the next big thing gonna be?’ And we came up with the idea of putting a big pocket on the shirt, and we thought it’d be really funny.”

After making shirts for themselves, they started to gain attention, so they decided to make it a business.

“Everybody was like stopping us, asking about it – complete strangers,” said Alfaro. “People wanted to buy them, so we said, ‘Alright, let’s sell these.’”

Alfaro graduated from FAU with a degree in business administration this spring. He was excited for the new venture, but admitted that it’s been a big undertaking.

“It’s not like I went in blind, but it’s a little rough with two kids fresh out of college,” he said.

“It’s been crazy. It’s a lot busier than I originally expected. When we first came up with the idea, we were like ‘Yeah, we’ll get the shirts made, and we’ll have them ready to go in three months,’” he explained. “You see a lot of adversity, but it’s definitely been a great experience.”

The Miami-based business has been selling shirts for about eight months and offers a variety of patterns ranging from “The Floridian” – a flamingo pattern – to “The F Train” – a blue and white pinstripe fabric.

And while they are currently working on making a name for themselves and building their brand, there are plans to expand their collection.

Alfaro said, “We’d like to see more variety of the shirts. Right now, we only have like five different fabrics. I’d like to see a couple different collections, and maybe get some FAU, college or maybe even fraternity and sorority patterns on there.”

Shirts are available online for $25.95.

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Emily Creighton is the features editor for the University Press. If you would like to contact her regarding this article or others, email her at [email protected].