What’s a young bag getter? Wichita entrepreneur with new Revolutsia shop explains

Most people who have a throw blanket probably use it to keep warm or maybe decorate a couch.

Not Mark Lozada.

The 24-year-old sees a blanket — and all kinds of other cloth — as something to repurpose into clothing that can make a fashion statement.

“Mark has a unique perspective in the way he reuses thrifted items and pairs that with fashion design to create these really unique, one-of-one items,” said business consultant Jaimie Garnett.

She’s helping Lozada with the first retail site for his YBG Studios through the Garages incubator program, which is a customized resource that offers mentors and financial support for participants. The Wichita Foundation via funds from the Knight Foundation is the primary funder of the program.

Lozada refers to his clothing as streetwear.

“It’s not your everyday outfit,” he said. “It kind of gives freedom in how you dress. I know when I wear my pieces, I feel like I stand out more and kind of pop more.”

That’s the genesis of his fashion career.

Growing up in Houston, Lozada began playing basketball during fifth grade.

At a tournament in eighth grade, he noticed a white Nike sock with some black dashes that a lot of people were wearing.

“I saw a pair, and I wanted to make a pair.”

With his mother’s help and encouragement, Lozada tie-dyed the socks for his own spin on them.

In his freshman year of high school, he started hanging out near the vending machines at school and selling what he created, which proved popular.

Around that time, Lozada said it started to bug him if he saw other kids at school wearing the same clothes as he was.

He didn’t know how to change his fashion, though, until his father suggested he make his own clothing. He invested in his son by buying him equipment.

In Lozada’s senior year of high school, he focused more on basketball and got a scholarship to play at Sterling College in Sterling, Kan.

During that first year, though, he said, “I didn’t know if school or basketball was really my passion anymore.”

He decided he wanted to focus on clothing full time and dropped out in 2019.

“This was right before COVID happened.”

During the pandemic in particular, he said, “That’s when I kind of got the urge to create.”

Lozada started making his own cloth.

“Basically, I make fabric out of all my scraps.”

Around that time, he came across shorts that were made out of jerseys, which led to him sewing and making his own clothing with jerseys.

He created custom pieces on request as well, with people bringing him fabric they wanted him to use, which he encourages customers to do. Lozada can source fabric and things to adorn it or use what customers supply.

“It’s pretty much whatever the customer has in mind.”

That led to an online store. For the last year or so, Lozada has been selling at pop-up markets.

Lozada makes hoodies pants, hats, shoes, socks, earrings and everyday items for men and women.

“I do a lot of upcycling.”

Garnett said his work ties to the sustainability movement in the fashion industry on a national level.

“It’s really cool to see how Mark reuses thrifted items.”

She said she thought YBG Studios, with its focus on sustainability and thrift-shop finds, was a good fit for the shipping container development.

It will be on the second floor between the Fox & Ash Barbershop and Ze German Markt. Lozada hopes to open by June 24.

YBG stands for Young Bag Getters, with bag referring to money or dreams or “kind of whatever that goal is,” Lozada said.

“It’s basically to get the youth to go out and chase their dreams.”

He said he thinks his clothing can help customers express themselves and feel good about themselves at the same time.

Lozada said he wants to grow community with other creators who have similar mindsets.

He said he could see one day collaborating with larger companies such as Nike.

“I don’t know where it will take me, so I’m just kind of riding along with the journey.”