I'm the Passenger
What's up everyone! My name is Connor Rotterman, I’m the founder of VESSL Clothing. This is going to be the first of many blogs posted on this website. I wanted to start off with the first one being an introduction so that I can tell you guys a little bit about me and VESSL.
If you haven’t guessed, yes that is me in every single picture on the website. The first goal of mine is to get my face out of as many of the pictures as possible. I’d much rather have the clothes be the focal point rather than my beautiful face. Completely kidding! You’ll hopefully get to know my sense of humor throughout these blogs lol.
I just graduated from a very small school in Indiana called Wabash College where I was blessed to be able to play basketball for four years, while being surrounded by amazing teammates and coaches. It was during my time there that the idea for VESSL came about, although it was very different from what it is now. Up until my junior year of school, I had my heart set on going to medical school. I shadowed many surgeons, and I absolutely loved it. I still do. However, the summer before my junior year, I was at a point in my faith journey where I wanted to put a heavy focus on helping bring people to Jesus. God had done so many amazing things in my life that I felt the need to start sharing it. In a world where there is so much pain and hurt, how could I not share it? I decided to go through a program at my Church called The Growth Track that helps you discover the gifts God has given you and use those to make a difference in the lives of others. It was during this program, where the idea for VESSL came into my mind. God put a vision in my head. Never in my life had I ever even had a thought of starting any kind of clothing brand, let alone a Christian clothing brand. I went home and started working on it right away. I launched it in 2-3 weeks. You can imagine it probably wasn’t the greatest quality given that it was heavily rushed haha. God started to slowly change my heart on medical school. I was praying about it constantly because let's be honest, having the plan of going to medical school was a much safer plan. I had no idea how to run a clothing business (still don’t haha, but God has my back) but God continued to put it heavy on my heart and I eventually decided that I was going to go for it.
That was about 2 years ago. I was still in school and playing basketball, so I couldn’t put much time into it. It started off as a graphic T-shirt company just like many of the other Christian clothing companies out there. But because it didn’t grow much, it allowed me to pray and think about it a lot. It was during many of these prayer sessions that I started to gain a bigger picture for what direction I wanted to take this company. I love fashion and how it is unique to everyone. I wanted to make fashionable clothes... fashionable Christian clothes. So that is what I am aiming to do. We are starting off slow with two colors of t-shirts, but they are not like any shirt that you’ve worn. I truly think you are going to love them.
I may be the founder of VESSL, but the Man above is steering this ship!