Try this on for size: a button-down that feels just as comfortable as a T-shirt.
Dubbed the “Out of Office Button Down,” Patrick Healy calls it the “heart” of his new Henrico-based lifestyle brand, Heylow.
It’s also, he said, the ideal Zoom shirt.
“It makes you look like you are dressed up and professional but it feels like a T-shirt and no one on the Zoom call is going to be able to tell the difference,” Healy said.
Heylow officially launched in November. For Healy, it was a case of being at the right place at the right time.
A design entrepreneur with degrees in industrial design, Healy was creating travel backpacks for a company called Tortuga when Covid-19 struck a blow to the industry. Finding himself out of a job, Healy turned toward something he’d done before: running his own business.
“I wanted to try starting a business again, and this seemed like a good opportunity to do that,” he said.
For years, he’d kicked around the idea of designing a comfortable button-down shirt that used high-performance materials. American clothing has been trending more casual for decades, Healy said, and the shift accelerated this year as more people work from home instead of in offices.
With comfortable clothing in fashion, the timing was ideal. And so the Out of Office Button Down was born.
Made of 86% post-consumer recycled polyester and 14% Lycra, the shirts sell for $125 each, and consumers can pick from nine styles and colors.
“It feels every bit as comfortable as every T-shirt you have,” Healy said.
For now, Heylow is an e-commerce operation, with the shirts produced in China, but Healy has long-term brick-and-mortar aspirations, first in Richmond and then beyond.
And it’s not just clothes Heylow is selling. It’s a lifestyle.
“We make high-performance clothing that is performance-engineered for relaxation and built for a brighter future,” Healy said.
That brighter future is something Healy thinks about a lot. Helping people feel happier is a key part of Heylow’s mission, and Healy has started with adjustments where he thinks the fashion industry falls short.
Instead of mass-producing, Healy makes his clothing in small batches, minimizing waste. He uses recycled materials, extending their useful life. He plans to continue incorporating sustainable materials into his clothing designs.
On his blog, Good Life Journal, Healy waxes about ways to make the United States the “happiest place on Earth.” One day, he hopes, the blog will be an online magazine that offers people the tools to improve their lives and their communities.
“That is core to everything I’m trying to do here,” he said. “To build a brighter future.”