Austin Way Magazine - GreenGale Publishing - There is a place beyond the crowds, beyond the ropes, where dreams are realized and success is celebrated. You are invited.
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photography by ashley landis continued on page 42 Hope in a Bag UT GRAD OLIVER SHUTTLESWORTH HAS BUILT HIS ESPEROS LINE ON THE PROMISE OF HELPING TO EDUCATE CHILDREN IN POOR COUNTRIES AROUND THE WORLD. BY SOFIA SOKOLOVE Oliver Shuttlesworth, the soft-spoken 28-year-old founder and CEO of Esperos bags, was working at an advertising firm in Austin when he just "kind of decided" that he didn't want to do it anymore, he explains over iced coffee at Caffé Medici on a recent warm afternoon. "It was like—all right, I've got enough saved to try to launch this thing, and if I fail I will go get another job I don't like," he says with a laugh. His new "thing" seems to be anything but failing. Esperos, a socially conscious lifestyle brand of high- quality backpacks and bags, is on track to increase sales at least fivefold from last year. The company, which brought on Sid Jawahar as its new president and executive chairman, recently opened an office/ showroom on East Sixth Street, and a launch party is planned for September 17. In addition, the bags are available at dozens of Whole Foods Market stores and boutiques around the country, as well as online. While the bags have an aesthetic that is all Austin—classic-looking canvas backpacks in a range of color combinations—they are not the com- pany's sole concern; Esperos donates 10 percent of the proceeds of every sale to help fund education projects for children in the developing world. After graduating from the University of Texas as a corporate communications major, Shuttlesworth taught English in Chile before returning to Texas and landing that aforementioned advertising job. But the extreme poverty in South America, espe- cially its debilitating effects on the children in those areas, haunted Shuttlesworth and was ultimately the catalyst for creating his company. His original con- cept was to come up with a "sustainable solution that works and can have an impact," explains Shuttlesworth. "But I knew we couldn't do it without a good product." And so the Victoria, Texas, native with no background in fashion or design went to work, looking to companies such as Apple and J.Crew for inspiration. "I want [the bags] to be sim- ple. We're doing a lot of clean lines, smart color blocking—that's what people really like about our products." The bags are designed in Austin and below: UT grad Oliver Shuttlesworth is founder and CEO of Esperos, which donates a percentage of every sale of its backpacks and bags to help fund projects that educate children in the developing world. style style of Generosity 40 AUSTINWAY.com