BOZEMAN — Montana State senior Hunter Swenson turned a passion project into a business endeavor when she created her company Greek It Chic It, changing the game — or gameday experience — in Bozeman.
"I love finding a solution to a problem," said Swenson, who is studying business marketing and small business management at MSU. "I saw a problem that we needed to bring some of the southern excitement and traditions up north, and that was the base of my company."
Swenson is from Frisco, Texas, and chose to make the move 1,500 miles north to Montana State out of high school.
"None of the southern universities felt like home to me," she said. "I had one friend talk to me about how they were going to Montana State University, so I said, ‘Mom, let’s take our senior year girls trip and go up to Bozeman.’
"We came up in January, it was minus-30 (degrees), and we experienced snow for the first time. During my tour, I just absolutely got that feeling that was like, I fell in love."
During her sophomore year she decided to start bringing some of her Texas background into Bobcats football gamedays. Sporting buttons with an outfit is traditional for fans at southern college football games, and Swenson decided to create a few to wear at MSU.
She simply bought a button press off Amazon to make them, and the community quickly took notice and wanted to wear her brand at games as well.
"I started just creating designs for all things Caturdays and sororities and everything," she said. "It absolutely just took off. I had so many friends wanting to order buttons, and it slowly bloomed into a business."
It's a business that has grown beyond buttons; there’s apparel, bows and more surrounding multiple universities and sororities.
"It slowly started to take off," Swenson explained of how she's seen her company grow. "I started to explore licensing between universities, sororities, and now we’re licensed by over 16 international sororities, Montana State University, and recently the University of Montana as well."
She’s gotten orders of up to hundreds of buttons at a time, and works endlessly throughout each week to keep the community happy as they support their favorite players on game days as well.
"So many of the parents up here, I will get a notification, and they are like, ‘OK, I need thirty buttons for Saturday, or I need this that and the other, and so it’s going to be really exciting this year to finally have a lot of more products that we can just kind of increase and put them in," she said with a smile. "But, I mean, the bookstore at (one) time will order close to 200 buttons, so that’s where I’m locked in for the week."
To purchase Greek It Chick It apparel, click here.
