From performing flight simulations, to building his own airplane and launching his own aviation-themed clothing line, Ohio University student Ian Hoyt’s passion for aviation goes far beyond a mere interest.
During Fall Semester, Hoyt, a freshman studying entrepreneurship from Findlay, Ohio, launched Heading 370, a clothing company focused on aviation-themed graphic designs.
The company’s name is a play on the degrees in a full rotation on a compass, as well as a reference to a term pilots use to describe the direction they are “heading” in. Hoyt chose “370,” though there are only 360 degrees on a compass.
“It’s a pun, but we are also saying that you should go in a new direction,” Hoyt said.
Combining his entrepreneurial spirit and creativity, his passion for aviation and his love for T-shirts, Hoyt said this company was an “all-in-one” package for him.
“I’ve been interested in aviation since I was about 12 years old,” he said. “But entrepreneurship has been in my blood even longer. I was always trying to sell things and make money. … And I have a weird love for T-shirts.”
“If you ask my friends and family, they think I’m pretty serious a lot of the time. This is an outlet for my creative side.”
Hoyt’s mother, Brenda Hoyt-Brackman, said her son’s passion for aviation has been a long process in the making that had a rough start — he was afraid to fly to Walt Disney World.
“Since he was about 12, he asked for flight lessons,” she said. “On his 16th birthday, he took his first solo flight. He didn’t even have his driver’s license, and he had his pilot’s license. It has all just been a domino effect.”
Now, she added, he’s constructing an aircraft of his own.
“(Hoyt’s plane) will be a flyable plane. I have pieces of the tail throughout my house. Whenever I clean, I have to move these big aluminum pieces of the tail for a plane from one room to the next because we don’t have a place to put them,” she added.
Heading 370 is Hoyt’s newest undertaking.
As of now, only one shirt design is available on the company website, hdg370.com, for $25. It states, “The journey is the destination,” with an airplane’s flight spelling out the word “journey.”
Within the next few months, two new designs — one a graphic design featuring an old-fashioned compass and the other a pocket tee — will be available online.
And the designs don’t stop there. Hoyt said he has about 20 to 25 designs already sketched out and is not hurting on ideas.
Working with designer Jeremy Kennedy and printing company Real Thread, both based in Florida, Hoyt produces graphic designs made with water-based and discharge inks as opposed to the industry-standard plastisol — a thin sheet of plastic that lies over the shirt. Jordan Schiller, an account executive at Real Thread, said water-based inks ensure better quality.
Using all of his own money — along with a small amount from an Indiegogo campaign — Hoyt is the sole frontrunner of the company. Because he is using his own funds, Hoyt said he receives a low number of shirts from the printer at a time, making them essentially custom made. In addition to the T-shirt, his website also offers a cheese plate, a beanie and a necklace, but when the company grows, he plans to sell only apparel.
“You need capital to make designs, but you need designs to attract people,” Hoyt said.
Ethan Quastler, a sophomore studying aviation and an aspiring professional pilot, said he purchased a Heading 370 shirt because of how different it is in comparison to products offered by companies such as Sporty’s, which sells aviation products, supplies and apparel.
“Ian’s shirts deliver much more of a message than something from Sporty’s that says ‘World’s Greatest Pilot’,” he said. “The message shows that all that you are doing is leading up to the destination of your dreams, but it also reassures that what you are doing now is a destination as well. … That applies to both pilots and non-pilots.”
Dave Cicciari, a pilot and family friend who helped foster and grow Hoyt’s passion for aviation, said the student’s drive will make his company successful.
“If anything is going to make (the company) happen, it will be him,” he said. “Ian’s attitude is that if you don’t try, you’ll never know.”
Hoyt-Brackman, who is also a member of the dance faculty at Ohio Northern University, said she is very proud of her son for following his passions as she did with dance.
“It’s a long, long life if you’re not doing what you want to do,” she said.
mg986611@ohiou.edu
