Ministry of Supply (clothing)

Ministry of Supply was started with the intention of creating technologically advanced office apparel. As an anecdote, Gihan arrived to the team's first meeting with a hand sewn dress shirt - composed entirely of off-the-rack athletic fabrics. Similarly, Advani arrived with a sock of the same ilk - a dress sock, where he had replaced the sole with that of a running sock. Both represent the earliest known samples of "Performance Professional" clothing, an emerging category of apparel.

The team met as students at MIT, where they quickly realized they shared a vision for everyday clothing that could be as capable as their athletic gear. The group joined forces in 2012 and introduced their first performance dress shirt. The Apollo Kickstarter campaign set the record for most-funded fashion project at the time, and gave way to the full line of garments that continues to evolve for optimal comfort and capability.

After a year of product development and small-scale sales in the spring of 2012, the company decided to conduct a Kickstarter campaign to fund the creation of a synthetic knit-blend dress shirt with heat and moisture management, odor control, and offered a full range of motion.[2] The campaign raised over $400,000[3] and became the largest amount raised for a fashion product at the time on a Kickstarter project.

In June 2013, the company again went to Kickstarter for a campaign to raise funds to produce a high performance dress sock.[4][5] This campaign raised more than $200,000 for the start up company.

The Ministry of Supply display at the Boston Marathon Expo in April 2015.

In late September 2013, the company raised $1.1 million in seed round financing from VegasTechFund, SK Ventures, and Red Sox pitcher Craig Breslow.[6] The $50,000 investment from Breslow came after his fiancée bought one of the shirts as a birthday present and he wore the shirt while traveling on the road with the team.[7]

Since launch, the company has built an impressive offering of men's and women's performance clothing, utilizing modern, sharp silhouettes with deep engineering down to the fiber level - ultimately creating soft, stretchy, machine washable clothing suitable for any occasion. The team has won numerous design and engineering awards, including two Guinness World Records (Fastest Half Marathon in a Suit, Men + Women) and NASA's Innovation Award.

The Ministry of Supply's goal is to use new materials, aerospace, robotic engineering, and thermal analysis to create a new category in the design of better-fitting men's business attire.[8] The company seeks limited beta testing through customer input and feedback with when designing their clothing. Early customers are integrated into the development and design process by inviting them to be part of the research into the final product.[9]

The company is named after the Ministry of Supply, a British government department that was formed in 1939 to coordinate the supply of equipment to all three branches of the armed forces during World War II.[10]