‘Kind of unlike something I’ve ever done’: New camp teaches business, product design

Kerris Arnett felt the world was missing something: a summer camp for teenagers that focuses on business and entrepreneurship. Something between a lemonade stand and an MBA.

Summer programs for trapeze flyers and young aviators? There are plenty. But what about the kid who wants to understand operations, product design and pitch decks?

She couldn’t find one.

“I think a lot of students that are interested in business were kind of at a disadvantage, because I know in a lot of other fields — you can intern at a hospital, you can do all those things, but really there wasn’t anything like this for business,” Arnett, 16, a high school senior, said recently. 

So, like any determined entrepreneur, Arnett decided to build it.

The result is Next Gen Brand Immersion, a week-long summer camp sparked by Arnett’s idea and hosted by Municipal, a clothing and lifestyle company based in Oceanside that was co-founded by Harry Arnett and Mark Wahlberg.

Harry Arnett, the company’s CEO, is also Kerris’s dad. So when she floated the idea — a free, business-themed summer camp for rising high school juniors and seniors — he went for it. They accepted everyone who applied. That is how 38 teens from Carlsbad and across the U.S. — from as close as LA and as far as Pittsburgh — attended the camp, which had sessions in July and August.

For Municipal, the camp was a chance to give teenagers a real-world view of the various career paths involved in fashion and lifestyle retail, and also to inject some Gen Z vibes into the company’s Oceanside headquarters.

“Why is there nothing that can really plug in for the next entrepreneurs or kids that are interested in brands like ours, to learn everything — and just kind of demystify that process a little bit?” Harry Arnett said. “And so, if they can learn that at a young age and learn what’s out there, what the opportunities are, we felt like that would be a cool program. And selfishly, we wanted to be around the energy of the kids, too.”

Deep dive in the business of fashion

The camp started with a form of mentorship: a dad teaching his daughter about his business.

Harry and Kerris were driving around one afternoon, talking about Municipal stuff, he said. And she has this thought: “You know, Dad, it would be cool if we had more opportunities for other kids to have conversations like this,” she told him.

He was intrigued. He replied, “That’s a really big idea. Tell me more about that.”

Kerris brought the idea to her school, Sage Creek High School. Students there complete a “passion project,” a service project they develop and carry out in their junior and senior years. This camp became her passion project. She developed the idea and spread the word. Some of her friends and classmates enrolled.

Over the course of one week, the students worked together to create a capsule collection, fashion industry speak for versatile clothing items and accessories that can work together or complement other outfits.

“This isn’t fake — pay attention. Because we’re going to bring this to market,” Harry Arnett said. In other words, it wasn’t just a game or an exercise. It was a true apprenticeship.

The first group designed a T-shirt, fleece hoodie, long-sleeve hooded T-shirt, sweatpants, 5-inch shorts and a hat. The second group worked on a T-shirt, long-sleeve shirt, fleece hoodie, workout shorts, women’s fleece shorts and a sports bra. They also made custom graphics, a slogan, and “what the brand story is behind their collection,” said AJ Voelpel, Municipal’s head of content.

Voelpel worked closely with the groups. The students heard from other Municipal workers — spreadsheet people, slide deck people, pencil sketch people. “They’re working with every team to one, create the product, and No. 2, to market the product, to buy the product — factory pricing — and all the things that literally go into actually developing a product and then to listing it (on e-commerce). And then, OK, now we need content for it. Now we’ve got to do photography, video,” Voelpel said.

They also heard from outside experts. A marketer was invited to talk about how he built his agency. Social media influencers spoke about their career paths and what goes into creating content to share with people through Instagram and TikTok.

At the end of each session, students created pitch decks and rehearsed with Municipal’s sales team — exactly as a professional sales team would do before a client meeting — and then they presented their products to their parents, as if they were the customers.

“The first time we did it, there wasn’t a dry eye in the house. I mean everybody was just in tears by the end of it,” said Chris Velardo, Municipal’s head of brand and marketing. “I was moved. I couldn’t even barely speak. Harry, our CEO, was crying. It was such a motivating thing, because these kids stepped up like I’ve never seen.”

Velardo, a dad of a now-grown child, knows teenagers can be unpredictable. The way he put it: “You don’t exactly know what to expect.” But these students, he said, “were so driven. And they just didn’t miss a beat. The confidence they had. The self-belief.”

Municipal’s leadership hope that the camp, a pilot, will return next year.

A cozy chat with tips, wisdom

On a Wednesday morning in Oceanside during the camp’s second session, the furniture in Municipal’s conference room had been pushed around.

At the front sat two speakers and a moderator. Around them, the teens sat at tables, lounge chairs and couches. The vibe was dorm floor meeting meets creative mornings. The speakers shared a bit about themselves. One had worked in corporate PR, and the other had been a college athlete. Both are now influencers, a type of marketing that in 2023 was dubbed Gen Z’s most coveted job title.

The students asked thoughtful questions. How do you balance authenticity with making paid content to sell products? What does a daily schedule look like for a social media marketer with 100,000 Instagram followers? Do you use audience reactions and engagement as a metric for choosing what kind of content to make? How do you shake off down days, when your reel gets “only” 200 views?

Alec Treffers, whose Instagram account focuses on motherhood, healthy food and fitness, demystified what goes into creating multiple posts a day while parenting her two young children.

People might think “Oh, it looks like fun,” she said. “But there’s a lot of strategy behind it.” She has a team, including a bubbly agent who showed up to support her at the camp chat. That team identified her ideal posting window and helps in other ways. She urged the students who want to become social media marketers to be both inspirational and aspirational in the material they put out in the world.

Brooke Elle, whose social media content focuses on fitness, said she doesn’t make day-in-the-life videos or things that are too focused on “I-I-I,” she said.

“You have to watch your own videos and ask, What would I get out of this? Would I get a laugh? Value? Inspiration?” She talked about the pressures she faces to frequently post content and how the presence of a camera lens changes how she sometimes feels about her workouts.

It was a rare chance to hear from the kinds of marketers the students follow online. Asked if they are active on Instagram or TikTok, many student hands shot up.

When things get hard, Treffers urged the students to “be consistent” and “just keep going.”

A broader message from both professionals was to believe in yourself, give it your all and trust you will succeed.

Both of these career tips have applications far beyond social media strategy.

Lessons learned: career options, patient collaboration

“I think it’s cool that they’re giving us an opportunity to actually see what it’s like to create clothes from start to finish. … It’s just kind of unlike something I’ve ever done, creative-wise. It’s a really cool way to dip into a different facet of my strengths,” said Makena Coleman, 17, a senior at Sage Creek. She signed up for the camp because she is interested in journalism, and she hoped the camp would offer a glimpse of careers she considers adjacent, including design and marketing.

“I know I want to be in journalism, but I know it’s, as of right now, not the most stable career,” she said.

As she worked on the capsule collection with the other students, she realized she loves design. A trickier part was working with teammates.

“In a weird way, I thought I would be very interested in the design, but having 16 people working on the same project, or some number around that — I have learned that collaboration is hard with that many people … It takes a little patience.”

Skylar Roy, 17, a classmate of Arnett and Coleman, is “super into journalism and communications.” But she also wants to explore public relations and marketing, “because it’s way different and kind of opens more creative avenues in my brain.”

Three days into the camp, she was even more interested in PR, because she understood it can involve public speaking skills — an area where she excels.

“Something that I think surprised me was how many steps and how much work goes into this process. It’s been so eye-opening to see how the product is made,” she said.

Voelpel said he was impressed by how cultured, opinionated, thoughtful and sharp the students were. They “smashed” every cliche and stereotype about Gen Z.

“I just wanted them to speak the whole time. I was like, I want to learn from you guys,” he said.

The slogan the teens came up with speaks to their ambition: “Bound by nothing.”