Alumni Problem Solvers: Mike Monnette

Mike Monnette (above, left), put his own spin on menswear by founding Abbreviated Apparel in 2023. Abbreviated offers tops and bottoms (modeled above right) to “help shorter men dress with confidence.”

A decade spent honing his clothing industry chops with Abercrombie & Fitch, Hollister and Old Navy supplied the 5-foot, 8-inch Monnette with a realization that big brands tailored their size medium products for 6-foot-tall models. Now, as the founder/CEO of Abbreviated Apparel, Monnette is pushing fashion forward by providing what he calls “shorter men” with great-fitting, stylish clothes.

Yes. I grew up in a family business environment. My family owned produce markets. My mom opened her own deli. As I started my career, the path that I wanted to take was running businesses. For a while, that meant running portions of the clothing business at [previous jobs]. I was trying to absorb and learn as much as I could, because I knew eventually, I would want to launch my own thing.

I was very involved on campus, and I think that that helped me learn how to lead in ways that you're not necessarily going to get early in your career. When I was involved with an organization that I was really passionate about, that never felt like work. It felt like fun and inspired me to chase that passion and try to do more of that. If I hadn’t had that involvement, I don’t know that I would’ve ended up on the path I’m on now. It fueled the fire of knowing I wanted to start my own thing and run a business.

I worked in the apparel industry for 10 years before starting this business. I knew how to get clothes. One thing that I wasn’t ready for was customer acquisition. I kind of assumed that you could buy Google and Facebook ads and people would start showing up. I learned very quickly that it was more complicated than that. My wife, who at one point was a personal finance content creator, said ‘You’ve got to start making content.’ I started with what I knew about clothes and men’s style, although the idea of becoming a style influencer in my 30s still makes me cringe. But that has been the solution to customer acquisition in an environment where customer acquisition is becoming increasingly more competitive in the DTC (direct-to-consumer) space.

Stay focused on the long term. Building a business can be very stressful, wanting to see the returns and financial benefits right away. But a good business takes time to build.

Push through the fear of what others think. That’s kind of tough for me, trying to become a style influencer. I’m trying to do it my own way at 34, putting myself out there by playing dress-up on the internet. It was outside my comfort zone and wasn’t necessarily something I was passionate about, but it’s been really good for my business. If you want to stand out, follow your passion versus the straight and narrow path.