Ellie Rosen is elevating game day style one snip at a time. Whether you want a custom t-shirt, tube top, bodysuit, hoodie or even a custom scrunchie, Rosen is your go-to girl. The senior advertising major started snipping tees her freshman year at Penn State and hasn’t stopped since.
Photo by Josie Chen
At first, she didn’t think much of selling her original pieces. Once she figured out how to cut more styles via Pinterest, the ball started rolling.
“I got so many compliments at tailgates … after a while, I started taking people’s shirts and cutting them for $5-$10,” Rosen says.
SnipTeez started out as just tailgate tees and tops, but has evolved into so much more. Since the start of 2018, Rosen has almost doubled her follower count on Instagram and has shipped items to customers across the country.
“It’s amazing how many people have discovered my page,” she says.
Photo by Josie Chen
To create quality items that will hold up through the wear and tear of time and tailgates, Rosen uses a sewing machine to stitch her clothes together. Her only experience with a sewing machine prior to SnipTeez was in seventh grade home economics, where she learned basic sewing skills.
“Sophomore year my Grammy gave me her old sewing machine,” she tells VALLEY, “After a few hours of trial and error, I figured out how to sew again and started making sweatshirts with flannel sleeves, tube tops and tank tops.”
Over the summer she introduced three new styles — the scrunchie tube top, the bodysuit and the drawstring top. Alongside her newest styles, she’s working on specializing her items more than ever with customized shirts featuring aspects of the SnipTeez logo.
Photo by Josie Chen
“I just got a shipment in with my very own ‘STATE’ logo that has my tiny scissor logo on the bottom right corner … they come in navy and white!” Rosen says.
‘STATE’ logo tees with the SnipTeez scissors are bound to be a hit, like many of Rosen’s other items. Her flannel hoodie and crewneck designs are her most popular items of all time, she says, but right now the scrunchie tube tops are selling fast.
“I can post one on my page and have it sell in less than 30 seconds!” she says about her scrunchie tube tops.
Rosen takes clothing orders each week through an order form on her website and caps it at 15 orders. By the end of the week, if she has free time she’ll make a few extra for last minute sales. Rosen is also a full-time student and works by herself to create each shirt.
Although her dad, Jimmy, and her brother, Josh, help her out with business and graphic design tasks, Rosen works alone to get the 15 plus orders done each week.
“People are very understanding which is great,” she says, “Managing school and making shirts is hands down one of the most difficult parts of having my own business.”
Photo by Josie Chen
Fortunately for Rosen, some of her classes fit right in with her business. “I took English 202D — business writing — this past summer and had to create a website for a project,” she says, “I ended up just turning the entire thing into a SnipTeez website!” The site includes an ‘About Me’ tab where you can learn more about the girl behind the tees, a blog, information about shirts, pricing, and the shirt order form.
For more info on SnipTeez and sneak peeks of styles for sale, you can follow Ellie Rosen on Instagram at @snipteez. How are you wearing your Snipteez? Tag us a picture in your pics on Instagram, @VALLEYmag
