From your biggest fans: Grads celebrate town with ‘Hillsdalian Goods’

Home Culture From your biggest fans: Grads celebrate town with ‘Hillsdalian Goods’
From your biggest fans: Grads celebrate town with ‘Hillsdalian Goods’
A Hillsdale-themed mug available for purchase through Hillsdalian Goods.
Courtesy | Alex Whitford

For two proud Hillsdale alumnae, it’s the little things that best celebrate Hillsdale. 

That’s why Ashlyn Neveau ’16 and Alex Whitford ’18 are launching Hillsdalian Goods, a startup that gives the Hillsdale name the treatment that big cities get. It provides a variety of quality merchandise that people can use to show off their love of their hometown.

“You see that [kind of pride] a lot in bigger cities, which is a little bit where we got our inspiration from,” Neveau said. “I’m from Kansas City, originally, and they have a bunch of different cool shops and stores where you can buy Kansas City things and show them off and wear them and give them as gifts. We wanted to be able to cultivate that for the people at Hillsdale because there’s so much beauty here”.

The two entrepreneurs design products with Hillsdale themes. Though their inventory is currently limited to a few select items, they plan to launch a new piece of merchandise every Friday. Right now they’re selling mugs, laptop stickers, and photography prints of the town’s architecture.

“We just caught on to the fact that people really loved anything that was Hillsdale ‘branded,’” Neveau continued, referencing her and Whitford’s time spent selling calligraphy and macrame plant holders at the Hillsdale farmer’s market. “We wanted to figure out a way to provide more of those things for the people of Hillsdale, but making everything by hand can get time- consuming.”

Their journey toward this business began two summers ago, when Neveau dedicated a lot of time crafting for her upcoming wedding. After the wedding, she still had so much “crafting energy” that she and Whitford decided to channel it toward making goods to sell at the farmers market. Coining their new project as the “Hillsdale Art Mart,” Neveau did calligraphy while Whitford made macrame holders for plants. They did this for two years, in addition to their day jobs running the Student Activities Office.

“Ashlyn and I gained a lot of entrepreneurial experience through working in Student Activities,” Whitford said. “Blending that with our experience running a booth at Hillsdale farmers market for the last two years, we’ve just kind of found a way to meld the two passions we have of creating things for the Hillsdale community that they love, and also getting to exercise our creative muscles.”

The combination of SAB and the farmers market made them feel at home in both the town and gown sides of Hillsdale, said Neveau. 

“Over our two years we have really come to love to be part of the community,” Neveau said. “We love telling people that we didn’t grow up here, and that we’re transplants to Hillsdale but we have fallen in love with the community and want to be part of it more. People really responded well to that, and that’s where the idea came from to write Hillsdale on things.”

Though the business is local by design, it also provides people who leave a way to stay connected with Hillsdale. Whitford has moved on from her job at Hillsdale, and is currently living in Grand Rapids before she heads to Washington D.C. She’s grateful that this business provides her and others the opportunity to show pride in a place that formed them.

Whitford (left) and Neveau (right) founded Hillsdalian Goods together.
Courtesy | Alex Whitford

“It definitely looks different because I’m not in Hillsdale, but we actually came up with this idea after I had made the decision to leave,” Whitford said. “We saw it as a cool bridge, not only for me to stay connected to the community that I love so much, but also for Ashlyn and I to continue working together post student activities. It’s been really fun so far to have an excuse to come back and take product photos and brainstorm business ideas.” 

Though they’re not physically working together anymore, Neveau said that Whitford’s perspective from outside Hillsdale is valuable to what the business is trying to accomplish.

“It’s actually kind of cool because one of our ideas with this business is that it’s not just for people who live in Hillsdale currently but it’s also for people who have lived in Hillsdale and want a piece of that with them wherever they are,” Neveau said. “I think her being away actually kind of helps bring those two pieces together so it’s not just people living locally but as people who love Hillsdale from their time here.”

Junior Reagan Linde, who has worked with both Neveau and Whitford on SAB, said she supports Hillsdalian Goods because she loves how they bring together the entire Hillsdale community.

“Hillsdalian Goods is an incredible startup by two gals who love the town of Hillsdale more than anyone I know,” Linde said. “They wanted to move beyond just merchandise for the college and create products that highlight the community at large. While we are all chargers, it is so cool that for four years we get to be Hillsdalians as well. Moral of the story: It’s a great company with great products for people who love this little town a lot.”