NC State teams with teen-owned Coastal Cool on recycled apparel line

NC State put a recycled-polyester Wolfpack collection from Coastal Cool into Wolfpack Outfitters, turning a campus apparel release into a Raleigh business story. The line includes a cabana shirt and a swim trunk, and each item is priced at $118.87 as part of the store’s Design Den lineup.

The company behind the collection was started by Holden Bierman when he was 12, after a $500 loan from his parents. Bierman began printing apparel from his bedroom during the pandemic, and now, at 18 and recently out of high school, he has built Coastal Cool into a brand with online sales, retail partnerships and national television exposure.

The products are built around recycled materials and a sustainability pitch that goes beyond school spirit. NC State’s product pages describe the cabana shirt as 100% recycled polyester with built-in UPF 50+ sun protection, and the swim trunk is also made from recycled polyester. The university says the materials help remove ocean plastic, while Coastal Cool says each sale helps remove one pound of ocean plastic through its work with Tidey.

The design work also ties the collection more tightly to NC State than a standard logo-and-lettering rollout. The final look blends Wolfpack imagery with artwork connected to the belltower and the university’s logo history, and Rich Lombardi of the Design Den created the custom artwork for the cabana shirt. That gives the line a more developed campus identity and a clearer product story for shoppers looking for something beyond ordinary fan merchandise.

Jennifer Gilmore, director of strategic marketing and communication for NC State Campus Enterprises, said the partnership fit the university’s effort to support North Carolina businesses while offering students, alumni and families products they would not usually find elsewhere. NC State also says officially licensed products help support scholarships across campus, which gives the merchandise strategy a revenue and institutional angle as well as a branding one.

The collaboration lands in a university ecosystem already built around textiles and design, including the Wilson College of Textiles, which says it focuses on advancing and greening the textile industry. For Wake County, the launch shows how a campus retailer, a young founder and a recycled-material product can be packaged as both a commercial test and a sustainability play.