Lee alumni talk global clothing line ‘Jesus Loves You’
All photos courtesy of Trenton Jackson.
Lee alumni Trenton and Taylor Jackson released the first collection of their clothing line Jesus Loves You in Feb. 2019. Their mission is to “Turn the Conversation Around.”
Q: I know you guys through mutual friends and social media, but some Lee students don’t know you. Who were you at Lee and what are you up to now?
A: I [Taylor] graduated Lee as an education major and loved my Lee experience. I was involved with LeeU Worship, Campus Choir and DZT — the loveliest ladies on campus.
I [Trenton] only attended Lee for a semester and a half before leaving to pursue entrepreneurship. We met at Lee through a mutual friend and got married about a year later.
Q: What is “Jesus Loves You?” When did it begin?
A: “Jesus Loves You” has become a global movement framed as a clothing line. We create pieces around the idea of conversations and relationships — two things which we believe are very in line with the character of Jesus. The company officially launched in February of this year. We launched what we called "Collection One" and since then have had several smaller campaigns and projects such as "Jesus Hates Racism..." Our official “Collection Two” comes out in December.
Q: You are a small business, but how small did you start? Were you working out of your home?
A: Small is an understatement. The building process started in a 780 square foot apartment where our office, living room and creative studio were all the same room. We then moved into a house. At this point, we started printing samples on this cheap, very beginner screen printing press. We were making our own equipment out of whatever we had. We remember creating a stand to dry shirts on out of cardboard and almost catching everything on fire! We didn't have a budget; we just had a dream and drive, but we wouldn't change that process for anything.
Q: You started small, but your website says that you’ve reached nations. What are a few countries that you never saw yourself reaching?
A: We always saw this reaching the nations; we just didn't realize that it would reach them as fast as it did. We had two specific prayers when we started this. The night we clicked the button to unlock the website for the couple hundred people waiting, we did it on our knees with a stack of shirts in one hand and one of our boxes in the other hand. We prayed, "Jesus, we want this to be so big that we would be fools to try to credit ourselves, our branding, our marketing or our finesse." And prayer two: "God, we want to sell out of everything in 30 days." We sold out in three days. In the first three weeks, we were receiving orders from South Africa, Japan, Ireland, Australia, Paris and the Netherlands. We couldn't believe it. We were in awe, but then we realized "Hey … we prayed for this." We are honored by every order, but there's a special excitement when you see an order for Tokyo, Japan come across your desk. It's surreal.
Q: How did word of “Jesus Loves You” spread to Lee’s campus?
A: We would say it was purposeful and organic. We didn't have any big connections or people that were promoting us. We just had a small handful of friends that thought the pieces were dope and started wearing them around campus. We never targeted Lee University or the students … it was just like one day everybody knew about us. It was wild.
Q: You have released clothes with messages like “Jesus Hates Racism, But Loves The Racist” and “I Apologize For Mean Christians.” What is your response to the negative reactions to your messages?
A: Love. It has to be met with love, but love does not equal agreement. We get two kinds of critics — ones that criticize due to lack of true revelation and relationship with Jesus and ones that criticize for sport, the comment section arguers. We approach these in two different ways. If we believe that someone is just trying to get a reaction or argument from us, we'll shut that down immediately. If we believe that the person simply has a different view and doesn't understand, we believe it's our job to take time to talk with that person and explain the heart behind what we are doing. If they still disagree with what we are doing or saying, we show them love and keep rolling.
Q: What is your advice to that Lee student who has a dream outside of traditional church ministry but still wants to glorify God?
A: Stop overthinking it. Understand that your life is a ministry. You can glorify God being a DJ. You can honor God by being a fashion stylist. Your life — your day-to-day conversations and encounters — is your ministry. If you don't think that your area of interest can be a mission field, go after it even harder because you're probably going to be one of the firsts. Also, don't expect everyone — and sometimes anyone — to understand. Sometimes God will lay such a unique conviction or dream on your heart that other people can't understand it. That's okay. Sometimes people can not withstand the calling and anointing over your life. That's normal. You got this.
Q: What’s next for “Jesus Loves You?”
A: Collection Two will be released on Dec. 1. We are going to continue to increase our quality and excellence as a brand. Our dream is to impact communities in a hands-on way. We want to help homeless people. We want to show love to single parents. We want to take time to walk out the message of our company. So in the coming months, we plan to find new ways to do this consistently as well as set the standard of faith-based clothing.
Q: What’s next for the Jacksons?
A: I [Taylor] have a dream to open an inner-city creative studio for students to have access to quality instruction and equipment.
I [Trenton] am working to help aspiring entrepreneurs with resources and tools to see their dreams become reality. Together we are working to create a community for people in our city to do life together. We are going to continue to invade the cultures around us. We just bought a house. Taylor keeps hinting at a baby; I’m thinking a puppy. We'll see…
More information about “Jesus Loves You” can be found on their website or Instagram.
