Shaan Baren’s cousin started the company Fresh Prints at University of Pennsylvania. When Baren heard about it, he immediately jumped on board and became involved with the business at Syracuse University.

Baren, a senior sport management major, began working for Fresh Prints during his sophomore year of college. He is now the SU campus manager of Fresh Prints.

Fresh Prints is a company that creates apparel, including T-shirts, sweatshirts, beanies and socks, for different organizations. Baren specializes in Greek organizations but has created apparel for sports teams, the Sport Management Club and charity organizations such as Nourish International.

“I hope to beat that feat this semester and go out with a bang before I pass my book of business on to the next Syracuse campus manager,” Baren said.

Once the organization decides on a design and finalizes an order, the apparel ships from alphabroder, a clothing company, and goes to a printer. Fresh Prints has several printers but Baren normally uses the one in Philadelphia due to its proximity and fast shipping.

Baren’s favorite clothing item he created was for his fraternity Sigma Alpha Epsilon’s Paddy Murphy philanthropy event two years ago. Each sorority had the same shirt but in different colors. The sorority could request a color combination or choose their national colors.

“Even though the design wasn’t that cool, it’s just cool that everyone had their own colors,” Baren said.

Being the Syracuse Fresh Prints manager has taught Baren lessons that he said he’ll carry with him well after graduation this spring.

“It has definitely taught me to be confident as far as reaching out to people because I’ve reached out to probably hundreds of people on campus with no response,” Baren said.
“I am generally a shy kid — or I used to be, at least — and I’ve been forced to put myself out there.”

Baren may have to step out of his comfort zone, but he said the outcome is rewarding.

“Fresh Prints has been an amazing experience. I can’t wait to pass the reigns on to the new campus manager and train him or her later this semester,” Baren said. “I look forward to seeing how they take their own ideas to blow up Fresh Prints on the SU campus even more than I did.”

Published on January 28, 2015 at 12:01 am

Contact: maquigle@syr.edu