Cadet and Haus win entrepreneur awards

Cadet and Haus Alkire have a new award to add to their resumes. The brands are the recipients of the first and second place prizes of the Fourth Class Design Entrepreneurs NYC sponsored by the New York City Economic Development Corp. and the Fashion Institute of Technology.

Over 350 applicants applied to the award. From those 350 applicants, 12 finalists were selected who presented their business plans to a panel of judges last Thursday. The panel of judges included Morris Goldfarb, CEO of G-III; Robin Burns-McNeill, Chairman of Batallure Beauty LLC; Abbey Doneger, President of Doneger Group; Laurence C. Leeds Jr., Chairman of Buckingham Capital Management; Thomas Ott, Senior Vice President and General Merchandise Manager of Saks Fifth Avenue; Deirdre Quinn, CEO of Lafayette 148, and Marc Schneider, CEO of Kenneth Cole Productions.

Raul Arevalo and Brad Schmidt, the first-place winners from Cadet, will be receiving 100,000 dollars to implement their business plan. Cadet recently launched women's wear for spring.

Second-place winners Jason and Julie Alkire of Haus Alkire received 50,000 dollars to implement their business plan. The award was provided by Michael Gold, president of YM Inc., in honor of his father, Israel Grub.

Cadet, which is self-financed, has three stores, two in Williamsburg and one in Manhattan. The company prides itself on its wholesale business, which is one of their keys to success. They are hoping to use the money to hire a store manager for their three stores.

Jason and Julie Alkire are actually looking to use the money to expand their wholesale business.

Cadet’s Schmidt told WWD, “This is really business-plan focused and business-intensive. We had to create a full business plan, a five-year projected P&L, and 18-month cash flow. It’s different than some of the other ones [fashion competitions] because it is very much about your strategy for building a brand. For them to recognize the potential in us in very significant. These are industry professionals who are well-respected.”