Jazmiere Bates, a 16-year-old, entrepreneur, and pet clothing business owner
A young girl with incredible motivation to educate others on entrepreneurial work and share her love for “fur kids.”
Written by: Bianca Calderon
Jazmiere Bates at Kin of Duncan retail shop located in The Gallery on Penn
Jazmiere Bates’s journey to becoming the predominant business owner and maker at only 13 years of age is certainly a story that must be shared. As a young dog owner, Jazmiere was passionate about sharing with her pets, Kindrick and Soxs, matching sets of outfits to give them a special human side. She began taking fabric from her old clothes to design and sew pieces together. These outfits she make for her pets and herself would often gain a lot of attention walking in the streets.
“People were saying ‘oh, your dog’s clothes are so cute, where did you get it?’ and I said, ‘I made it!’ It kind of gave me a trigger, like maybe I should do this for other people.” said Bates.
At only 10 years old, Jazmiere began her striking craft skills from a vinyl cutter she used to practice her reading with due to dyslexia. Because the vinyl prints are seen backward, it made spelling and reading easier for her to learn and at the same time, the best tool to begin adding slogans onto the human and fur kid outfits.
"Kin of Duncan is a t-shirt brand that allows pets to match their favorite human," said Bates.
Her newly found passion for sewing and design grew and polished up when she attended summer camps at The Art Institute of Pittsburgh. This gave her the tools to make products ranging from pet clothes to human and pet accessories, as well as paw care balm. This was only the beginning of the Kin of Duncan. Jazmiere finally found in 2018, Catapult: Startup to Storefront, the retail business incubation program that pushed her work to become the storefront it is today. Kin of Duncan is located at The Gallery on Penn.
“You get a whole different crowd and with us being next to the Kelly Strayhorn sometimes we get the crowds from there, and then from the hotels, we get weddings and people from out of town, said Jazmiere. “A lot of people are surprised that they can shop here with their dog because the Gallery is dog-friendly and almost like a dog hangout.”
The promising young maker is ambitious and plans great things for her own future and the future of Kin of Duncan. She participated in dog food drives, making masks when they were lacking during the rise of Covid-19, and organized dog community meets. At this time, she aspires to be a zoologist, expands Kin of Duncan with more retail shops, and builds a public dog park.
“I had to pivot my business from dog clothes to mask-making,” said Bates. “The first week of the governor mask requirement, I had 200 mask requests from families in Pittsburgh.”
Jazmiere will be one of the many enthusiastic local and small business owners and vendors at the I Made It! for the Holidays market on Saturday, November 19. For this special and cold time of year, Kin of Duncan will be offering new products like pet name tags, winter coats, and new slogans and phrases.