Interview with Kylee Champlin, founder of ROOLEE
This article is part of a series featuring business executives who choose to live and work in Utah. If you know of an executive we should interview, please contact us.
Find your passion in life, and pursue it with all your might — this is the motto Kylee Champlin lives by.
With high hopes and an encouraging family, she seized a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and founded ROOLEE in 2013 after graduating from Utah State University.
Champlin is the founder and lead designer of ROOLEE, a fashion and lifestyle brand company. It carries on-trend styles of womens’, kids’ and baby apparel as well as accessories, home decor and gifts.
Fun, creative shopping was rare in her hometown of Logan, Utah, so she started pushing the limits of small-town trends and implementing her unique style. In addition to its brick-and-mortar store in Logan, the company recently opened another location at City Creek mall and continues to fulfill online orders worldwide.
Giving back to the community is important to Champlin and embodied in ROOLEE’s “A World of Sisters” movement. The social media movement encourages women everywhere to come together to uplift each other and band together as sisters.
How did you get started in the industry?
While attending Utah State University, I worked as a sales associate at a small women’s clothing boutique in Logan. My husband and I were presented with the opportunity to purchase that boutique and make it into our own. That boutique eventually became ROOLEE.
What top two recent professional accomplishments are you most proud of?
Earlier this year, we were honored to win the Ernst & Young Utah Entrepreneur of the Year award in the Fashion Retail category.
I am also so proud that we officially broke ground on ROOLEE’s corporate headquarters in Smithfield, Utah. That is my hometown, and I am honored to establish our new company home there. Construction won’t be completed until fall 2020, but I could not be more proud of our team and customers that make it a success. I’m excited to continue building the company and to have a new location to call home.
What drew you to Utah?
I was born and raised here, and Utah will always be home.
What do you admire most about your team?
We found a group of people just as passionate about ROOLEE as Chad (my husband and co-founder) and me are. Our employees care about family, commitment and hard work. It’s that mentality that helped us grow ROOLEE to what it is today.
What do you like most about living in Utah?
I love all four seasons. It is great for fashion, and we are able to style products that follow the changing weather. It makes for fun, functional and creative styles.
I love seeing the beautiful landscape of Cache Valley, no matter which way I am facing.
Finally, I love the people here in Utah. There is such a sense of family and community. Utah is what I know and I love calling it home.
What do you like most about doing business in Utah?
Building a global clothing brand while staying in my hometown has been a dream come true. I love that I can live here and raise my family in Utah. Seeing so much growth throughout Utah in business has helped give me the confidence to grow ROOLEE beyond anyone’s expectations.
I love having vendors and business partners come to Utah to visit our offices. Every time they visit, they comment about the beauty, atmosphere, and people that make Utah unique.
What advice do you have for individuals considering starting a business, or relocating their business, to Utah?
Find good people to work with. A great idea is an excellent place to start, but true success occurs when you surround yourself with the right people, all working towards a common goal.
Don’t get discouraged and remain patient. Success takes time. Hard work and talent will get you there, but you can’t do it alone, and it doesn’t happen overnight.
Put the customer first. That’s a very common cliché in business, but it’s true. When you focus on the customer and work to provide what they want, success will follow.
What is your primary challenge of doing business in Utah?
We are trying to help break the mold about fashion in the U.S. Many people assume fashion comes from New York or Los Angeles. We are working to change that as ROOLEE releases clothing that gets people excited about fashion and looking their best. Our goal is to change conventional thinking and raise Utah’s visibility in the fashion space.
What is your business philosophy?
Family First. Family is very important to us, we want everyone who works for us and shops with us to feel like family.
Tell me a fun fact about yourself.
I hated shopping when I was younger. Oh, how wrong I was!
