A little over a year ago, Boss Manatee tee’s were born in the minds of two N.C. State students, and now their vision is a reality.

Tim Reavis, founder of Boss Manatee and “right-hand to the man,” met Jeff Dean, co-founder and “left hand to the man,” at a business seminar and discovered they both had similar goals — to invest in the people.  

After fundraising through family, friends and donations, Reavis and Dean could make their idea a reality without the fear of debt. 

“Our ideas were still separate but became married and developed into our 20/20 vision,” Reavis said. “After a lot of ideas were thrown around, Boss Manatee became the crowning figure.”

Patriotic Panda, Pious Platypus and Articulate Armadillo were all character ideas before they settled on Boss Manatee, Reavis said. These characters are now Boss Manatee’s constituents and will be incorporated into future designs. 

“Who is Boss Manatee is the question,” Reavis said. “He’s very real and alive in all of us.”

The term Boss Manatee is not your average play on words. Boss Manatee puts the “ ‘manity” in humanityand also stands for “boss man,” Reavis and Dean said.

Boss Manatee’s 20/20 vision consists of investing 20 percent of their profit in a local non-profit, and 20 percent in a global non-profit. Reavis said he intends to create local and global awareness through this vision.

“The idea is to try to use the brand to become a bridge of resources and ideas between local and global communities,” Reavis said.

Dean said used to work for the local non-profit, Neighbor-to-Neighbor, located on Blount Street, and he liked how they specialize in helping out inner-city kids with job skills, mentorship and tutoring. 

“Neighbor-to-Neighbor has the most wholific approach and agree with our ideals,” Smith said. “They aren’t just trying to fight poverty, they’re investing in every angle of a kid’s wellbeing.”

When Reavis was a sophomore, he went on a service trip to Pavia, Venezuela, where he encountered high rates of orphanage and prostitution. From then on he knew he wanted to make a difference in the world.

Dean said he’s always enjoyed helping other people find their passion and help them use their skills to their best capacity. This is why Dean and Reavis make two equal halves of their perfect 20/20 vision — Reavis is global and Dean is local. 

Reavis chose to invest the other 20 percent in Pavia to help build playgrounds for the children. Camille Smith, community relation’s manager for Boss Manatee and a recent N.C. State graduate, said there is a lot of potential in the non-profit realm of the business world.

“We want to be that middleman between people and business,” Smith said. “We’re a quirky company and we want to give back.” 

According to Reavis, non-profits will be platforms for promotion and they money they invest will eventually compound itself. Boss Manatee said they  “invest” and not “give” because they said they plan to take some of the 20/20 profits and host events to raise more money. 

“We want to invest time and actual manpower into non-profits since they’re doing excellent work in the community,” Reavis said. 

Boss Manatee gets all of their products locally and screen-prints their designs onto American Apparel tee shirts, Dean said.

Boss Manatee had their official launch party Friday at their office located at 706 Mountford Ave. Their online ordering site is up and running and all of their products are available for purchase. 

Boss Manatee offers a variety of tee shirts as well as bandanas and prints. Every purchased item is hand wrapped with a free sticker and a blurb about who they are into craft paper, twine and a vintage tag. A stamp in the shape of Boss Manatee is the finishing touch to these one-of-a-kind products.