Today we’d like to introduce you to Etienne Loridon.
Hi Etienne, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
Since I was very young, I always wanted to travel abroad. Every year I went on vacation in France with my parents but never abroad. I followed a standard school course in France. And at the age of 16-17, during my studies, I had this crazy desire to go abroad alone. But how?
So I followed a course called “International Commerce”. In this 2-year course, I had to do an internship abroad for at least two months in the first year.
So I went to Malta for three months where I was able to realize my first experience abroad at the age of only 18.
When I came back to France, I had this desire to go back and discover another country. But for that, I had to finish my studies first. At the end of my two years, I decided to continue a third year of study in sports management in alternation, which consisted in doing two weeks in a company and one week at school.
In June 2021, at the end of this school year, I was hired in the company where I was as a store manager.
Despite my good position, I preferred to leave it in September 2021 to resume my travel adventure. In October 2021, at the age of 20, I flew to Spain where I stayed for four months until January 2022. Then I decided to discover another country which is the United States at my 21 years old. During my trip to Spain, I had already planned my next trip to the US in February 2022. That’s how I arrived here in San Diego and I don’t regret it at all!
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
The first trip was difficult the first week because I was still young but once I was busy with work, meeting new people, new cultures was a really incredible experience. For my trip to Spain, everything went pretty smoothly since it is a border country with France. In spite of the COVID, I did not encounter any difficulties on the spot.
As for the USA, it is not the same story. I had to pay close attention to all the formalities to be completed, especially during the COVID period.
1 week after I booked my flight, it was canceled, so I had to do everything necessary to get another flight. This flight was one day before, so I had to rent a night in a hostel when I arrived because my apartment was not yet available. The fact of having postponed of 1 day, I also had a problem of VISA because the dates did not match anymore.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
As you can see, when I arrived in Spain, I had no income. I had to think about what I wanted to do to earn money. Indeed, if I wanted to continue to travel in many countries, I had to have my own business to be able to work from anywhere from my computer. So I had the idea to create a clothing brand. The concept is to have unisex, oversized clothes available in only two sizes.
Once you have the idea, you have to ask yourself why you do what you do. Here is our story:
LA Marque de Ses Morts is a true tribute to life smiling on death through designs meant to joyfully celebrate all of life’s pleasures.
Our way of facilitating the acceptance of this cycle of life is to make our products beautifully designed, simple and elegant to live a life of fulfillment in all circumstances.
And we happen to make great t-shirts.
I planned the making of the clothes so that I could have them here in the US so I could take as many pictures as possible to feed the brand’s Instagram account.
And it’s done!
Obviously, when you create a clothing brand, you don’t earn money from the beginning, so I had to find another source of income.
I asked myself, “Where am I better than others?”
The answer I found was: in travel. I was able to live in two countries at only 20 years old (and soon to be three at this point). So I set out to write a course to teach young people how to travel optimally without being rich.
What’s next?
Today, I wish to develop my clothing brand as well as my online trainings while discovering new countries. My next big project will be to open an outdoor gym in the south of France or in the US.
And my ultimate goal will be to do conferences on stage to talk about various topics on business, travel and many others.
Contact Info:
- Website: lamarquedesesmorts.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lamarquedesesmorts/
https://www.instagram.com/etienne_loridon/
