Meet MTV's Evan Starkman

Photo by: Peter Hurley

Evan Starkman, 25, MTV Reality Competitor, Branch Out Clothing Owner, Branch Out Now Founder, Suck Yeah Clothing Co-owner

Two seasons ago, Evan Starkman made Canadians proud on the MTV RW/RR challenge, The Duel 2 by winning the first place prize of $100,000. “I kind of felt like I won the lottery, it’s perfect. It is worth a lot more in Canadian, that’s for sure.” On the latest MTV challenge entitled The Ruins, Evan has once again taken home the first place prize along with fellow competitor and co-owner of Suck Yeah Clothing, Kenny Santucci.

At the age of 20, while attending Cornell University on a hockey scholarship, Evan’s life changed forever. Evan decided to audition for MTV’s Real World Key West but unfortunately would need to forfeit his student visa in order to be part of the show and also unaware of the shows popularity due to it not yet being on Canadian television; decided he would have to pass. One week later, he received a phone call from MTV requesting that he be on a challenge show called Fresh Meat, he accepted and from that point on Evan has been on six challenges and as a result, this has enabled him to do some great things and allow youth to find ways to help their community and beyond. Many people are aware of Evan the reality show competitor however something that might be surprising is his philanthropic nature and his desire to change the world.

In 2005, Evan founded Branch Out Clothing, a line designed to give to charities. Branch Out Clothing originally grew out of the foundation he founded called Branch Out Now which was based on empowering youth to take action and change the world. “Some people went off and did huge things with it and other people did small local projects but it was all based on youth empowerment.” Evan soon realized after being on MTV and continually being re-invited to shows that there was an “unbelievable marketing potential that I had, not only to network but also because I do interviews, travel the world on speaking tours and bar appearances…How can I get kids more involved in Branch Out Now, that’s where Branch Out Clothing started. If we could sell t-shirts that were not only cool and also carried a message and follow up with those for Branch Out Now, that would be a beautiful thing. Each shirt has a unique code printed on the inside of it and once you buy a shirt, you go on our website, type in the code and it shows you where the money has been donated. You’re automatically signed up for Branch Out Now which will hound you with emails, press packets and basically force you to change the world, that’s what we do.” The company has recently been restructured and signed an exclusivity deal with Plan Canada and will be concentrating on the Because I am a Girl campaign. “Once women go to high school in the third world, they stop becoming a possession and they become a woman and a person which is really important.” Evan believes the youth of North America are incredible people who are creative, have quite a bit of energy and the resources to change the world. “They (youth) say I want to change the world, I just don’t know how and all Branch Out Clothing really does is say why don’t you just do something as simple as make a better T-shirt choice. Buy a cool t-shirt that is hip and trendy and just upgrade your clothing choice. By doing that you’ll be exposed to and learn about a whole range of charitable issues.”

Branch Out Clothing and MTV’s challenge shows are not Starkman’s only endeavors. He is currently in the middle of publishing a children’s book and has recently launched his second clothing line which is made and manufactured in Canada and the United States called Suck Yeah with fellow competitor and best friend Kenny Santucci. This line is a much more rambunctious line that demonstrates Evan’s multifaceted nature by having a responsible line and a line that clearly has a fun, less serious message. “We’re bringing back the idea that you should be able to feel good in just a t-shirt and go to the bar and be the badass guy that you want to be…The whole idea of Suck Yeah is to make clothing for men that appeals to women.” They make the conscious decision to create these t-shirts in North America and take the financial hit because as Starkman puts it “One of my clothing lines is a charity and the other one I need to sleep at night.” Evan adds that there’s absolutely no way that he could manufacture Suck Yeah in a sweat shop while trying to spread the message of changing the world. Although this line is currently selling men’s t-shirts, Evan believes that they will eventually expand and have women’s t-shirts as well.

The advice that Evan would like to give young entrepreneurs is “Try. Let’s put it this way, I’m 24 years old, I don’t have a girlfriend and most of my life despite even all of my companies, fits into a bag. This is as rich as I’ll ever be, if you’re young and an entrepreneur that’s as rich as you’ll ever be. Even if I go on and make a hundred million dollars, now all of a sudden, I have big problems. I can’t leave my house for 3 hours without someone calling to ask what do you want to do with this account, that account, with the couch, you probably have a dog, you have a car, you have bill payments…Right now if you’re young and an entrepreneur then that’s as rich as you’ll ever be even if you only have a $1000 in the bank…as soon as you start making money and accumulating things, your wealth actually decreases in my mind. I just feel that while I’m young and have this great opportunity as I said I do, to be young and frivolous and stupid, take advantage of it. Life will catch up with you eventually, do you want to look back and say you never took a shot?”

Evan can be found on twitter @Evanmtv and if you would like to check out his clothing lines here are the links.

http://branchoutclothing.com/

http://suckyeah.com/

Note: This article was written when Evan Starkman was 24, he has now also created http://mycollegesurvival.wordpress.com/ which looks to give advice to College students.

Written by: Jenifer Lapierre