Fashioning A Dream -- Seattleites Found A Career Fit In New York; Now They've Returned To Give Something Back

Before local-guys-made-good Tony Shellman and Lando Felix had their first $6 million year, before they conceived of their Enyce clothing phenomenon, they were two teens kicking around Madrona.

They, like most young men, sought a lifestyle that would fit, a career that would challenge, people to emulate - a purpose.

They found a dream fit. They live a chi-chi New York City lifestyle; Felix in uptown Manhattan, Shellman in Brooklyn. Enyce, the 3-year-old company they founded with New Yorker Evan Davis, earned $12 million last year and is expected to generate at least $20 million in sales in 1999.

Enyce (pronounced en-ee-chay) made many of their dreams come true. Hip New York shops carry Enyce's upscale, stylishly functional urban sportswear. Big names wear it, including the pop group `N Sync. They've added a Lady Enyce line.

And when the `N Sync band members join them at a private appearance for Boys & Girls Club members this weekend, the theme will be giving back to those who believed in you. The band is in town to play sold-out shows at the Tacoma Dome and KeyArena.

"We believed in them (the band) early, before they really blew up big," Shellman said. "I think they really dug that. That's why they are doing things for us. I think that loyalty is really neat."

As teens, Shellman, 32, and Lando, 27, sought direction from Boys & Girls Club counselors and events. As sales staff and then managers at the Zebra Club clothing store, they sought business

advice from the owners. And as successful businessmen, they are seeking a way to give back the guidance that proved so valuable to them.

"Cats like that listened to us," Shellman said. "When I needed to talk to someone, the counselors at the Boys & Girls Club allowed me my own little therapy sessions. It was, `What's going on, Tony, are things all right?' I don't think we realize how important that outlet is, to feel comfortable that you can talk to someone who is not going to judge you. You saw everyday people who inspired you. It only seemed right to give back."

The business partners first struck up a friendship while working at the Zebra Club in 1987 - a friendship that lifted them from Seattle's First Avenue to New York's Fashion Avenue. Once Shellman enrolled in the prestigious Parsons School of Design in New York, Felix took Shellman's job as Zebra Club manager, though still in high school. Shellman worked during school breaks: "We'd say, `Hey, Lando, you gotta go back to class, doncha?' "

Shellman was dubbed the "biggest flirt" in the Nathan Hale High School class of 1985. He said classmates would remember him as the social party kid who could always scam a hall pass. He modeled in Nordstrom and Generra ads, and was the original b.u.m. equipment spokesmodel.

Felix's retail clothing experience helped land him the title of "best dressed" among his O'Dea High School classmates, "the cool kid" in honors class. He graduated in 1989.

He followed Shellman to Parsons the following year. They shared an apartment, which doubled as the showroom for their former line, Mecca. "It was, `Yo, wake up, Lando, we've got a buyer coming,' " Shellman said.

Seattle's outdoor lifestyle - climbing, cycling, kayaking, snowboarding - imbues Enyce's chic urban style with a functional element: "There's got to be a trick to it: a double pocket with zipper, a draw cord, a breathable waterproof fabric," said Felix, whom Shellman dubs "the technical one" of the trio.

The two saw a niche for stylish young men's sportswear back in their Zebra Club days. The guys who filtered through the store would stop in a sporting-goods store for sweat suits, the menswear department for button-down oxfords, trying to pull a look together: "There wasn't a line that addressed the young men's market correctly," Shellman said. "Menswear was too stuffy, young men's was too juvenile."

Felix doodled "Enyce" as a literal phonetic spelling of NYC (New York City), adding a pronunciation with a European flair. Their Enyce line fuses athletic-gear function with a style that, like the founders, hails from both coasts. An example is the line's manila-toned sweats-style pants with ankle zippers. Paired with a casual shirt in a black-and-white vintage jazz print, it's suitable for an active lifestyle but also looks good. Enyce now competes in the urban-wear market with its former line, Mecca. The trio launched it in 1995 as a partnership with Kent-based International News.

"We walked away from a thriving company because we just knew it wasn't us," Felix said about Mecca. "We really wanted to stand for our design integrity. We realized we were giving away something we had worked hard on, but because we still had the three of us, we said we can do this the right way."

Their belief paid off. Enyce's midtown New York studio employs 20 people and serves 500 retail accounts nationwide, locally at Mr. Rags. Offices in Frankfurt and Tokyo run the 100 international retail accounts. They also have a Hong Kong manufacturing plant. They launched Enyce as a wholly owned subsidiary of Italian-based Fila sportswear.

So look around you. There may be the seeds for doing what you do better - seeds you could nurture into a million-dollar business. It happened to Shellman and Felix. That, combined with creativity, ingenuity, ambition and guidance from people who cared. Believe in your dreams, they urge young men and women: They do come true.

"You have to hit that spark," said Shellman, with Felix continuing the thought: "If you hit that spark in people, you never know what their potential will be."