Iowa State is one of the newest additions to the Southern Tide College Ambassador Program.

“Southern Tide is an up-and-coming retail company. [College Ambassadors] is a program that is primarily a marketing program of the company,” said Brian Schmidt, senior ambassador for Southern Tide.

Schmidt’s responsibilities include overseeing the ambassadors at Iowa State.

Two ISU students, Blake Lanser and Connor Almasi, are currently the Southern Tide Ambassadors representing Iowa State.

The company created an ambassador program a few years ago to recruit students from all over the country to help promote, market and sell Southern Tide clothing and products.

Lanser, sophomore in English, had an event this past fall to promote Southern Tide.

“I held a tailgate during the second home game and that was pretty successful,” Lanser said. “I had about 200 people who came to it.”

His tailgate included Southern Tide products such as T-shirts, accessories and hats. All products display the Southern Tide skipjack logo.

Schmidt said the skipjack logo is a unique logo that draws people into the brand.

The ambassadors do not deal with money while promoting the company. Their purpose is solely to promote and not sell.

“We get event kits, everything in there we are not allowed to have it; it all has to eventually be given away by the end of the year,” Lanser said.

Schmidt said that there are ambassadors at more than 300 colleges across the United States.

“The company was founded on the ‘golf polo’ and that when you compare that to other brands we are potentially higher quality,” Schmidt said.

According to the Southern Tide website, they strive to make the most comfortable clothing available.

Schmidt said they will be searching for more ambassadors this winter, starting in a couple weeks.

“There really is no perfect candidate. I think everyone has unique qualities and brings unique things to the table that make this program very successful,” Schmidt said.

Lanser said he would recommend this to someone that enjoys talking a lot.

“We are looking for somebody who is outgoing and really willing to promote the brand,” Schmidt said.

The program provides ambassadors with a professional, working environment. They must take advantage of spur-of-the-moment business opportunities and speaking with retailers that meet the Southern Tide criteria.

“It’s really just geared toward people who enjoy quality clothing. That’s their motto, ‘Good quality clothing that lasts,’” Lanser said.

Ambassadors are in charge of maintaining and scheduling events on their specific campuses. The impact of the events will be reported back to senior ambassadors.

“It’s given me great leadership skills and self-motivation,” Lanser said.

The two ambassadors will have an event from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Friday in the Memorial Union. Promotional products and games will be provided.

“People are really excited about the brand, and I think since it’s so new and since it’s grown so fast and popular, people really take a specific liking to Southern Tide as opposed to some of the other competing brands,” Schmidt said.