Sycamore High School Student Turns Catchphrase into Clothing Business
Jordan Friend sells shirts featuring bean characters and donates food to FreeStore Food Bank with each purchase
By Brad Pushkar
Published: Oct. 28, 2026 at 10:31 PM GMT+1 | Updated: 7 hours ago
Share Add Us On Google Add as a preferred source on Google Download the FREE FOX19 NOW news app for iPhone Download the FREE FOX19 NOW news app for Android
CINCINNATI (WXIX) — Sycamore High School student Jordan Friend turned his “cool beanz” catchphrase into a business three years ago.
Friend said he started the business because of his interest in entrepreneurship.
“I always had like an entrepreneurial mindset,” Friend said. “I should turn that into a business. So I started drawing the characters and put them on shirts.”
Designs and pricing
Friend has designed around 30 beans for sale, including camera beans, football beans, and music beans. The shirts are sold online for $25 each.
Legal challenges
Friend said starting the business was difficult.
“I think it was hard, just all the logistics,” Friend said. “No one’s really started a business like this before. So just figuring it all out was very hard.”
His first shop was shut down because he was a minor in Ohio and could not hold an LLC or a Shopify account.
“I’ve learned so much from sourcing manufacturers to launching websites,” Friend said. “My first time I ran Cool Beanz, it got shut down because I did a bunch of the legal things wrong.”
“Being a minor, in Ohio, at that age, I couldn’t own an LLC,” Friend said. “And they kind of shut that down.”
School store and giving back
The Sycamore school store carried a special edition bean. Friend said he now sees classmates wearing the shirts in the halls.
“That was really, really special to me,” Friend said. “For the school to really recognize and put a special Aves bean into the store where people would buy it.”
Friend said each purchase results in a donation to FreeStore Food Bank.
“For every single purchase, we donate a pound of beans to FreeStore Food Bank,” Friend said. “And it’s really great giving back to the community.”
Friend said he will continue Cool Beanz through college as a passion project.