Clothing line Ma'De Life started by students while at Southeast

Editor's note: Maniak Webber is no longer a student at Southeast Missouri State University. This story has been updated to reflect that.

Ma'De Life, which is pronounced mah-day, was started by two students while they attended Southeast, Maniak Webber and De'Santis Cross.

The name Ma'De comes from the first two letters of both the designers' names. Ma'De Life designs are for both men and women. From the beginning of the process, both designers have been hands on in the building of their business.

De'Santis Cross wears a Ma'De Life design in a photo posted on his Instagram page. Submitted photo

"As soon as we said we wanted to make this official, we started making designs, seeing what we needed to do, seeing how to get our business license, what's the best company to make the shirts with the quality that we want," Cross said.

The process for the line started at the beginning of last year, and the first products were sold in January. Both Webber and Cross have been immersed in fashion from a young age.

"We both are very big in fashion, and his mother [Webber's], she worked with different fashion companies and she is very big in fashion. Her and my mother always dressed the part, so we were always big with fashion," Cross said. "Mainly we saw a lot of big name companies like Nike, Converse and Adidas. We see people buying and wearing their product and we just felt like why buy their things when we can design and wear our own clothing and become our own boss."

The actual clothing designs come from a few sources. Webber draws a lot of the designs himself, and they also have help from someone else to come up with new designs for their clothing. The duo uses a website to customize the designs, and as of right now only shirts are being sold.

Tyler Price, a friend of Webber and Cross, is a designer who is helping Ma'De Life create a logo for the company.

Cross said that the feedback has been excellent since they began to sell their shirts. Their first designs sold out in two weeks. Cross said that people liked the designs and liked the ideas they came up with. Each shirt that the duo comes out with represents a different lifestyle they want to portray. "Music life" was the first of the lifestyles sold. The music life design has a diamond with a trail of music notes down to a radio on the shirt. They want people to be able to express themselves by what they wear.

Along with Ma'De Life, Webber and Cross are also a part of another organization named Hearts and Beats, which showcases individuals with different talents. Hearts and Beats integrates music, dancing, poetry, drawing and fashion.

"Moving forward I see my company as a conglomerate -- we are combined with Hearts and Beats, and, from the members of Hearts and Beats and us added to it, I see us as a big international company that are doing multiple things, promoting ourselves and doing major things internationally," Cross said.

Cross hopes that one day the company's items are sold in stores across the world like Macy's or JC Penney's. Webber and Cross even want to have their own store in the future. They know, however, that things like this take time, and they have to take it one step at a time.

"In order to reach our dream, we have to go through our nightmare," Cross said.

Starting up a new business while also being a full-time student can prove to be challenging and time-consuming.

"It's a lot of work," Cross said. "You're trying to maintain your grades, which is first priority because that's your main reason of being in school, but at the same time you want your dreams to succeed. Everything is time management and balancing yourself."

As of now the clothing is being sold in Cape Girardeau and in St. Louis, but there are hopes to take Ma'De Life into areas like Atlanta, Chicago and Memphis. The designers do not currently have a website, but promotion of Ma'De Life is done by word of mouth or by Webber and Cross' Instagram accounts.

Cross' Instagram page is @santezesse and Webber's Instagram page is @ma_delife. That is where they suggest that customers go if they want to see their products. If people want to order something they can call or text 314-598-6357. The clothing is priced from $30 to $35 depending on if the item is shipped or not.